Head Veterinary Surgeon

CVS Vets; Southampton; On-site; GBP 77,400 - 94,600; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

RCVS & VDS fees paid

Salary up to £86,000 DOE

Generous CPD allowance

Up to 33 days holiday

Relocation package

Health cash plan

Staff pet care discounts

Job summary

CVS Veterinary Group in the UK is seeking an experienced Vet to step into a leadership role, mentoring a friendly team and driving clinical care forward. This full-time position offers flexibility across 4 or 5 days per week while maintaining clinical skills.

You'll mentor and coach fellow vets, lead by example, and support development, with strong resource backing and a commitment to high standards of care across the practice and client service.

Qualifications

• Confident experienced Vet with leadership and mentoring skills.
• Ability to lead a friendly, close-knit team.
• Willingness to learn more about day-to-day running of a practice.
• Full-time role, 4 or 5 days per week with flexible hours.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a team of vets, nurses and support staff.
• Maintain clinical skills while developing people leadership and business management.
• Drive ongoing improvements across the practice.

Job description

Are you looking for the next step in your career? Are you passionate about developing a team to deliver superior client and clinical care?

At CVS, we putour colleagues first, giving you the support you need to provide the best possible care. From clinical to non-clinical challenges, you'll always have the resources and teams alongside you. We'll be your biggest supporter – it's in our nature.

With market-leading learning, on-the-job training, and collaboration with skilled colleagues, you'll have the tools to grow—whether you're building confidence early in your career or looking to deepen your expertise. From advancing in your current role to exploring new leadership or specialist pathways, we provide the support and opportunities to help you achieve your goals.

About You

We are looking for a confdent experienced Vet, who has a passion for mentoring and leadership and a drive for implementing ongoing improvement. This would be a great opportunity as a step up for you to lead and nurture a friendly, close knit, team.

As a leader, we want you to bring energy and enthusiasm along with confidence and professionalism and be able to share this with the team and clients. You should have a genuine desire to support and promote development in your fellow vets. We are looking for someone who prides themselves on providing great leadership and coaching to their own teams coupled with a consistently high level of service to their clients.

We can offer a full time role working 4 or 5 days per week. There is flexibility around days and hours worked – please get in touch with us to discuss further!

This is a role which will allow you to maintain your clinical skills whilst utilising and developing people leadership and business management skills. Experience is not critical as full support and training will be available. Your ability to gain trust and fit with the team in combination with a desire to learn more about the day to day running of a practice.

Life at Animed Veterinary Hospital

Animed Veterinary Hospital is a Small Animal practice with a passionate team of vets, nurses, PCAs and receptionists. This is a unique chance to step into a well-established practice with state-of-the-art facilities, including:

• A dedicated orthopaedic theatre, two fully equipped soft tissue theatres (both with laparoscopic equipment), a double dental suite, a dedicated imaging suite, visiting CT, separate wards for dogs, cats, and exotic pets.
• Our team is close-knit, supportive, and enthusiastic about sharing knowledge across multiple disciplines. You'll be part of a team of 16 day vets & 3 night vets, which include cert holders in Diagnostic Imaging, Cardiology, Medicine, Endoscopy & Endo surgery. We also have 34 clinical, 18 reception & 5 admin staff as part of our wide team, so plenty of people to call on for support.

The benefits

At CVS, we know that care for our patients starts with dedicated people like you. That's why we invest in your growth and your future. When you join our team, you'll receive:

• RCVS & VDS fees paid in full
• Salary up to £86,000 DOE
• Generous CPD allowance, BSAVA library access, 450+ courses, and fully funded postgraduate qualifications (CertAVP, PgCert) with tuition, exams, and study leave covered
• Up to 33 days holiday (with option to buy/sell)
• Relocation package and visa fees covered (where applicable)
• Access to Vet Oracle telemedicine specialists, Advanced Clinical Services Network and Regional Clinical Leads for case support and mentoring
• Health cash plan, Employee Assistance Programme, Wellbeing Champions and enhanced family leave policies
• Staff pet care discounts – 50% off services, MiPet food and medications

Join us at CVS

We're committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels welcome, valued and able to do their best work. We foster an inclusive and equitable workplace, where diverse perspectives are invited and people feel safe to speak up.

Wellbeing support is always available, from monthly line‑manager check‑ins to our network of 400 Wellbeing Champions, Pastoral Support Vets and personal mentors. We offer leading benefits and policies, such as our Health Shield which provides support for physical and mental health.

Our aim is to free up clinical colleagues to do what they do best, so we offer practices a wide range of operational support. Central expert HR, recruitment, payroll, IT, finance, procurement teams are on hand to support with all aspects relating to the smooth running of each practice.

We prioritise investment in our facilities, delivering significant enhancements across numerous practices through a dedicated multi‑million‑pound improvement fund.

Interested?

Please click apply now! For further details or an informal chat, please contact Emily in the recruitment team at [e-mail]