Job Description

Head of Shelter Medicine

Full-time, Permanent Role

About us:
At The Lost Dogs’ Home, we are a foundation in Victoria's animal welfare landscape, celebrated for our compassionate care of around 18,000 lost and abandoned dogs and cats every year. Beyond caring for animals, we are dedicated to providing diverse animal welfare and community programs, all aimed at giving animals the best chance of a happy and healthy life. Our mission is upheld by passionate individuals who embody a profound affinity for animals, community, and advocacy.

About the role:

Reporting directly to the Chief Operating Officer, you'll lead a passionate and hard-working shelter operations team. You will be responsible for ensuring the North Melbourne shelter operates safely, efficiently and consistently while maintaining the highest standards of animal welfare and ensuring compliance with relevant legislative and regulatory frameworks.

This is a highly collaborative leadership role where you'll work closely with other teams across the shelter to optimise operations, improve animal outcomes and support the wellbeing of both our people and the animals in our care.

You'll balance strategic thinking with operational leadership, identifying opportunities to improve systems and processes while remaining visible and engaged with frontline teams.

You will:

• Translate LDH’s organisational strategy into shelter specific targets and processes.
• Lead the delivery of best-practice animal welfare across our shelters, ensuring compliance with the Victorian Code of Practice and relevant legislation.
• Oversee animal housing capacity, shelter flow and operational processes to achieve the best possible outcomes for animals.
• Work collaboratively with other departments to continuously improve animal care, disease management and operational efficiency.
• Lead compliance activities, including internal and external audits, while identifying opportunities to improve quality, efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
• Monitor and report on Shelter-specific outcome evidence and data, including regular and ad-hoc reporting on animal statistics.
• Provide strategic oversight of our Foster Care (Pathways) programs, ensuring they deliver outstanding outcomes for animals and align with organisational priorities.
• Support the Pathways Team Leader to grow our foster care network and expand innovative foster initiatives.
• Lead and foster a positive, accountable and high-performing culture across the North Melbourne Shelter and Pathways teams.
• Build and maintain strong interdepartmental relationships to support aligned decision-making and positive animal welfare outcomes.
• Set, monitor and drive Shelter performance objectives for the North Melbourne site, ensuring teams are working collaboratively towards operational priorities, organisational goals and animal welfare outcomes.
• Promote a culture of ownership, accountability and continuous improvement by coaching, mentoring and developing leaders to effectively manage people, performance and day-to-day operations.
• Ensuring that all health, safety and environment procedures, policies, relevant legislation and standard practices are understood by team members

About you

You're an experienced operational leader who enjoys bringing people together to achieve shared goals. You're calm under pressure, thrive in fast-paced environments and have the confidence to make sound decisions while balancing operational priorities with compassionate animal care.

You'll bring:

• Significant experience leading operational teams within animal welfare, veterinary services or another complex service delivery environment.
• Demonstrated success leading and developing high-performing teams through coaching, mentoring and positive leadership.
• Strong knowledge of operational management, workforce planning and continuous improvement.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships across diverse teams.
• Experience managing budgets, operational resources and organisational priorities.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving and decision-making skills.
• A collaborative leadership style with high emotional intelligence and resilience.
• Certificate II in Animal Studies (or equivalent experience).
• Certificate IV or Diploma in Leadership/Management (or equivalent experience).
• A current driver's licence.

Experience with Sheltermate or similar animal management systems, along with knowledge of the Victorian Code of Practice for the Management of Animals in Shelters and Pounds, will be highly regarded.

What we can offer you:

• Fantastic career development and opportunities to develop skills in Australia’s largest open intake shelter.
• Generous financial assistance and support for further studies and career development courses.
• Generous leave entitlements, including up to 5 days of study leave per year.
• A compassionate, supportive and proud work environment.
• Access to our Employee Assistance Program and onsite counselling service.
• Generous discounts at the Lost Dogs’ Home Veterinary Clinic.

If you have the skills, experience and enthusiasm to be successful in this role, please select APPLY NOW ensuring you have attached your cover letter and current resume in Word or PDF format. If you have any further questions or queries regarding the role, please email recruitment@dogshome.com

LDH will only consider candidates for this role who currently possess unlimited and ongoing work rights in Australia.

The successful applicant will be required to satisfactorily complete reference and background checks.

The Lost Dogs’ Home is an equal opportunity employer committed to providing a working environment that embraces and values diversity and inclusion.