Veterinary Medical Director

Role Overview & Scope

• Primary Mandate: Oversee the total health, welfare, and population  management of all canines and felines at  Nuzzles & Co.
• Community Engagement: Direct and manage operations for the Nuzzles & Co Community Clinic and direct and organize offsite HQHVSN clinics—often in geographically remote areas (2-3 times per year)
• Veterinary Framework: Champion an incremental care model to provide accessible resources to community members facing financial hardship.

Strategic & Operational Core Duties

• Staff Leadership: Manage the rescue's dedicated veterinary medical support staff.
• Population Medicine: Create, update, and enforce strict Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for biosecurity, outbreak containment, intake procedures, and population management.
• Financial Oversight: Manage and balance the annual veterinary medical and pharmacy budget. 

Clinical & Surgical Duties

• High-Quality High-Volume Surgery: Perform efficient, high-volume sterilization surgeries for all program animals 
• Lead and direct large scale pop-up HQHVSN clinics in remote regions, overseeing 40-50 staff and volunteers over a multi-day, concentrated effort.
• Specialized Procedures: Execute non-sterilization surgeries to improve animal adoptability and overall quality of life (amputation, intestinal surgery, enucleation, dentistry, wound management, etc)
• Intake & Diagnostics: Conduct comprehensive medical intake exams, perform appropriate diagnostics and formulate treatment plans for sick and injured animals.
• Case Management: Clear animals for the adoption program and track medical outcomes in the ShelterLuv database.
• Referral Management: Approve and coordinate external veterinary care for complex procedures unavailable on-site.
• Emergency Consultation: Provide telephone and text triage support for after-hours animal emergencies or urgent euthanasia decisions including evenings and weekends (approximately 4-6 hours per week)

Population Medicine & Biosecurity

• Herd Health Principles: Apply shelter medicine best practices across all facilities to balance group health with individual care.
• Provides weekly guidance to intake and adoptions teams on pacing and types of animal intakes to optimize animal health and minimize average length of stay
• SOP Development: Design, implement, and update Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for disease control and outbreak prevention.
• Direct vaccination, nutrition, parasite control, and preventative medicine schedules for all shelter animals.
• Compliance Auditing: Monitor and measure staff compliance with medical policies, reporting findings to the Executive Director.

Administrative, Budgetary & Regulatory Management

• Financial Oversight: Maintain the annual veterinary medical budget and meet targeted revenue goals for the community clinic.
• Inventory Control: Monitor medical supplies and pharmacy inventory; strictly maintain DEA controlled substance logs.
• Facility Maintenance: Ensure the medical suite is sanitary, equipment is serviced, and OSHA safety standards are fully enforced.
• Risk Management: Take immediate corrective action on any safety concerns or rule noncompliance endangering staff, volunteers, or animals.

Leadership & Staff Supervision

• Team Management: Supervise all veterinary support technicians, assistants, and suite personnel.
• Performance Reviews: Execute mandatory 90-day and annual performance reviews for all veterinary suite employees.
• Training & Mentorship: Oversee veterinary students and externs, ensuring proper training and legal euthanasia certification for applicable staff.
• Executive Collaboration: Participate actively in executive management meetings to align medical functions with organizational goals.
• Advise the board of directors on strategic decisions involving facility design, program design, and operational decisions.

Community & Outreach Programming

• Community Clinic: Manage day-to-day programming for the low-cost public community clinic.
• Mobile & Tribal Outreach: Oversee and travel to remote mobile spay/neuter clinics on Native American Reservations.
• TNR Initiatives: Advance and support Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programming and community advocacy.

Job Requirements & Physical Demands

• Working Conditions: Ability to thrive under stress in an emotional, fast-paced, high-volume shelter environment.
• Travel Flexibility: Ability to work 2-4 weekends per year off-site at remote, high-volume mobile clinics.
• Core Values: Treat all animals and people with compassion; foster positive public relations and cross-departmental teamwork.

Education, Certification and licensing, and Experience

• Graduate of an accredited school of veterinary medicine. 
• Licensed to practice veterinary medicine in the state of Utah. 
• Additional credentialing or advanced study in Shelter Medicine and enthusiasm for Shelter Medicine is strongly desired. 
• Ability to conduct high quality surgical sterilizations and surgeries in a fast paced environment. 
• Must have a valid driver’s license. 
• Must possess or have the ability to obtain and possess a current DEA license 
• Acquire and possess a thorough understanding of and dedication to the philosophies of animal welfare and rescue.

Physical Requirements

• Must be able to routinely lift 40-50 pounds individually;
• Must be able to lift up to 100 pounds with the help of fellow employees;
• Must be able to work around both cat and dog dander and allergens.
• Must be able to stand for long periods of time

Working Conditions

• May be exposed to emotional and/or stressed members of the public. Must be able to deal with a potentially emotion-charged public.
• Carry a fast paced and changing work load which at times can be stressful.
• By nature of the job, there is occasional exposure to dead, injured, sick, unruly, vicious, and/or dangerous animals in addition to exposure to parasites and infectious diseases.
• Must be available and willing to work such weekends, holidays, overtime, in order to attend to medical emergencies and community outreach events, and attend mandatory training and meetings as the employer determines are necessary or desirable to meet its business needs.