Animal Care Associate

San Diego Humane Society; Escondido (CA); On-site; USD 28,000 - 31,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Birthday off

Comprehensive benefits package

403(b) retirement plan with 5% match

Free pet adoptions

Job summary

San Diego Humane Society’s Escondido Animal Care team seeks an Animal Care Associate to provide daily care, enrichment, feeding, grooming, vaccinations, and medication administration to shelter animals. You’ll help maintain clean facilities and monitor animal health under established protocols.

Based at our Escondido Campus, this 20–24 hour per week role offers hands-on responsibilities, a supportive team environment, and opportunities for growth within SDHS's animal welfare programs.

Qualifications

• High school graduate or equivalent required.
• One year experience working with animals in a shelter, kennel, vet clinic or volunteer environment preferred.
• Working knowledge of animal breeds, general care, and behavior related information preferred.

Responsibilities

• Complete daily husbandry routines, including appropriate feeding and exercise, maintaining assigned area in a clean, organized and professional manner.
• Monitor the health of shelter animals; follow established procedures if symptoms of illness arise based on the degree of illness or injury. Administer daily medications, vaccinations and other treatments as appropriate.
• Monitor animals daily and record details of diet, physical condition, elimination and behavior.
• Provide kennel enrichment, training, and socializing of animals in conjunction with Behavior & Training, as time permits. Perform dog introductions and facilitate dog play groups with multiple dogs, following current protocols.

Skills

Animal care

Experience with animals

Behavior knowledge

Education

High school graduate or equivalent

Job description

San Diego Humane Society is hiring Animal Care Associates for our Escondido Animal Care team!

How You’ll Impact Our Mission

At San Diego Humane Society, we’re united by our mission to Inspire Compassion. The ideal candidate will be responsible for providing daily care and enrichment for our shelter animals, including feeding, cleaning, disinfecting, grooming, vaccinating, medicating, and possibly performing euthanasia.

This role delivers service at the gold standard level in alignment with the SDHS Way, to meet the needs of animals and the people who love them by leading with compassion, finding creative solutions, providing personalized care and building connections.

This role delivers service at the gold standard level in alignment with the SDHS Way, to meet the needs of animals and the people who love them by leading with compassion, finding creative solutions, providing personalized care and building connections. If you’re passionate about making an impact in the animal welfare movement, we’d love to talk to you.

What’s in it for you?

At SDHS, we’re proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer and commit to being a place where every person – staff, volunteer, and guest – can feel a sense of belonging. We support and invest in employees through conscious delivery of benefits and a workplace environment based on our Core Values.

As An Employee You’ll Enjoy

• Competitive pay and paid time-off (including your Birthday Day Off!)
• Comprehensive benefits package, training and well-being programs
• 403(b) retirement plan with 5% match after 1 year
• Free pet adoptions, pet vaccines and spay/neuter services
• …and so much more!

What You’ll Do

• Complete daily husbandry routines, including appropriate feeding and exercise, maintaining assigned area in a clean, organized and professional manner.
• Monitor the health of shelter animals; follow established procedures if symptoms of illness arise based on the degree of illness or injury. Administer daily medications, vaccinations and other treatments as appropriate.
• Monitor animals daily and record details of diet, physical condition, elimination and behavior.
• Provide kennel enrichment, training, and socializing of animals in conjunction with Behavior & Training, as time permits. Perform dog introductions and facilitate dog play groups with multiple dogs, following current protocols.

What We’re Looking For

• High school graduate or equivalent required.
• One (1) year experience working with animals in a shelter, kennel, vet clinic or volunteer environment preferred.
• Working knowledge of animal breeds, general care, and behavior related information preferred.

Location & Hours:

Based at our Escondido Campus. This position works 20-24 hours a week.

At any given time, we may also be hiring for Animal Care Associates (Intercampus Floater) who support both the Escondido Campus and the Oceanside Campus as their secondary location. Employees in these positions alternate between locations based on staffing needs and may be eligible for mileage reimbursement when commuting to their secondary location.

Pay:

Starting range is between $20.00 - $22.25 per hour. The actual hourly rate is determined by your related education and experience.

The listed hiring range for this position depicts the target range of pay rates for candidates. The maximum of the hiring range is reserved for candidates with the highest qualifications and relevant experience. Compensation for internal candidates may increase beyond the listed range based on performance over time. For all candidates, the actual starting pay rate is determined by a variety of factors, including but not limited to your years of related education and experience, internal pay equity, and position location.

Career Growth through Job Levels: Animal Care offers three job levels as you grow within your role. Growth is based on time worked in your SDHS Animal Care role and meeting other training and performance requirements – everyone can advance once they meet the requirements! Advancing levels is recognized through a title change and pay increase.