Job Description

About Our Job

With competitive pay, great benefits, and endless opportunities, working for the City and County of Denver means seeing yourself working with purpose — for you, and those who benefit from your passion, skills and expertise. Join our diverse, inclusive and talented workforce of more than 11,000 team members who are at the heart of what makes Denver, Denver.

What We Offer

The City and County of Denver offers a competitive salary commensurate with education and experience. The salary range for this position is $33.22 - $51.49 per hour. We also offer generous benefits for full-time employees which include but are not limited to:

• A guaranteed life-long monthly pension, once vested after 5 years of service

• 457B Retirement Plan

• 140 hours of PTO earned within first year + 12 paid holidays, 1 personal holiday, 1 Wellness Day and 1 volunteer day per year

• Competitive medical, dental and vision plans effective within 1 month of start date

Location

In this position you can expect to work on site at the Denver Animal Shelter, located at 1241 W. Bayaud Ave., Denver, CO 80223.

What You’ll Do

Within the Denver Department of Public Health & Environment (DDPHE), Denver Animal Protection (DAP) protects the safety and welfare of Denver’s animals and residents by fostering the human animal bond. DAP emphasizes public and animal safety and health, encourages responsible pet ownership through education and enforcing compliance with animal-related municipal code requirements, and cares for animals at the Denver Animal Shelter (DAS). More information can be found at: DDPHE: Denver Animal Protection

We foster an inclusive culture by respecting the values, customs, and authenticity of everyone and by implementing equitable public health strategies so Denver communities can thrive.

DAP has an opening for an Animal Protection Officer to join our Field Section. In this role, you will serve as a field investigator and a specialized first responder for the city. You will manage two equally important responsibilities: the welfare of Denver’s animals and the safety of its residents. The work is wide-ranging and can change in an instant. You might spend your morning resolving a neighborhood dispute or providing resources to a family in crisis, only to spend your afternoon investigating a cruelty case or executing a search warrant to seize a neglected animal. We are looking for someone who can handle unpredictable animals and confrontational situations with composure, sound judgment, and a genuine commitment to serving the community.

Specifically, the Animal Protection Officer:

• Independently triages and prioritizes a dynamic workload of complaints by responding to scenes, conducting interviews, collecting evidence, and evaluating probable cause to make critical enforcement decisions.

• Enforces Denver Revised Municipal Code and Colorado Revised Statutes while exercising professional discretion through a range of options, from warnings and citations to court summonses and executing search and seizure warrants.

• Compiles thorough, court-ready narratives and evidence to present a strong case for prosecution, maintaining a collaborative working relationship with the City and District Attorney’s Offices.

• Functions as a specialized first responder in physically demanding and psychologically complex environments, managing high-stress scenes involving aggressive animals, injury, or death.

• Navigates complex social dynamics using de-escalation and trauma-informed communication to address the link between animal welfare and human crisis, including recognizing indicators of interpersonal violence.

• Captures, handles, and impounds unpredictable domestic pets and wild rabies-vectors, including close-quarters handling for shelter intake, vaccinations, and humane euthanasia.

• Performs humane euthanasia by injection for domestic and wild animals, executing determinations made by veterinary or behavioral specialists through a formalized evaluation process.

• Maintains detailed daily logs and case files in Chameleon and SharePoint, exercising critical decision-making in an unpredictable environment where you are frequently diverted to high-priority calls.

• Promotes a One Health mindset by educating community groups and the public on responsible pet ownership, safe human-animal interactions, and public health ordinances.

• Testifies as a professional witness to the entire investigative process, making sentencing and case resolution recommendations based on field findings.

• Ensures accountability for an agency-provided vehicle and a comprehensive set of safety gear, keeping all issued equipment clean, operational, and ready for field use.

• Participates in the department’s emergency preparedness operations, which includes supporting the City’s Emergency Operations Plan and responding to "on-call" emergencies as needed.

This position requires availability to work a variety of shifts, including mornings, evenings, overnights, mandatory on-call rotations, weekends, and holidays. Shift work and on-call availability are core, essential functions of this role. While officers currently work a 4-day per week, 10-hour per shift schedule, scheduling and shift configurations are subject to change based on the operational needs of the agency.

This position is physically demanding, requiring intermittent periods of intense physical activity broken up by periods of driving or administrative work. Physical demands include lifting large animals into trucks or vans, running both short and longer distances, climbing, pulling, pushing, and sometimes awkward physical movements.

What You’ll Bring

We value diversity of ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, sexual identity, gender, religion, language, ability, and experience and exemplify this through the makeup of our team at all levels. You'll be right at home here if you cultivate strong relationships and push yourself, your work, the people around you and Denver to the next level.

Our ideal candidate has some or all the following experience, skills, and characteristics:

• Bachelor's Degree in Animal Science, Criminal Justice, Public Health, Environmental Health, or related field.

• Demonstrated ability to de-escalate high-intensity situations and effectively communicate with a highly diverse population during complex, emotional, or confrontational cases.

• Direct experience responding to public safety, public health, or nuisance complaints, with a strong preference for candidates with investigative or enforcement backgrounds.

• Direct professional experience or related employment involving the physical handling of animals, particularly demonstrating competence and safety around unpredictable or aggressive domestic and wild animals.

• Familiarity with law enforcement case management software or animal shelter database systems (such as Chameleon).

• Bilingual in Spanish/English is highly preferred.

• This position requires the employee to be available to work morning shifts, evening shifts, overnight on-call shifts, weekends, and holidays. This shiftwork is a core function of the officer job role.

As a condition of continued employment, you will be required to obtain the following certifications within the specified timeframes after your date of hire:

• Within 6 Months: Expandable Baton Certification, OC Spray Certification, and Euthanasia by Injection Certification.

• Within 12 Months: Animal Welfare Association of Colorado (AWAC) State Certification for Animal Control Officers.

Required Minimum Qualifications

• Education requirement: Bachelor's Degree.

• Experience Requirement: Two (2) years of experience conducting environmental/public health inspections, investigations or environmental/public health management activities.

• Education/Experience Equivalency: One (1) year of the appropriate type and level of experience may be substituted for each required year of post-high school education.

• Additional appropriate education may be substituted for the minimum experience requirements.

• License/Certifications: Requires a valid Driver's License at the time of application.

• Licenses and certifications must be kept current as a condition of employment.

Application Deadline

This position is expected to stay open until Sunday, June 7, 2026. Please submit your application as soon as possible and no later than that date at 11:59 p.m. to ensure consideration.

About Everything Else

Job Profile

CE2265 Environmental Public Health Investigator II

To view the full job profile including position specifications, physical demands, and probationary period, click here

Position Type

Unlimited

Position Salary Range

$33.22 - $51.49

Target Pay

Based on education and experience.

Agency

Dept of Public Health & Environment

The City and County of Denver provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, genetic information, age, or any other status protected under federal, state, and/or local law.

It is your right to access oral or written language assistance, sign language interpretation, real-time captioning via CART, or disability-related accommodations. To request any of these services at no cost to you, please contact Jobs@Denvergov.org with three business days’ notice.

Applicants for employment with the City and County of Denver must have valid work authorization that does not require sponsorship of a visa for employment authorization in the U.S.

For information about right to work, click here for English or here for Spanish.