Manager, Operations - Animal Welfare / Shelter

Description

At Humane Colorado, every animal’s path through our shelters matters. Our Population Management team plays a critical role in ensuring animals move safely, efficiently, and compassionately through our care so they can reach the best possible outcomes.

For more than 115 years, Humane Colorado has worked to end pet homelessness and animal suffering. Today, our organization supports nearly 50,000 animals each year through sheltering, veterinary care, behavior programs, and community services across multiple locations.

In this role, you will lead the systems that guide animals through our shelters by coordinating population flow, supporting shelter teams, and collaborating on outcome decisions such as adoption, foster, transfer, and humane euthanasia. Your leadership helps reduce length of stay, maximize resources, and ensure animals receive timely care and opportunities for placement.

If you are energized by solving complex operational challenges, leading teams, and improving outcomes for animals and the communities they serve, we invite you to join our mission driven team.

Purpose of Position: Develop, deliver and support effective, safe and compassionate animal experience through the population management processes, including routing, transfer and movement components and animal outcome decisions. Create and innovate best practices to move animals quickly and efficiently through Humane Colorado systems. Provide support and leadership to all shelter operations teams at Leslie A. Malone Center, Buddy Center, and San Luis Valley Animal Center.

Responsibilities

• Manages and develops an effective staff: providing effective communication, leadership, guidance and resources. Determines staff qualifications and competency: recruits, interviews, selects, hires, trains, orients, mentors, evaluates, coaches, counsels, disciplines, and rewards. Establishes and monitors staff safety and regulatory compliance.
• Directly supervise operations support team, deploying this staff to best match daily needs and ensuring good stewardship of the team’s resources.
• Oversee output from training support specialists to ensure consistent, quality training is in place to build a highly proficient and confident staff across all shelter locations.
• Collaborate with other shelter leadership to review and decide appropriate outcome and disposition options including adoption, transfer, foster and euthanasia to best manage the animal population with special attention paid to length of stay in care.
• Manage the coordination, implementation, and logistics of animal routing, including but not limited to animal medical and behavioral evaluations, regular population rounds discussions, and movement-related functions both within the Malone Center and across the satellite shelters.
• Coordinate with shelter departments daily to improve efficiency in flow of animals through the shelter, between shelters and from the community, and to meet the needs of external partners while maximizing use of company resources including space and personnel.
• Oversee successful onboarding of new external transfer partnerships and support existing transfer partnerships through proactive communication and reliable offers of support. Manage communications with transfer partners, including sensitive, complex, and/or challenging conversations when necessary.
• Serve as a liaison between the shelter functions and the Animal Protection (AP) team to ensure communications are clear and effective and workflows are aligned.
• Build and coordinate plans for the shelter components of AP response efforts, ensuring organized and efficient operations and optimized resources.
• Effectively manage in-kind donations including receiving, sorting, and disposal for Malone Center.
• Assist departments to plan for and respond to unplanned staff shortages and scheduling challenges to ensure adequate staffing, and provide direct leadership to other operations teams when necessary, to ensure appropriate daily support is available throughout shelter teams.
• Provide oversight and project management for limited or ongoing projects and processes as assigned.
• Assist with planning and execution of on-site and off-site adoption events outside the scope of daily operations.
• Design, develop, and implement department standards, work processes, systems, and procedures for accomplishing work. Develop SOPs and ensure they are consistently updated, followed, and communicated with staff and volunteers. Monitor and evaluate program and process effectiveness, including statistical analysis and report creation, and implement improvements. Develop and fulfill realistic and ambitious departmental objectives and plans.
• Inform and monitor the departmental budgets. Manage utilization of department resources to maximize value, control expenses, and minimize waste.
• Manage daily operations by providing leadership and development for the staff. Foster achievement of a common vision within and across teams. Provide clear direction and priorities. Ensure that the roles and responsibilities are understood and carried out.
• Motivate and mobilize staff to act. Remove obstacles, coordinate work efforts when necessary, and empower staff members within department. Manage and ensure the proper utilization and integration of department volunteers.
• Directly support the objectives identified by the Director of Malone Center Operations.
• Partner with departments as needed to ensure facilities and equipment are in good working order.
• Regularly perform shelter opening and closing duties as needed.
• Obtain and maintain required certification to perform duties of euthanasia technician, holder, and trainer.
• Represent the organization internally and externally with integrity, serving as an ambassador for the mission and brand.

People Care

People are the key to fulfilling our mission. Making internal and external patrons and their needs a primary focus is expected in all situations. This position interacts with and collaborates with employees at all levels of the organization. Communication occurs through face to face, telephone, and electronic interactions and may also include contact with the general public and Humane Colorado business partners. Communication and contact must be clear, understandable, cooperative, professional, and respectful in all circumstances. Employees are expected to actively support a positive team environment, directly address conflict, and appropriately express concerns.

Competencies

Competencies are work behaviors and expectations necessary for successful job performance. They encompass knowledge, skills, abilities, attitudes, and actions. Additional definitions for competencies may be obtained from Human Resources.

Organizational Core Competencies

• Job Knowledge
• Productivity / Efficiency
• Quality / Excellence
• Adapting to Change
• Dependability and Integrity
• People Care

Leadership Core Competencies

• Building Effective Teams
• Delivering Results
• Developing Direct Reports

Position Core Competencies

• Analytical Thinking
• Conflict Management

Supervisory or Managerial Responsibility

• Operations Support Specialists
• Team Lead
• Training Support Specialist
• Volunteers

Travel

• This position requires travel to different work sites
• This position requires driving a company vehicle

Schedule

• Available to work some evenings and weekends

Full-Time Benefits – Please visit our website for a comprehensive list of all offered benefits.

• Benefits (medical, dental, and vision)
• 401(k) with matching
• Flexible spending accounts
• Life and Short-Term Disability Insurance
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Paid Sick Time
• Sabbatical
• Holiday Pay
• Employee discounts
• Discounted Pet Insurance
• and more!

Compensation: Starting at $62,300.00 - $70,000.00 annually (starting pay commensurate with market, experience, and equity)

Work Conditions and Physical Requirements

Handle and restrain animals of various sizes, weights, and temperaments. Subject to animal bites or scratches. Work performed in high noise level areas. Exposure to cleaning chemicals, fumes, dust, animal dander, and feces. Physical efforts require constant bending, stooping, standing, climbing stairs, and walking. Frequent lifting of animals and objects up to 75 lbs. with reasonable accommodation.

We will begin reviewing applications as they are received and anticipate closing the application period on March 12, 2026. 

Requirements

Position Qualifications

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Programs
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Strong interpersonal communication skills
• Ability to follow timelines for projects, accomplish multiple tasks, and maintain flexibility in a dynamic work environment
• Creative problem-solving
• Ability to manage and deploy resources effectively

Required

• Education: High school diploma or equivalent
• Work Experience:
• Five years of related work experience including leading the work of others.
• Demonstrated experience with progressively complex project or program leadership responsibilities.
• Two years of experience advising, consulting or making complex decisions.
• Special Training, Certification or Licensure: Valid driver’s license and insurable driving record

Desired

• Professional experience in an animal welfare organization/animal shelter
• Experience creating and managing budgets
• Experience leading and managing volunteers
• General knowledge of animal sheltering software, Chameleon preferred
• Experience handling animals in a shelter or similar environment
• Experience working with volunteers and the public