Overnight Veterinary Technician

APA! BACKGROUND: Austin Pets Alive! (APA!) is one of Austin’s most dynamic and best-loved nonprofits. The organization is the leader in the no kill movement nationally and is considered a national thought leader in animal welfare. APA! locally rescues, treats, and adopts out 10,000 homeless dogs and cats each year, providing the safety net for Austin’s most at-risk shelter pets, which helps Austin to be a no-kill city, while also assisting other communities in saving homeless animals. The organization is distinguished by the scrappiness of its grassroots, non-traditional community-based animal rescue work.

BRIEF POSITION SUMMARY/OVERVIEW:

The APA! Medical Clinic works on the cutting edge of shelter medicine, treating the most critical and vulnerable animals that other shelters and even some private clinics don't have the resources to help. Our veterinary technicians are crucial to the success of our lifesaving programs, providing hands-on care and treatment to the 10,000 animals who come through our doors every year. This position is responsible for the late night/overnight treatment and care to all hospitalized animals under the care of the APA! medical clinic, as well as providing emergency on-call services to APA! fosters, adopters, and animal care teams. This position also helps monitor the TLAC campus for safety and emergency concerns, including extreme weather-related incidents. The overnight support technician is an independent role that will work closely with the veterinary staff, animal program teams, fosters, and adopters.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Maintain proper care of all hospitalized animals on the overnight shift, including identifying, monitoring, and documenting illness symptoms and changes, and providing scheduled treatments.
• Comfortable working independently and has strong decision-making skills.
• Request and administer all assigned medications appropriately and within acceptable time frames, as directed by clinic protocols and the veterinary staff
• Answer the clinic emergency phone line and provide instruction as needed to foster and adopters while maintaining excellent customer service.
• Triage and react accordingly to urgent, critical, and contagious animals.
• Report declining patients and emergency needs to veterinary staff immediately.
• This person must be comfortable with euthanizing patients as directed by the veterinarian. This does not happen often, but due to the nature of the working hours, may be necessary.
• Dispense storm medications when storms occur overnight.
• Monitor TLAC grounds and facilities, including conducting campus walk-throughs and watching for weather-related complications
• Provide Clinic Adoption and Foster Case Management Coordinators with updates as needed, including notification of potential new medical cases needing attention
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of all APA! medical protocols and procedures
• Maintain a safe, clean, and sanitary work environment
• Provide excellent customer service to all clients and stakeholders
• Send a detailed EOD report at the end of your shift
• Duties may differ slightly from this Job Description; all duties are outlined by the Clinic Manager Team, Veterinarian, or another individual designated by APA!
  
  
  

OTHER FUNCTIONS:

• Attend and participate in all required training sessions and meetings.
• Maintain open and consistent communication with Program Manager or designee, supervisor, and other colleagues.
• Able to react to change productively and perform other related duties as assigned
• Able to work in a high-volume, fast-paced, high-stress environment
  
  
  

PHYSICAL JOB REQUIREMENTS:

• Must be able to routinely lift 40-50 pounds
• Must be able to work alone around cats and dogs with varying temperaments, including those that are diseased, injured, and/or potentially fractious or aggressive
• Must be comfortable working indoors and outdoors, around unpleasant smells, loud noises, and a variety of standard cleaning supplies and chemicals
• Must be comfortable witnessing veterinary surgical procedures
• If reasonable accommodations are requested, reasonable accommodations will be made to enable employees with disabilities to perform the essential functions of their job absent undue hardship to the organization.
  
  
  

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• 1 year experience working as a veterinary technician, preferably in a customer-facing role
• Proficiency in standard veterinary technician skills, including but not limited to proper handling and restraint techniques, blood draws and diagnostics, skin scrapes, TPR, SQ/IM/IV injections, and catheter placement
• Must have a basic knowledge of common dog and cat illnesses, injuries, conditions, and diagnostics
• Must be able to run basic medical tests for dogs and cats
• Must be able to transcribe veterinarian notes
• Ability to work independently and have strong decision making abilities.
• Current Valid Driver’s License desired for occasional transport needs
  
  
  

EXPECTATIONS:

• Must embody APA!'s core values of innovation, respect, drive, resourcefulness, and inclusion
• Commitment to APA!'s customer experience expectations
• Committed to working well with volunteers and staff in all roles
• Commitment to providing quality care to the animals under care
• Willing and committed to working well with volunteers and staff in all roles
  
  
  

WORKING RELATIONSHIPS: This position reports to the Medical Clinic Team Manager.

LOCATION(S):

• APA! Main - Town Lake Animal Center 1156 West Cesar Chavez Austin, TX 78703
• New APA Clinic - 4942 W Hwy 290 Austin, TX 78735
• May travel to offsite locations as needed
  
  
  

TIME COMMITMENT:

• This is a full-time hourly position requiring an average of 40 hours per week, with primarily overnight (7pm-5am) shifts; may include on-call time as needed. This position pays a shift differential when working overnight hours.
• Shift and schedule flexibility is required, as weekly schedule is subject to change
• Able to work evenings, weekends, and holidays as needed
  
  
  

BENEFITS:

Austin Pets Alive! is proud to offer a competitive benefits package for full-time employees, including subsidized employer-sponsored medical coverage, subsidized and voluntary life insurance, voluntary dental, vision and short-term disability options, all effective the first day of employment. We also offer voluntary wellness and emergency sick plans, up to 2% match on 401(K) retirement plan, supplemental benefits, flexible spending accounts and additional life coverage. Full-time employees receive 10 paid holidays and accrue 10 days paid time off during the first year of employment, with an additional 5 days of PTO accrual upon completion of 12 months of employment. Employees will also receive professional development opportunities through APA!’s ongoing mission to advance our animal welfare professionals in our life saving work.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND ACCOMMODATIONS STATEMENT

Austin Pets Alive! is an equal employment opportunity employer and we value having staff who come from communities that are most impacted by the issues we engage on. We especially encourage people of color, LGBTQ people, women, transgender and gender non-conforming people, and people with disabilities to apply.

Austin Pets Alive! does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Austin Pets Alive! is committed to creating a dynamic work environment that values diversity and inclusion, respect and integrity, community focus, and innovation.