Senior Director, Shelter Partnerships

Pet Services of Washington, P.S.; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 210,000 - 330,000; Full time

Job summary

VCA Animal Hospitals seeks a Senior Director to define and execute the nationwide shelter partnership ecosystem and drive measurable pet health outcomes across North America.

This role blends CSR with commercial discipline, overseeing data architecture, dashboards, and predictive analytics to track partner productivity, onboarding, and retention across 1,000+ hospitals. It requires high-visibility leadership and cross-functional alignment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business Administration, Data Analytics, Non-Profit Management, or related field; MBA preferred.
• 10+ years of strategic partnership management, B2B/referral marketing, or commercial brand leadership; 12+ years in animal health/welfare leadership preferred.
• Expert-level PowerPoint and Excel skills.

Responsibilities

• Architect and steer the multi-year national shelter strategy with municipal agencies and national animal welfare organizations.
• Build and govern comprehensive dashboards to monitor KPIs, funnel rates, ROI, and adoption throughput.
• Lead data-driven adoption-to-hospital onboarding pathways and partner with CRM and digital teams.

Skills

Strategic partnership management

Executive presence

Data analytics

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Marketing/Business/Analytics/Non-Profit Management

MBA or related Master’s degree (preferred)

Tools

PowerPoint

Excel

Power BI

Tableau

Job description

The Senior Director, National Shelter & Community Health Strategy is the enterprise executive responsible for defining and executing VCA's nationwide shelter partnership ecosystem. Elevating the animal welfare initiative into a strategic pillar, this leader is accountable for expanding VCA's societal impact, championing animal welfare, and driving measurable pet health outcomes through rigorous adoption-to-care conversion.

This role pairs visionary advocacy and corporate social responsibility (CSR) with sophisticated commercial discipline. The Senior Director establishes and oversees data architecture, performance dashboards, and predictive funnel analytics to track shelter partner productivity, adoption onboarding, new client acquisition, and long-term retention across VCA's network of 1,000+ primary care and specialty hospitals. Serving as a high-visibility public ambassador and an internal cross-functional leader, this individual aligns field operations, marketing, medical leadership, and animal welfare organizations to ensure VCA supports the maximum number of pets in communities across North America.

This role requires associates to work out of a MVH North America hub location - Vancouver, WA | Santa Monica, CA | Tampa, FL

Essential Responsibility/Tasks:

• Strategic Shelter Portfolio Architecture & Vision: Architect and steer the multi-year national shelter strategy, aligning animal welfare impact with VCA's commercial OGSM objectives. Identify, negotiate, and scale high-impact strategic alliances with municipal agencies, tier-one humane societies, and national animal welfare organizations.
• Data Analytics, Dashboards & Performance Accountability: Build, govern, and institutionalize comprehensive reporting dashboards (BI/Tableau/Power BI) to monitor partner-level KPIs, funnel conversion rates, ROI, adoption throughput, and pet healthcare compliance. Establish performance baselines and hold regional teams and partner organizations accountable to shared targets.
• Pet Conversion & Lifelong Client Journey Optimization: Spearhead data-driven adoption-to-hospital onboarding pathways that convert shelter adopters into lifelong VCA clients. In partnership with digital product and CRM teams, optimize initial health voucher redemption, first-visit compliance, digital app enrollment (myVCA), and preventive care plan attachment (CareClub).
• Cross-Functional Field Integration & Hospital Enablement: Partner closely with Field Operations, Regional Medical Directors, and Hospital Managers to ensure field-level operational readiness, scalable execution of shelter programs, and hospital capacity alignment. Develop standardized SOPs, field toolkits, and training modules to remove friction between local shelters and VCA hospitals.
• Brand Amplification, CSR & External Advocacy: Serve as VCA's executive public voice and liaison to the animal welfare sector, industry advisory councils, and political/regulatory discussions. Partner with Communications and Brand Marketing to amplify VCA's commitment to ending pet homelessness and expanding equitable access to veterinary care.
• Budget Stewardship & P&L Accountability: Manage national shelter program budgets, grant distributions, philanthropic sponsorships, and promotional investments, ensuring clear ROI and sustainable resource allocation.

Education/Experience:

• Bachelor's Degree in Marketing, Business Administration, Data Analytics, Non-Profit Management, or related field / Preferred - Master of Business Administration (MBA) or related Master's degree
• 10+ years of progressive experience in strategic partnership management, B2B/referral marketing, or commercial brand leadership; proven record managing multi-million-dollar programs / Preferred - 12+ years combining animal health/welfare leadership, veterinary healthcare networks, or consumer retention platforms with multi-location retail/clinical footprints
• Microsoft Office suite, particularly PowerPoint and Excel
• Expert-level PowerPoint and Excel skills

*All degrees will be deemed "or equivalent combination of education and experience" unless absolutely required to do the job (i.e., DVM degree for Veterinarian, Law degree for Attorney, etc.).

Preferred Skills and Qualifications:

• Data-Led Strategic Acumen: Proven ability to translate raw adoption data and field metrics into executive dashboards, clear business insights, and growth strategies.
• Conversion Funnel Mastery: Expertise in designing omni-channel customer acquisition funnels (digital vouchers, email nurturing, mobile app integration) that bridge third-party partner touchpoints into brick-and-mortar veterinary visits.
• Executive Presence & Stakeholder Diplomacy: Skilled in navigating politically sensitive, highly visible environments with diverse constituencies, including shelter board directors, municipal government leaders, veterinary professionals, and executive leadership.
• Operational Scalability: Demonstrated success standardizing grassroots or regional initiatives int