Specialty Medical Director

Southern Veterinary Partners; Birmingham; Remote; USD 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking organization dedicated to providing exceptional veterinary care. As the Specialty Medical Director, you'll play a pivotal role in recruitment, retention, and support of veterinary specialists. This innovative firm values collaboration and growth, offering a unique opportunity to shape specialty services and drive quality care across a network of animal hospitals. With a commitment to professional development and a supportive culture, you'll be empowered to make a real impact while enjoying a rewarding career in veterinary medicine. If you're passionate about elevating veterinary standards and fostering meaningful partnerships, this is the perfect opportunity for you.

Benefits

Maternity Leave

401k Match

Health Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Life Insurance

Long & Short-term Disability Insurance

Professional Liability Coverage

TeleDoc Access

Free Continued Education

Qualifications

• 5+ years of clinical experience in small animal medicine.
• Proven management experience in veterinary settings.
• Strong communication and relationship-building skills.

Responsibilities

• Recruit and retain veterinary specialists across the organization.
• Support operational excellence and enhance workflow efficiency.
• Coordinate clinical trials to advance veterinary medicine.

Skills

Veterinary Medicine

Management

Recruitment

Operational Excellence

Communication Skills

Financial Management

Education

Doctor of Veterinary Medicine

Tools

MS Excel

MS Word

Outlook

PowerPoint

Job description

Southern Veterinary Partners (SVP) is a veterinarian-owned and managed network of animal hospitals with the common mission of providing best-in-class personalized veterinary care with exceptional client experiences. We’re based in Birmingham, AL, but the heartbeat of SVP is in the 400+ animal hospitals and 9000+ teammates across the country. Providing integrated support, our Home Office resources enable our hospital teams to focus on what matters most – the medicine and caring for their patients. Each day is truly a partnership (hence, the “P” in SVP). Driving our culture of meaningful partnerships are our WAG values – Work Together, Amaze, and Grow, which has led to being named #1 Most Loved Work Workplace in Healthcare in 2023. Let’s talk about your amazing future. Start the conversation with our teams today!

The Specialty Medical Director (SMD) is responsible for the recruitment, retention, and ongoing support of veterinary specialists across the organization. This individual plays a pivotal role in shaping and sustaining specialty services, developing recruiting pipelines, supporting operational excellence, and facilitating industry connections to clinical research initiatives. The SMD will serve as a trusted medical partner to our specialists and hospital teams, working collaboratively to drive quality care, innovation, and organizational growth.

*This position is remote and will also require nationwide travel.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

The following duties and responsibilities generally reflect the expectations of this position but are not intended to be all inclusive.

Recruitment (30% of time)

• Build and maintain a robust network to create a continuous pipeline of specialty talent.
• Represent the organization at veterinary specialty conferences and recruiting events.
• Identify and engage ideal candidates to launch new specialty services and practices.
• Collaborate with the University Liaison team to develop and support residency sponsorship pipelines.
• Collaborate with specialty recruiter to identify strategies for recruitment pipeline and onboard new veterinarians into specialty practices.

Retention and Relationship Building (25%)

• Foster meaningful relationships with specialists across the organization to enhance engagement, job satisfaction, and long-term retention.
• Act as a mentor and advocate, supporting career development and collaboration across teams.

Medical and Operational Support (20%)

• Collaborate with the Specialty Operations Director (SOD) team to deliver operational and clinical guidance to local practices.
• Support hospital teams in enhancing workflow efficiency, operational processes, and financial performance through medical insight and best practices.
• Work with RMDs from our general practice hospitals to ensure a seamless connection on referring relationships.

Residency Program Development (15%)

• Partner with veterinary specialists to establish repeatable, scalable, and sustainable residency programs.
• Partner with Director of Academic Partnership to implement the SVP + MVP residency program
• Centralize and streamline shared resources to support and enhance residency training experiences across the network.

Clinical Trial Coordination (10%)

• Coordinate with clinicians and the Director of Clinical Trials to implement and manage clinical trials, contributing to the advancement of veterinary medicine and research excellence.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

(Education, licenses, certifications, and experience required to fulfill the essential duties, include computer skills as required)

• Doctor of Veterinary Medicine; minimum of 5 years’ practical clinical experience in small animal medicine.
• Minimum of 5 years’ progressive management experience required.
• Demonstrated track record of successful fiscal and operating management; demonstrated financial expertise.
• Demonstrated experience in planning and managing at strategic and operational levels.
• Intermediate computer skills and proficiency in MS Excel, MS Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint required.
• Fluent in the written and verbal skills necessary to perform successfully the essential functions, duties, and responsibilities of the position (English).
• Vision adequate to perform essential duties and responsibilities of position.
• Physical requirements can vary. These must be reviewed with management. However, in general, the position requires the following physical activities:
  • Ability to lift minimum of 2 pounds to a maximum of 20 pounds unassisted; able to sit stand, stoop, walk, stretch, reach frequently; moderate range of body motions.
  • Ability to hear and interact by phone and in person clearly and efficiently and to make presentations. Ability to use computer and all peripherals efficiently.

