Associate Director, Global Animal Behavior
Zoetis Spain SL
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Job summary
Zoetis is seeking an Associate Director, Global Animal Behavior to lead enterprise-wide behavioral science, shaping programs and standards that reduce stress and improve welfare across research sites. You will guide a small team and partner with veterinarians, researchers, and IACUCs to advance scientific quality.
You will translate cutting-edge behavior research into practical, scalable programs, supervise training, and drive policy development to support humane endpoints and protocol
Qualifications
- Deep scientific expertise in animal behavior and welfare across species and sites.
- Advanced data analytics to design behavioral assessment frameworks and translate findings into actions.
- Excellent scientific communication across veterinary, research, oversight, and leadership audiences.
Responsibilities
- Provide scientific leadership and strategic direction enterprise-wide in animal behavior and welfare.
- Lead and mentor a team of three behavior technicians and one behavior scientist.
- Develop and implement environmental enrichment, positive reinforcement training, and social housing programs across sites.
- Drive data-informed stress reduction and improve research quality and reproducibility.
- Develop policy, SOPs, and training for behavioral science across the organization.
Skills
Education
Tools
Job description
The Associate Director, Global Animal Behavior is the organization's enterprise-wide behavioral science leader, responsible for building and advancing the scientific foundation for animal behavior and welfare across all global research sites. This role translates behavioral science into practical programs, standards, and data-driven approaches that reduce stress, improve animal welfare, and enhance the reproducibility and quality of research outcomes. The AD leads a team of three behavior technicians and one behavior scientist, and serves as a cross-functional expert partner to veterinarians, researchers, IACUCs, and the broader Global Animal Welfare leadership team.
Serve as the global SME in animal behavior and welfare science, providing scientific leadership and strategic direction enterprise-wide. Develop and maintain the scientific framework for behavioral welfare assessment, environmental enrichment, positive reinforcement training, and stress reduction across species and sites. Translate emerging research and best practices into organizational programs and standards. Represent behavioral science expertise in internal governance forums and external professional contexts as appropriate.
Provide expert consultation to veterinarians, research scientists, animal care teams, IACUCs, and oversight bodies on animal behavior, welfare assessment, and study design. Advise on behavioral indicators of pain, distress, and compromised welfare to support humane endpoint determination and protocol refinement. Partner with the AD of Veterinary Services to integrate behavioral welfare into site-level veterinary care and welfare event investigations. Partner with the Director, Global AW & 3Rs Program Lead on Refinement and 3Rs implementation.
Direct the global animal behavior program, setting priorities, standards, and measurable goals. Lead, mentor, and develop a team of three behavior technicians and one behavior scientist. Oversee design and delivery of behavioral intervention programs including environmental enrichment, positive reinforcement training, and social housing initiatives. Ensure consistent program implementation across global sites, adapted to species, model, and local context.
Drive data-informed methodologies to identify, measure, and reduce stress and behavioral variability in research animals. Establish behavioral metrics and assessment frameworks; direct the team in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting behavioral data. Translate behavioral data into actionable recommendations to improve animal welfare and research reproducibility.
Serve as behavioral science SME for Global Animal Welfare policy and SOP development and review. Design and deliver behavioral science training globally for research staff, animal care teams, and veterinary personnel. Provide expert input to AW risk assessments, protocol reviews, and IACUC deliberations.
Partner with veterinary, research, animal care, and AW risk management teams to embed behavioral science in global practice. Translate global standards into locally effective practices across sites. Support the Executive Director, Global Animal Welfare in advancing a globally aligned, science-based approach to behavior and welfare.
Serve as behavioral science SME for Global Animal Welfare policy and SOP development and review. Design and deliver behavioral science training globally for research staff, animal care teams, and veterinary personnel. Provide expert input to AW risk assessments, protocol reviews, and IACUC deliberations.
Partner with veterinary, research, animal care, and AW risk management teams to embed behavioral science in global practice. Translate global standards into locally effective practices across sites. Support the Executive Director, Global Animal Welfare in advancing a globally aligned, science-based approach to behavior and welfare.
