Animal Manager Job Description

Schedule: Full-time, approximately 30-35 hours per week
Location: Onsite (Cedar City, Utah campus)
Pay: $25.00-$25.50 per hour

Reports to: Assistant Clinical Director 

Your Opportunity

As the Animal Manager at Havenwood, you will oversee the systems, people, and programming that make a world-class animal program possible.

Your primary responsibility is to ensure our animals receive exceptional care by building reliable systems, coordinating team members, and holding people accountable for execution. You'll also ensure that interactions with animals are intentionally used to help guests build confidence, emotional regulation, responsibility, connection, and resilience.

Position Title & Overview

Havenwood is seeking a full-time Animal Manager to oversee animal wellness, operational systems, team coordination, and intentional animal programming.

Havenwood is a Residential Treatment Center serving adolescent females with early childhood trauma. Our mission is to provide world-class trauma treatment to children who wouldn't otherwise receive care.

The right person is organized, resourceful, relational, and capable of building systems that ensure consistent results. They know how to coordinate staff, engage guests in meaningful responsibilities, and establish clear expectations for animal care and program quality.

This role requires someone who can balance operational leadership with hands-on involvement in animal programming.

What We Expect from You

Systems Thinking: Build and maintain reliable systems for animal feeding, cleaning, wellness, exercise, scheduling, and facility care.

Team Leadership & Accountability: Effectively coordinate staff and guest responsibilities, establish clear expectations, and ensure tasks are consistently completed to a high standard.

Exceptional Animal Stewardship: Oversee animal health, safety, and humane care through consistent inspections, preventative maintenance, and proactive problem-solving.

Intentional Programming: Create meaningful opportunities for guests to develop emotional regulation, confidence, responsibility, and resilience through animal interactions.

Active Engagement: Be physically and therapeutically present during animal programming while empowering others to participate in daily operations.

Extreme Ownership: Take responsibility for the quality of the entire animal program, not simply the tasks you personally complete.

Team Health: Build collaborative relationships with clinical, residential, and program teams to achieve shared outcomes.

A Day in the Life

A typical day as the Animal Manager may include:

• Manage daily animal care, wellness, facilities, and program budgets while ensuring compliance and safety standards.
• Coordinate staff and guest responsibilities using structured schedules, checklists, and accountability systems.
• Lead interactive animal programming, equine groups, and individual sessions to foster guest development and responsibility.
• Train team members in handling procedures and partner with clinical leadership on guest treatment goals and progress documentation.
• Other duties as assigned.

What Does Success Look Like?

Mission: Maintain a safe, high-quality animal program that consistently uses animals and animal care as intentional tools to build guest regulation, confidence, responsibility, connection, and resilience in support of successful program completion.

Most Critical Outcome (MCO): Maintain a Havenwood Animal Program Promoter Score of 50 or higher.

Operational Drivers

• Compliance: Consistently meet all applicable accreditation and state licensing standards regarding animals.
• Documentation: Ensure required BlueStep documentation is completed weekly and provide at least one meaningful progress update per guest monthly.
• World-Class Program: Build and maintain a high-quality animal program through effective systems, team coordination, and consistent accountability.
• Therapeutic Growth: Actively engage guests in meaningful animal experiences that support treatment goals.
• Guest Responsibility: Ensure guests consistently and appropriately participate in animal-care responsibilities.
• Animal Wellness: Maintain 100% of program animals safe, healthy, and fit for their assigned activities through effective care systems and oversight.
• Operational Excellence: Proactively maintain structured programming, a quarterly budget, and clean, organized, high-quality animal environments.

Obsessions – How You Win

• Animals With a Purpose: Every interaction should create an opportunity for growth.
• Safety Without Compromise: Protect the physical and emotional safety of guests, staff, and animals.
• Exceptional Animal Stewardship: Maintain outstanding standards of humane care and animal wellness through great systems and consistent team execution.
• Active Engagement: Be physically and therapeutically present during equine groups, individual sessions, and animal-care activities.
• Own the Outcome: Take initiative, delegate effectively, solve problems, and drive work to completion independently, using your supervisor for support rather than direction.
• One Havenwood: Maintain collaborative, win/win relationships with all departments and live our values of Growth, Grit, Team Health, and Extreme Ownership.

Qualifications & Experience

• Experience overseeing animal care, preferably including horses and other livestock.
• Strong understanding of animal health, behavior, safety, and humane care.
• Demonstrated ability to organize people, delegate responsibilities, and hold team members accountable.
• Experience developing operational systems, schedules, checklists, or care protocols.
• Experience with equine programming, youth development, or behavioral health preferred.
• Strong leadership, communication, organization, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to balance operational management with active participation in animal programming.
• Relevant education or certifications in animal science, equine studies, management, or related fields encouraged.

Compensation & Benefits

Pay: $25.00-$25.50 per hour

Schedule: Full-time, approximately 30-35 hours per week
Location: Havenwood Academy, Cedar City, Utah

Benefits include:

• 401(k) retirement plan with matching up to 6%
• Paid Time Off and Paid Holidays
• Employee Assistance Program
• Parental Leave
• Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Health Savings Account
• Life Insurance