Assistant Manager Off-site Services

Association of Dogs and Cats Homes (ADCH); York and North Yorkshire; On-site; GBP 26,000 - 30,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

38 days holiday (rising with service)

Wellbeing programmes

Health plan

Job summary

Blue Cross is recruiting an Assistant Manager – Off-site Services to lead our home-based pet operations at the Thirsk rehoming centre. You will oversee daily activities, animal handling, and assessments to prepare pets for adoption with top care for pets and clients.

You will manage a team of Pet Welfare Assistants and Foster Coordinators, ensure timely adoptions, and drive improvements in animal welfare and service quality. This is a full-time role with a weekend rotation.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in managing a team in a pet/animal environment.
• Strong customer service delivery in a fast-paced setting.
• Deep knowledge of pet welfare and handling of domestic animals.

Responsibilities

• Lead home-based pet operations at the Thirsk rehoming centre.
• Oversee daily activities, assess pets, supervise training and foster support.
• Motivate and manage Pet Welfare Assistants and Foster Coordinators.
• Ensure pet adoption preparation and high standards of care.
• Work a 37.5 hour week with a 1 in 3 weekend rota.

Skills

People management

Customer service

Team leadership

Communication

Decision making

Animal handling knowledge

Driving licence

Education

Management, leadership, or coaching qualifications

Job description

Blue Cross

Location: North Yorkshire

Salary: £26,042 - £30,281 / year

Hours: 37.5 hours per week

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: 17 November 2026

We’re recruiting an Assistant Manager – Off-site Services to lead our home-based pet operations at our Thirsk rehoming centre.

In this role, you’ll ensure that every pet finds the perfect match with their new family as quickly as possible, while maintaining top quality care for both our pets and clients throughout the entire adoption journey. Join us in making a difference, one pet at a time!

More about the role

In this role, you’ll play a key part in ensuring exceptional care for both pets and clients while making well-connected, efficient decisions that prioritise pet welfare. As the leader of our home-based pet operations, you’ll oversee the smooth running of daily activities, acting as the subject matter expert in practical animal handling and assessment. Your goal will be to prepare pets for adoption as quickly and effectively as possible. You’ll work closely with your team to ensure timely pet assessments, behaviour management, and training, while providing full support to foster carers.

You’ll also be responsible for achieving pet-related targets, ensuring your team of Pet Welfare Assistants & Foster Coordinators maintain the highest standards of animal care and adheres to national processes in case management. As the offsite team primary focus is home based service, innovation and teamwork are essential to address the most urgent cases effectively.

Motivating and managing your team is central to this role, enabling the centre to provide top-quality home-based pet care while helping your team develop professionally.

This is a full-time position, working 37.5 hours per week and you will be required to work 1 in 3 weekends.

At our Thirsk rehoming centre, we provide onsite accommodation for pets in our care 24/7. Overnight shifts are usually undertaken by team members who live on site. However, as a manager you will be on a rota to carry out night checks or stay in onsite accommodation overnight when the resident team members are either not working or away for a period of time.

About You

You’ll be a great people manager, bringing finely honed skills from your experience in an animal-related environment, along with expert knowledge of pet welfare and care.

As a dynamic and innovative leader, you know how to inspire and motivate your team, driving continuous improvement. You’ll lead a team of Pet Welfare Assistants, empowering them through effective management and coaching.

With excellent communication skills, you adapt your approach for different audiences, ensuring your message resonates. While juggling multiple tasks, you remain calm and organised, making confident decisions in high-pressure situations.

Your strong analytical skills enable you to monitor and evaluate effectively, implementing meaningful improvements. Rather than resting on your laurels, you’ll have a genuine desire to enhance onsite facilities and services, actively engaging your team in the process.

Having worked in emotionally charged environments, you understand the importance of resilience and have excellent “bounce-back ability.” Your emotional intelligence and empathy will shine as you support your team and the public, creating a compassionate and effective workplace.

Knowledge, Skills, And Experience

• Significant experience in managing a team.


• Significant experience in delivering high level Customer service in a fast-paced environment.


• Significant subject matter expertise and application of pet welfare and handling of domestic animals


• High standard of verbal and written communication.


• Proven decision – making ability


• Current full driving licence


• The ability to demonstrate, understand and apply our Blue Cross values

It would be great (but not essential) if you also had:

• Performance management and improvement experience.


• Change management experience.


• Delivering training and presenting to large groups.


• Experience working with volunteers.


• Qualifications in management, leadership, or coaching


• Understanding of safeguarding issues.

Want to know more detail? Great! We have attached the job description which hopefully gives you everything you need.

Blue Cross benefits

Our people are the most important part of delivering our purpose. If it were not for their amazing efforts and commitment, we would not be able to make the difference that we do today.

In return, Blue Cross wants to ensure we provide you with the best working environment we can. We want you to be happy working for us and will do everything we can to make sure you are.

Our Generous Benefits Package Includes

• Full time equivalent of 38 days holiday rising to 43 with service (including Bank Holidays)


• Programmes for physical and mental wellbeing support


• Free access to GP via MetLife- 24/7 GP services, private prescriptions and more for you and your family


• Health cash plan


• Unlimited access to an employee assistance programme


• Pension scheme with enhanced employer contribution


• Professional fees paid with Continuing Professional Development and personal development support.


• Life assurance


• 20% discount on Pet Plan pet insurance


• Enhanced family friendly policies


• Recognition scheme


• Annual volunteer days


• Charity worker discounts across a variety of retailers

To read more about the benefits Blue Cross has to offer, please visit the ‘why work for us’ page on our website.

Using AI in your application

We’re happy for you to use AI tools to help you prepare your application, for example to organise your thoughts, improve clarity or check spelling and grammar. However, your application must be an honest reflection of your own skills, experience and achievements, and AI should not be used to write your application for you or create examples that aren’t your own.

Please read our guidance on using AI when applying to Blue Cross before submitting your application.