Sr. Manager, Animal Care Operations, Welfare, Safety & Risk

• Corporate

• R361591
• Full time
• Remote
• 654 Richland Hills Drive, San Antonio, TX 78245-2149 United States

Want to help pets live their best lives? We’re proud to be where the pets go and where the pet people go. If you want to make a real difference, create an exciting career path, feel welcome to be your whole self and nurture your wellbeing, Petco is the place for you. Our core values capture that spirit as we work to improve lives by doing what’s right for pets and people.

• Pet First – Protect & Empower. All pets should Live their Best Life. We put the needs of pets and pet parents at the center of everything we do.
• Foster the Fun – Connect & Bond. Our Passion for pets brings us together! We celebrate the journey of pet parenthood through district experiences, products, and services.
• Let’s Go! Own & Commit. We are stronger as One Petco team. We bring our unique superpowers and champion authenticity in everyone to drive success.

About Petco: We’re proud to be "where the pets go" to find everything they need to live their best lives for more than 60 years — from their favorite meals and toys, to trusted supplies and expert support from people who get it, because we live it. We believe in the universal truths of pet parenthood — the boundless boops, missing slippers, late night zoomies and everything in between. And we’re here for it. Every tail wag, every vet visit, every step of the way. We are 29,000+ strong and together we nurture the pet-human bond in more than 1,500 Petco stores across the U.S., Mexico and Puerto Rico, 250+ Vetco Total Care hospitals, hundreds of preventive care clinics and eight distribution centers. In 1999, we founded Petco Love. Together, we support thousands of local animal welfare groups nationwide and have helped find homes for approximately 7 million animals through in-store adoption events. Position Overview The Senior Manager of Animal Welfare, Safety & Risk is a strategic leadership role dedicated to championing the ethical care, safety, and well-being of all animals within our organization's ecosystem. This roleis responsible fordeveloping comprehensive welfare policies,identifyingand mitigating organizationalrisks, and ensuring compliance with all local, state, and federal regulations. The Senior Manager will partner cross-functionally with store operations, ,law department: environmental safety and health,veterinary services,public relations, customerescalationsand external vendors to foster a culture of uncompromising animal care and safety. Essential Job Functions:Throughpreviousbackground and experience the candidate mustdemonstrate, with or withoutaccommodation, the ability to...

• Mustpossessthe cognitive ability to research,synthesize, andrecommendrevisions,continuous improvement initiatives,trainingandcommunicationrelated toenterprise-wide welfare standards thatcomply withvaryinglocal,stateand federal legal frameworks
• Proactivelyanalyze complex data sets from multiple sources (stores, ,vendors andthird-party audits) toidentifyemerging trends and high-risk operational areas
• Required to prepare and deliver compliance reporting and presentationsforstakeholdersregardingthe organization's risk profile
• Key leadership position within the Animal Careand welfare organizations providing input and insight intoperformance metrics,risk assessments, strategic animal welfareinitiativesand key partnerwith field teams ensuringappropriate protocols, response,trainingand consistency within the field audit process
• Must remainavailable to enterprise partners across multipletime zones, days of the weektolead the organizational response to critical animal safety incidents, making rapid, high-impact decisions under pressure
• Act as the primary point of contact for government agencies and NGOs; must be able to professionallyrepresentthe company during high-scrutiny inquiries or inspections
• Act as the SME during severe in-store incidents (e.g., localizeddisease outbreaks,habitatfailure/repair),advisingretail leadership on immediate risk mitigation and public-facing communicationsregardinganimal safety
• Partner with retail operations and omnichannel teams to ensure that new animal care protocols, habitat designs, and safety standards are practical, scalable, and seamlessly integrated into daily store workflows without disrupting retail productivity
• Mitigate significant brandrisk and expense to ensure achievement of both KPI’s and welfare requirements.

Duties and Responsibilities Leads and collaborates with Field Leadership to develop,maintainand implement pet safety strategies and solutions, including brand risk assessments, business impact analysis, strategy selection, and documentation of pet safety, severity one and ethics case events. Fosters andmaintainscollaborative relationships with external agencies and internal business units for regular review and improvement of training and processes. Develops, initiates,maintains, and revises policies and procedures for the general operation of the Pet Safety program. Strategic thought partner for addressing improvementsforpet safety experience in pet care centers, vet hospitals, offsiteservicesand mobile offerings. Collaboratewith other departments to direct brand-risk issues toappropriate existingchannels for investigation and resolution.Consults with the inside/outside counsel as needed to resolve difficult legal risk issues. Refines and directs communication to applicablefieldsand support teams as well as PR/Social Media teams on responses and replies. Leads,developsand documents Ethics Case process execution and completion timelines. Provides regular reporting to Sr. Director, Animal Care Operations and Vice President Animal Care and Education on incident status and closed loop progress. Additionalduties as assigned. Nature of Supervision Manages activities of individual contributors and/or indirectlyguidesSupervisor/Managers with accountability for multiple, large, high impact jobs or locations •Responsible for staffing activities. This person must be ableto workindependently andwithout direct supervision. Most direction will come from Senior Director of Animal CareOperations,orVP of Animal Care, Education and Merchandising, and Vice President of Veterinary Medicine. Supervisory Responsibility Whenorganizationis fully positioned,it willinclude the addition of1 direct report-(Coordinator/Specialist,Animal Care Operations)+provides indirect supervision of ACOM’s, MSO’s and DGMs. Education Normally requires a bachelor’s degree or equivalent, preferably in business or Animal Resources/Sciences, and/or a minimum of 5-7 years of experience in a related field. PreviousExperience This candidate needs topossessa rare blend of high-level pet care, animal welfare, animal servicesand orsuppliesand well-being experience. Multi-Site/Corporate Experience: Proven history of managing welfare or compliance programs across adecentralized, multi-unit network (e.g., retail chains, large shelter networks, or multiple distribution centers). Supplier/Vendor Auditing: Experience auditing commercial animal breeders, vendors, orsupply chains or manufacturers forethical standards. Deep, working knowledge of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), USDA regulations, and state-by-state variations in exotic and companion animal laws. Previousservices, animalcareand business continuity experience, preferably in a pet retail environment,3-5years Knowledge/experience in process management and risk management preferred. Excellent computer skills includinguseof Microsoft Office business software and search engines.

Work Environment

Duties may include sitting for prolonged periods of time,observingfunctions upon a computer screen, conducting Zoom conference callsas well asconductingonsite audits, ,field partners and leadership on a regular basis. Travel requirements: 10%unless otherwiserequireddue to business conditions. Contacts The partner will work primarily with the Animal Care and Education team and directly with peripheral business leaders within pet services, veterinary medical, risk, safety, legal, regulatory, public relations, social media, customer escalations and with external business units such as Helmsman. #LI-MK1 #CORP For a more detailed overview of Petco Total Rewards, including health and financial benefits, 401K, incentives, and PTO - see https://careers.petco.com/us/en/key-benefits (opens in new window) Petco Animal Supplies, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or any other protected classification. Save Job Apply To This Job