Animal Care Technician - Temporary

Full Job Description

ABOUT US

Finance and Administrative Services (FAS) is often the public's first interaction with the City of Seattle, operating as a customer-focused front door that assists with everything from paying utilities or reporting a pothole to requesting public information or even adopting a new pet.

The Seattle Animal Shelter(SAS) is a nationally recognized animal welfare organization that promotes public safety and animal welfare and protects animals from cruelty and neglect in the City of Seattle.

SAS runs animal sheltering and adoption programs to reunite lost animals with their owners and places animals in forever homes.

The 500-plus employees of FAS span across 10 divisions and work behind-the-scenes providing critical functions, like managing 120 City facilities—including police and fire stations—overseeing the City's neighborhood customer service centers and Customer Service Bureau and making sure minority-owned businesses can equitably compete for City contracts. No matter the need, FAS is here—at your service.

The Seattle Animal Shelter is seeking a motivated and progressive Animal Care Technician (Animal Control Officer I) to work with shelter animals and their owners.

If you are a compassionate, motivated team player who is dedicated to providing top-level care to shelter animals and empathetic customer service to our community members, this is the job for you!

As an Animal Care Technician, your work will be exclusively in the shelter:

• Providing daily cleaning, care, exercise, and enrichment to the animals in our custody.
• Working with community members to reunite them with their lost pets, adopt animals to their new homes, counsel pet owners, foster parents, and potential adopters, provide education and resources, take in stray and surrendered animals and much more.
• Work hand in hand with a dedicated team of staff and volunteers to provide our shelter pets and our community with exceptional care and support.

This is a non-benefited temporary assignment expected to last approximately six months. The work schedule includes weekends.

Requirements

• Provide high quality care to animals in the shelter system to maintain a healthy and humane environment for animals, employees, and visitors. This includes, but is not limited to:
  • Feeding, watering, walking, monitoring, and providing enrichment.
  • Disinfecting shelter areas, animal areas, enclosures, and equipment.
  • Following established animal care, cleaning, feeding and veterinary protocols.
  • Working with animals who may be ill, injured, stressed and/or aggressive.
• Committing to an inclusive culture rooted in commitment to racial equity and community engagement.
• Providing compassionate, equitable and professional customer service, education, and support.
• Building collaborative, respectful relationships with colleagues and volunteers.
• Maintaining composure and professionalism in stressful situations.
• Utilizing safe, humane, low stress animal handling skills.
• Processing animal intakes and outcomes.
• Detailed, accurate and consistent record keeping and data entry.
• Assisting in humane euthanasia of animals.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• One (1) year experience in care, handling, and treatment of animals; OR
• Or a combination of education and/or experience that fulfills the minimum requirements.

The most successful candidates will bring:

• Prior professional shelter or veterinary experience performing work comparable to this position is highly desired.
• Knowledge of proper animal husbandry.
• Experience in safe and humane animal handling techniques to reduce potential hazards to both handlers and animals.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Multitasking skills in a fast-paced and sometimes stressful environment.
• Experience with PetPoint.
• Bilingual or multilingual.

License, Certification and Other Requirements

• Current Washington State driver's license.
• A Washington State Euthanasia Technician Certification is required after hire (Training provided).

Work Environment/Physical Requirements

• This position requires onsite work.
• Must be able to stand, walk, bend, and stoop.
• Must be able to lift over 50 pounds.
• The work involves frequent exposure to agitated and fearful animals who may be ill or injured, feces, bodily fluids, zoonotic disease, and parasites.
• Require regularly working on weekends, holidays, and evenings.

Additional Information

Under the City’s Personnel Rules, all non-benefitted temporary assignments begin compensation at step 1 - $36.71. Employees receive premium pay in lieu of benefits for the first 1,040 hours of the assignment; once benefit eligible, premium pay ends and salary advances to step 2 of the range.

The full salary range for this classification is $36.71 - $39.59 per hour.

Application Process

Applications are reviewed after the posting closes. You must submit the following items to be considered for this position no later than 4:00pm Pacific Time on the scheduled closed date.

1. Completed NEOGOV online application.
2. Cover letter describing how your skills and experience align with the stated job responsibilities and qualifications.
3. Current resume indicating relevant experience, knowledge, skills, and education.

Your application may be rejected as incomplete if you do not include the relevant information in the application. Cover letters and/or resumes are not accepted in lieu of a completed application.

Applications and/or Supplemental Questionnaires that state “see my resume” or “see my personnel file” are considered incomplete and will not be accepted.

PLEASE NOTE: This job advertisement is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Background Check: Applicants must successfully pass a background check, which will be conducted in accordance with Seattle’s Fair Chance Employment Ordinance, SMC 14.17.

Applicants will be given a chance to explain or correct background information and provide verifiable information of good conduct and rehabilitation.

Pre-Employment Physical: Successful candidates will be required to pass a pre-employment physical.

Why work at the City of Seattle?

The City of Seattlerecognizes every City employee must play a role in ending institutional and structural racism.

Our culture is the result of our behavior, our personal commitments, and the ways that we courageously share our perspectives and encourage others to do the same.

To cultivate an antiracist culture, we seek employees who will engage in the Race and Social Justice Initiativeby working to dismantle racist policies and procedures, unlearn the way things have always been done, and provide equitable processes and services.

The City of Seattle offers a comprehensive benefits package including vacation, holiday, and sick leave as well as medical, dental, vision, life and long-term disability insurance for employees and their dependents.

More information about employee benefits is available on the City's website at: https://www.seattle.gov/humanresources/benefits/employees-and-covered-family-members/most-employees-plans

Who May Apply: The City of Seattle values diverse perspectives and life experiences.

Applicants will be considered regardless of race, color, creed, national origin, ancestry, sex, marital status, disability, religious or political affiliation, age, sexual orientation, medical condition, or pregnancy.

The City of Seattle encourages people of all backgrounds to apply, including people of color, immigrants, refugees, women, LGBTQ, people with disabilities, veterans, and those with diverse life experiences.

If you have questions regarding this bulletin or employment at Finance and Administrative Services, please send an email toChantelle.Aguilar@seattle.gov FAS promotes diversity and inclusion in employment.

If accommodations are needed during the selection process, please contact us.

CANDIDATE NOTIFICATION:

Many important notifications including interview or test invitations, result notices, and status updates will be sent electronically to the email address provided on the application.

It is important that you provide a valid email address.

Please add Chantelle.Aguilar@seattle.gov to your email address book and to the list of approved senders to prevent email notifications from being filtered as spam/junk/clutter mail.

Candidates can also check for notifications by logging into governmentjobs.com and viewing their profile inbox, which saves a copy of all emailed notices.

It is the applicant's responsibility to take the above steps to view correspondence.