Veterinary Assistant - Surgery and Dentistry

VCA Animal Hospitals; Albuquerque (NM); On-site; USD 25,000 - 36,000; Full time

Job summary

VCA Veterinary Care Animal Hospital & Referral Center in Albuquerque, NM is hiring a Veterinary Assistant – Sterile Processing Technician to support our surgical teams and primary care dentistry. You will help ensure instruments and equipment are clean, sterilized, organized, and ready for daily procedures.

We welcome credentialed technicians or on-the-job-trained assistants and offer opportunities to learn from experienced staff across GP and specialty services.

Qualifications

• Credentialed technician or on-the-job-trained veterinary assistant staff encouraged; willingness to learn and grow with the team.
• Detail-oriented, organized, dependable with strong patient care focus.
• Comfortable in a fast-paced hospital setting and able to handle multiple tasks.

Responsibilities

• Clean and maintain surgical and dental instruments, ensuring they are sterile and ready for daily procedures.
• Sharpen dental instruments as needed and assemble/wrap surgical packs.
• Prepare equipment and supplies for surgery and maintain an organized sterile processing area.
• Monitor inventory levels and coordinate with Inventory Coordinator to keep essential supplies available.

Skills

Team player

Self-improvement

Flexible scheduling

Adaptable

Humor

Education

Credentialed veterinary technician

Job description

We are VCA Veterinary Care Animal Hospital & Referral Center , or just VCA Vet Care to our friends. We’re located 5,312 feet above sea level* in beautiful, fun, and (if you ask us) highly underrated Albuquerque, New Mexico. Our hospital is growing, so we would like to add a Veterinary Assistant – Sterile Processing Technician to support our specialty teams performing surgeries and primary care dentistry.

Location

8850 Holly Ave NE, Unit K, Albuquerque, NM 87122

Salary

$18 - 26 per hour

Schedule

4 days, 10-hour shifts

Our hospital has both primary care (a.k.a. GP) and specialty/ER services, including oncology, surgery, ophthalmology, cardiology, and internal medicine. It’s an amazing place to grow your career in veterinary patient care, since you’ll get hands‑on experience with a huge variety of cases and have the opportunity to learn from many, many helpful and knowledgeable people. We have a supportive, highly involved tech manager team and an experienced group of techs in every department that you’ll be able to lean on from day one.

We will hire both credentialed technicians and on‑the‑job‑trained veterinary assistant staff with appropriate levels of skill and knowledge. Eager to learn but short on experience? That’s cool too! We are 100% willing to train when we find folks who are a great fit with our culture.

Team member traits we are looking for:

• Ready and willing to function as part of a team
• Committed to self‑improvement, personally and professionally
• Flexible in terms of scheduling availability and in terms of taking what the day gives you
• Receptive to new responsibilities and different approaches
• Kind, respectful, food‑motivated, and possessing an excellent sense of humor

As a Sterile Processing Technician , you will play an important role in supporting our surgical team by ensuring instruments and equipment are clean, properly sterilized, organized, and ready for daily procedures. Responsibilities include cleaning and maintaining surgical and dental instruments, sharpening dental instruments, assembling and wrapping surgical packs, preparing equipment and supplies for surgery, and maintaining an organized sterile processing area. You will also monitor inventory and work closely with the Inventory Coordinator to ensure essential surgical supplies are always available. We’re looking for a detail-oriented, organized, and dependable team member who takes pride in maintaining high standards and supporting excellent patient care.

Benefits

We offer competitive compensation along with a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, and paid vacation/sick days, 401(k), generous employee pet discounts, and more!

The information in this position description indicates the general nature and level of work to be performed. It is not designed to be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required of associates assigned to this job. Management reserves the right to revise the job description or require that other tasks be performed when the circumstances of the job change (for example, emergencies, change in personnel, workload, or technical development)

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer - Veterans / Disabled. For a complete EEO statement please see our career page at vcacareers.com