ESSENTIAL BEHAVIORS, SKILLS, AND ATTITUDES REQUIRED FOR SUCCESS IN THIS POSITION

• Commitment to SVP + MVP core values of WAG (Work Together, Amaze, and Grow) with ability to demonstrate those positively and proactively to patients, teammates, management, DVMs, and/or vendors in everyday performance and interactions.
• Proven ability to work collaboratively with colleagues, boarded specialists, DVMs, and teammates to create a results-driven, team-oriented environment.
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills with an acute ability to listen attentively and to communicate effectively throughout all levels of the organization.
• Demonstrated relationship-building skills and ability to be “other-oriented”; ability to appreciate people with different backgrounds and points of view.
• Demonstrated entrepreneurial openness and ability to explore new possibilities and to approach issues differently; a visionary; intellectually agile.
• Demonstrated leadership skills; able to identify meaningful goals and capture the imagination of others to achieve them; able to add value to discussions or projects that impact SVP + MVP position in the industry; able to bring out the best thinking and attitudes; able to recognize unique contributions of individuals and teamwork.
• Demonstrated business acumen; able to assess financial implications of decisions and actions; able to understand how strategies and tactics work in the marketplace and impact SVP + MVP.
• Demonstrated understanding of SVP + MVP, what makes the businesses successful, and able to balance that with patient and teammate satisfaction.
• Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of internal and external Standards of Conduct as well as legal regulatory requirements.
• Demonstrated expertise in building teams, managing and influencing people, processes and customer relationships.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively produce a high quality of work and to initiate the completion of extensive multiple tasks not specifically directed in a fast-paced, ever-changing and evolving work environment.
• Demonstrated empathy and respect for teammates and patients.

Your Benefits

• Maternity Leave
• 401k (You receive a 100% match on the first 3% you put in, plus a 50% match on the next 2%.)
• Health, Dental, Vision, and Critical Illness Insurance
• Hospital Indemnity, Life, and Accident Insurance
• Long & Short-term Disability Insurance
• Professional Liability Coverage
• TeleDoc - Free Access 24/7
• Access to Free In-House Continued Education (CE)

Clinical Tracks Program

Committed to helping teammates grow, we proudly offer over fifty hours of in-depth, RACE-approved CE credit facilitated by veterinary specialists to grow teammate clinical skills and enhance the care of our patients. Courses offered: Dentistry, Oncology, Internal Medicine, Dermatology, and Cardiology.

About Southern Veterinary Partners

Southern Veterinary Partners is a veterinarian-owned and managed network of animal hospitals with the common mission of providing best-in-class veterinary care with exceptional client experiences. We’re based in Birmingham, AL, but the heartbeat of our organization lives within the dedicated teams in our 400+ local animal hospitals across 26 states. We were proudly certified in 2024 as a Most Loved Workplace in ten categories: LGBTQ+, Diversity, Women, CEO, Career Advancement, Veterans, Volunteering, Parents & Caregivers, Wellness, & Young Professionals.

At SVP, our WAG values—Work Together, Amaze, and Grow—drive our culture of meaningful partnerships. Collaboration and respect are the foundation of our success, enabling us to uncover solutions and opportunities that elevate the team and ensure everyone has the support they need to excel and have fun. Our mission is to amaze clients with exceptional veterinary care and personalized experiences while inspiring teammates to go the extra mile, always finding ways to say “yes” and treating others as we would like to be treated. We constantly seek to improve, proactively pursuing knowledge, new client engagement methods, and leadership development, making it more than just a job, but a career.

Our team’s continuous dedication has rewarded us with remarkable growth, and Southern Veterinary Partners now employs more than 10,000 teammates nationwide. The organization’s success has not gone unnoticed, landing us recognition as #11 on Newsweek’s “Most Loved Workplaces” list in 2024 and 2024-2025 U.S. News "Best Companies to Work For Awards."

Apply today - we'd love to meet you!