DVM or VMD from an AVMA-accredited institution required. Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Behaviorists (DACVB) required, or active board eligibility. Ph.D. in animal behavior, comparative psychology, or behavioral neuroscience with substantial applied laboratory animal behavioral science experience will also be considered.
8+ years of progressive experience in animal behavior science in a research setting (pharma, biotech, academic, or CRO preferred). Demonstrated expertise in behavioral welfare assessment, environmental enrichment, and positive reinforcement training across research species. Track record of translating behavioral science into practical programs that improve animal welfare and/or research outcomes. Experience developing and delivering behavioral science training for research and animal care audiences. Prior people leadership experience, including mentoring scientific staff. IACUC protocol review, AW policy development, or regulatory compliance experience preferred.
Deep scientific expertise in animal behavior and welfare science, applied practically across diverse species and global sites. Strong data analytical skills; able to design behavioral assessment frameworks and translate findings into actionable recommendations. Excellent scientific communication skills across veterinary, research, oversight, and leadership audiences. Collaborative, cross-functional working style with the ability to influence across a global, matrixed organization. Strategic thinker with the operational discipline to implement programs consistently at the site level. Genuine commitment to animal welfare science and its role in advancing ethical research and scientific quality.
On site presence in Kalamazoo and Richland with regular interaction with research sites globally. Travel up to 10%, domestic and international. Regular hands-on interaction with research animals across a range of species expected. This job description describes the general nature and level of work and is not an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required. Full time Regular Colleague Any unsolicited resumes sent to Zoetis from a third party, such as an Agency recruiter, including unsolicited resumes sent to a Zoetis mailing address, fax machine or email address, directly to Zoetis employees, or to Zoetis resume database will be considered Zoetis property. Zoetis will NOT pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume. Zoetis will consider any candidate for whom an Agency has submitted an unsolicited resume to have been referred by the Agency free of any charges or fees. This includes any Agency that is an approved/engaged vendor but does not have the appropriate approvals to be engaged on a search. Notice: Zoetis Recruiters will contact candidates via email from an address ending in @zoetis.com and may also initially connect with candidates through LinkedIn, including LinkedIn InMail. Zoetis does not use Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, or other web-based/generic email domains to communicate about job opportunities, interviews, or offers of employment. If you receive a recruitment-related email message claiming to be from Zoetis that does not come from @zoetis.com, please treat it as suspicious. For your security, do not reply, click links, open attachments, share personal or financial information, or send money in response to unexpected or questionable recruitment communications. Zoetis is committed to equal opportunity in the terms and conditions of employment for all employees and job applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, gender identity or gender expression, national origin, disability or veteran status or any other protected classification. Disabled individuals are given an equal opportunity to use our online application system. We offer reasonable accommodations as an alternative if requested by an individual with a disability. Please contact Zoetis Colleague Services at zoetiscolleagueservices@zoetis.com to request an accommodation. Zoetis also complies with all applicable national, state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment as well as employment eligibility verification requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act. All applicants must possess or obtain authorization to work in the US for Zoetis. Zoetis retains sole and exclusive discretion to pursue sponsorship for the acquisition or maintenance of nonimmigrant status and employment eligibility, considering factors such as availability of qualified US workers. Individuals requiring sponsorship must disclose this fact. Please note that Zoetis seeks information related to job applications from candidates for jobs in the U.S. solely via the following: (1) our company website at www.Zoetis.com/careers site, or (2) via email to/from addresses using only the Zoetis domain of “@zoetis.com”. In addition, Zoetis does not use Google Hangout for any recruitment related activities. Any solicitation or request for information related to job applications with Zoetis via any other means and/or utilizing email addresses with any other domain should be disregarded. In addition, Zoetis will never ask candidates to make any type of personal financial investment related to gaining employment with Zoetis. At Zoetis, our purpose is to nurture our world and humankind by advancing care for animals. As a Fortune 500 company and the world leader in animal health, we discover, develop, manufacture and commercialize vaccines, medicines, diagnostics and other technologies for companion animals and livestock. We know our people drive our success. Our award-winning culture, built around our Core Beliefs, focuses on our colleagues’ careers, connection and support. We offer competitive healthcare and retirement savings benefits, along with an array of benefits, policies and programs to support employee well-being in every sense, from health and financial wellness to family and lifestyle resources.
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