Assistant Manager - Onsite Services

Assistant Manager - Onsite Services

Final date to receive applications: 4 March 2026

Department: Rehoming & Fostering Services

Employment Type: Permanent

Location: Burford

Compensation: £25,787 - £27,047 / year

Contract: Permanent, full time 37.5 hours per week

Salary: £25,787 - £27,047 per annum

Location: Burford

Closing date: Wednesday 4th March 2026

Interview date: Thursday 12th March 2026

We’re recruiting an Assistant Manager – Onsite Services to join our Burford rehoming centre, to ensure that the right pet is placed in the right service for both the client and the pet.

At Blue Cross we are ambitious, and the work carried out by our Centres is key in achieving our strategy and ensuring that ultimately, we help more pets.

This is a wonderful opportunity to join Blue Cross to lead a team in ensuring a high level of client care, efficient and connected decisions relating to pet welfare, and the delivery of high-quality rehoming services.

On a day-to-day basis you’ll be leading your team and ensuring the smooth running of the refill and adoption stages of our rehoming services. You’ll work closely with operational colleagues to ensure we have a pipeline of new pets and pool of adopters ready for a pet.

The refill and adoption stages of our rehoming services is critical, so this role will see you working closely with your team and colleagues with a strong focus on finding the right homes for pets as efficiently as possible and refilling to optimise caseloads for our Pet Welfare Assistants. While delivering robust rehoming services are important to us, so is the client experience and it will be up to you to ensure that we monitor and continually look for ways to uphold and improve our client journey.

For many, the Centre will be the ‘public face’ of Blue Cross so you will need to ensure that your team put client service is at the heart of every interaction, this includes making sure public areas and facilities are welcoming and engaging and that administration of the admission and adoption process complies with internal processes and compliance legislation such as GDPR.

This is a full‑time role working 37.5 hours per week on a rota which includes weekends and bank holidays. At Burford rehoming centre, we provide onsite accommodation for pets in our care 24/7. Overnight shifts are usually undertaken by team members who live on site. Occasionally, you will be expected to carry out night checks or stay in on site accommodation overnight when the resident team members are either not working or away for a period of time.

These duties are organised on a local rota and shared between all members of the team.

You will be an excellent manager of people, having skills which are finely honed by working in a similar, animal related environment with expert knowledge and application of pet welfare and care.

As an accomplished, positive, and innovative manager, you will know how to inspire, motivate, and drive continuous improvement. You will be able to lead a team of Pet Welfare Assistants, developing and empowering them through effective management and coaching.

With your excellent communication skills, you will have the ability to adapt your approach to suit different audiences. As there are always many ‘plates spinning,’ you will be naturally calm and organised, and be prepared to make decisions in a high‑pressure environment.

You will have strong analytical skills and the ability to rigorously monitor, assess and evaluate in order to deliver improvements. You will have an appetite to continually improve onsite facilities and services, ensuring your team and others involved are engaged.

You will know what it is like to work in an emotionally charged environment and have excellent ‘bounce back ability’ and resilience. In addition, you will be emotionally intelligent, showing empathy and knowing how to support your team and members of the public.

• Experience of working in a rescue welfare environment.
• Significant experience of managing a team.
• Significant experience in delivering high level client service in a fast‑paced environment.
• Experience of…