Senior Veterinary Surgeon

Purpose of Role

The Senior Veterinary Surgeon oversees all clinical decision making and leads the management of the veterinary team at Animals Asia’s bear sanctuary in China. Working closely with the Bear and Vet Team Director and Senior Bear Team Manager, the position ensures that the veterinary team meets or exceeds the standards set by Animals Asia, the Global Federation for Animal Sanctuaries and internal departmental key performance indicators.

Key Responsibilities

1.     Manages, monitors, and oversees all operations, persons and activities of the veterinary team in a manner that conforms to the mission, goals, and objectives of Animals Asia in conjunction with the Bear and Vet Team Director.

 

2.     Key veterinary technical advisor to the Bear and Vet Team Director and active contributor to the departmental strategic plan, including veterinary related key performance indicators.

 

3.     Constantly endeavours to refine and enhance veterinary care to ensure world leading bear care is being applied by overseeing and providing generalist veterinary services for routine, urgent and emergent cases at the sanctuaries, with help from specialists where appropriate and feasible.
  

4.     Prepares the annual budget for the operations of the veterinary team to advise the Bear and Vet Team Director; reviews financial reports to ensure adherence to budget and accuracy when asked; advises on budget adjustments as needed; assesses out of budget expense proposals for necessity and accuracy.

 

5.     Supervises the veterinary team, including interviewing and selecting of job applicants, training, overseeing work, participating in disciplinary decisions and actions, and establishing and evaluating appropriate performance standards in accordance with Animals Asia’s objectives.

 

6.     Provides and oversees the veterinary care of local cats and dogs seen at the Small Animal Hospital.

 

7.     Oversees all bear medical records and protocols, ensuring they are kept up-to-date, accurate and reflect evolving best practice bear care. This includes the provision of training, where needed, to staff who have responsibility for maintaining records.

8.     Proactively looks for opportunities to develop the professional skills and technical expertise of the veterinary team, with a particular focus on building capacity within the Chinese team. A key priority is ensuring the provision of an active and successful Chinese Veterinary Intern program.

 

9.     Ensure all veterinary decisions have protection of the animal’s welfare as the primary priority and ensure decision making is transparent through the use of collaborative and consultative decision making as appropriate.

 

10.  Ensure that all veterinary activities are carried out with the highest regard to human and animal health and safety through the provision of a comprehensive biosecurity plan and, in conjunction with the Bear and Vet Team Director and Senior Bear Team Manager, develop and maintain the means to approve novel items that are used in direct contact with humans and animals.

 

11.  Provides technical review and sign-off to all CBRC veterinary content included in Animals Asia’s press releases, website content, newsletters, marketing plans, promotional materials, annual or periodic reports.

 

12.  Responds to requests for information and provides subject-matter-expert guidance to other departments, donors and supporters, and/or outside agencies as requested.  

 

13.  Works closely with other Animals Asia’s Senior Veterinary Surgeons to share knowledge, ideas and ensure the continued endeavor for excellence across all veterinary operations.

 

14.  Looks for opportunities to enhance Animals Asia’s operations and capacity building, especially in China, through sharing veterinary technical expertise via presentations, seminars, outreach and demonstration to a range of audiences both at the sanctuaries and off-site.

 

15.  In the absence of the Bear and Vet Team Director, assumes supervision of the department, deputised by the Senior Bear Team Manager.

Requirements

• Skills / Abilities

1. Strong leadership skills and the ability to motivate, and inspire staff.
2. Staff training and development.
3. Strategic planning is advisable.
4. Budget preparation and oversight is worthwhile.

 

• Knowledge

1. Veterinary expertise, understanding and ability to treat a range of medical and surgical conditions that would be expected in a high volume general veterinary practice. An understanding of these in wildlife is not essential as techniques used in domestic species are often directly transferable to bears
2. Experience in developing SOPs, demonstrating the ability to contribute to the on-going review, development and implementation of changes to improve the productivity, efficacy and efficiency of tasks performed by a veterinary team.
3. Understanding of how to plan and manage part of a departmental budget is eligible. 

 

• Experience

1. At least 5 years of experience working as a veterinary surgeon, with at least 2 years at a large mixed species veterinary practice, zoological facility, specialist referral centre, or similar working environment.
2. Ability to perform routine desexing surgeries of cats and dogs
3. Two years minimum experience in leading a veterinary team, ideally including paraprofessionals or non-veterinary collaborators.
4. Demonstrable ability to develop veterinary skills in other veterinary surgeons beyond the level of graduation, especially in the field of soft tissue surgery.
5. Able and comfortable to lead emergency surgeries including of the acute abdomen (hepatic, gastric and intestinal surgeries) in one or more veterinary species.
6. Working experience in Asia is advantageous.

 

• Languages

1. English.
2. Chinese is advantageous.

 

• Education / Qualification

1. Veterinary degree registrable with the Hong Kong Veterinary Surgeons Board.

How to apply:

Interested parties please forward PDF copies of your cover letter (stating the applied position) and CV to: hrhkg@animalsasia.org or click the link https://animalsasia.bamboohr.com/careers/138 to apply.  

Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

 

For more information on our work, please visit our website at www.animalsasia.org

 

Personal data collected will be treated in strict confidence and used solely for recruitment purposes.

 

Animals Asia values candidates with different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. We welcome applicants of every ethnicity, age, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, socioeconomic status, disability, or veteran status. We are committed to building an organization that creates an inclusive environment for all.

Using AI During Interviews:

Animals Asia is committed to ensuring a fair and authentic interview process. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including but not limited to real-time transcription, automated response generation or assistance in formulating interview answers, is strictly prohibited during any stage of the interview process.

  

We will take a candidate's agreement to participate in an interview with us as confirmation that they will not use AI tools in any form during the conversation. If it is discovered or reasonably suspected that AI has been used, the interview will be terminated immediately, and the candidate will no longer be considered for the role.

We appreciate your understanding and adherence to this policy, which is in place to maintain the integrity, professionalism and reliability of our recruitment procedures.