Animal Care Supervisor Bedfordshire

A fantastic opportunity has arisen to join the National Animal Welfare Trust’s team at our Bedfordshire Centre as an Animal Care Supervisor.

You will be working for a charity that never stops caring for its animals and people. We believe every pet deserves a chance to thrive in a loving home. Across our five rescue and rehoming centres across the south of England, we care for homeless and unwanted cats, dogs, rabbits, and guinea pigs – helping them find the families they’ve been waiting for.

Hours:40 hours per week, working weekends on a rota basis

Closing Date:31st August 2025

About the role

You will have the opportunity to develop and implement ways of working that will enhance the animal care and homing procedures to ensure the centre moves forward and continues to provide an exceptional service to the animals in our care, our supporters, our employees and volunteers.

It is important to us that our teams have opportunities to develop their skills and experience, so you will spend your time running shifts coaching your team and creating a positive learning environment. You’ll be solving problems in the moment, so any experience you have in leading operational activities in an animal welfare environment would be beneficial.

The best part about this role is that no two days are ever exactly the same. Reporting to the Centre Manager, a typical day could include:

• Inspiring and motivating the team to make every moment right for our animals and customers, including pre-empting and adapting to any potential issues and addressing/resolving any that arise.
• Identifying teachable moments to share best practices with the team.
• Setting priorities and resources to determine roles and delegate tasks.
• Executing centre operations during scheduled shifts, including organising opening and closing duties.
• Ensuring all team members follow NAWT’s operational policies and procedures, ensuring high standards of animal care are maintained at all times, and the safety of all team members during each shift.

Some of your key responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

• Ensuring all animals receive appropriate training and socialisation by employees and volunteers.
• Ensure all animals are assessed, advertised, matched and rehomed in a responsible and timely manner.
• Work with the centre management team to fully implement and monitor Home Direct and short-term fostering homing initiatives.
• Manage and develop a team of Animal Care Assistants to ensure high standards of animal welfare are maintained.
• To effectively resolve homing queries, ownership queries, requests and complaints to ensure resolution at first point of contact whenever possible.
• Monitor and manage animal health in liaison with the veterinary team.

About you

You will have previous experience line managing teams, ideally within the animal welfare sector (but not essential). You will bring with you the following essential skills and experience:

• Significant experience of performance management, supervising and coaching a team
• Experience of implementing change within a team
• Experience of working in a challenging environment whilst successfully managing multiple tasks
• The ability to organise and prioritise workloads
• The ability to remain calm and compassionate when dealing with sensitive or emotional situations
• A full UK driving License

You will have a positive and proactive approach to work, with excellent customer service skills, having the charity at the heart of everything you do. Above all we’re looking for someone who can bring enthusiasm and ideas, combined with a practical, can do attitude.

So, if you are the kind of person who enjoys a busy and varied role, with an empathy for the aims of NAWT, and would relish the opportunity to gain lots of experience in different areas within a busy animal rehoming centre – this may be the job for you!

As part of our commitment to making NAWT a great place to work, we offer access to the following employee benefits:

• 33 days annual leave inclusive of bank holidays, rising to 38 days after 5 years’ service (pro-rated for part time staff).
• Contributory pension.
• Group Life Assurance.
• Employee Assistance Programme and access to Wellbeing Resources.

We are an inclusive organisation and are committed to providing equality of opportunity for all with the right mix of talent, skills and potential. We welcome all applications from the communities we work in. Selection for roles will be based on individual merit.

If you feel you have the right skills to be a successful Animal Care Supervisor at our Bedfordshire centre, please send your CV with your cover letter, outlining how your experience and interest connect to our position, to Carley Farr, Centre Manager: c.farr@nawt.org.uk at NAWT Bedfordshire.

The full description of the Duties and Responsibilities is below.

Please note we are accepting applications on a rolling basis and may close the recruitment process for this role prior to the deadline, so early applications are encouraged. Unfortunately, we are only able to make contact with those applicants who will be invited to interview.

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