Animal Operation Manager

Job Title: Animal Operation Manager

Reporting to: Director

Location: Wild Ireland, Dundrain, Burnfoot, Co. Donegal

Function

This is an exciting and unique role to join and manage the team of keepers in a developing park.

The Animal operations manager will be responsible for leading, coaching, developing and managing the Animal Care team, and a variety of mammals and birds at Wild Ireland whilst reporting directly to the Director.

Duties and Responsibilities

This is a hands on role. Successful candidates will be working directly with all of the animals at the park whilst managing the team of animal caretakers.

Responsible for all animals at the park, including developing and improving nutrition and diet sheets, exhibit design and improvement, developing and implementing enrichment, developing an operand conditioning/training program.

Managing a team of animal caretakers, drawing up rotas, assigning tasks to each team member, minor employment issues.

Successful candidates will manage a team but should be able to work alone.

Responsible for managing the day-to-day operation of Wild Ireland.

Oversees that the feeding, cleaning, exercise, and overall care of the animals is performed daily.

Competent to identify animal health issues and work with veterinary team on animal health issues.

Responsible for supervising the staff and volunteers; oversees the hiring, training, scheduling, and monitoring. Maintains proper staff records.

Prepares and maintains all animal diaries, logs, records, and reports as required.

Responsible for the security, inventory, and logging of any medications and chemicals used.

Responsible for the cleanliness, maintenance, and security of the facility. clean and feeds animals and cleans and maintains facility.

Prepare and maintain documents, including incident reports, relating to animal control issues and situations.

Follows safety procedures, utilizes safety equipment, and monitors work environment to ensure safety of employees and other individuals.

Performs general clerical tasks. Operates a computer and other common office equipment necessary to complete the duties assigned.

Must wear assigned uniform and maintain clean and official per policy.

Key Competencies

Have excellent leadership, people management, communication and influencing skills at a senior level with proven experience of managing and developing high performing teams.

Have strong interpersonal skills with the ability lead, coach, develop and motivate a team; providing training and development opportunities, demonstrating effective performance management and ensuring a robust succession plan is in place. Support team members to understand and adhere to people processes and work with the People and Culture Manager, actively seeking opportunities to input into and feedback on those processes to ensure they are industry leading.

Possess excellent judgement and ability to take high profile decisions.

Ability to work under pressure, prioritise and to handle large workloads in a dynamic environment.

Have excellent English written and verbal communication skills including public speaking and lecturing both internal and external meetings.

Qualifications / Experience

Qualifications-

A HND or degree level qualification in a zoological related science would be desirable but is not essential.

Experience-

Essential

Have extensive experience managing Large Primates and Large Carnivores safely.
Have a comprehensive understanding of the potential contribution of a modern zoological collection to conservation, science and conservation education.
Have an excellent track record in leading and maintaining the highest possible standards of husbandry and welfare, exhibit design and visitor experience
Have an excellent knowledge of animals, their diversity and individual husbandry needs.
Have experience of setting and working within strict budgets. Food ordering and dealing directly with veterinarians and laboratories.
Full driving licence

Desirable

Gun training/ licence

Other Requirements

Working hours are 40 hours per week, generally worked Monday – Friday, although you will be required to work on weekends and Bank Holidays as rostered and some flexibility is required.

The salary is €30,000 per annum based on working 40 hours per week

Shortlisting of applications and interviews for the role will take after the closing date

This job description is intended as a summary of the primary responsibilities and qualifications for this position. The job description is not intended as inclusive of all duties an individual in this position might be asked to perform or that may be required to do either now or in the future.

Please send written application and CV to info@wildireland.org

Wild Ireland is an Equal Opportunities Employer

FYI

This vacancy has been posted out to the many thousands who read the popular Zoo Jobs Blog Page and then on to the 129,400 plus followers of the ZooNews Digest Facebook Page. It is then immediately forwarded on to Twitter and then to Pinterest and Linkedin (8,000+ connections). Many vacancies are shared to individuals and groups. In short your vacancy will have the potential of reaching something in the region of some 80,000 plus people within 24 hours. Most of these people are working in a zoo environment, Keepers, Curators, Vets, Zoo Directors, Trainers, Aquarists and more.

ZooNews Digest has subscribers in over 1200 Zoos in 150+ countries. Zoo professionals are International.

The number of people who will actually read the posted vacancy will actually be considerably less. Usually this will be between two hundred and three thousand. This will depend on the type of post, the time of the year and where it is located…of course not all will apply. I wish you the very best of luck in finding the right candidate for your post.

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