Animal Protection Field Supervisor – Denver Animal Protection

About Our Job

With competitive pay, great benefits, and endless opportunities, working for the City and County of Denver means seeing yourself working with purpose — for you, and those who benefit from your passion, skills and expertise. Join our diverse, inclusive and talented workforce of more than 11,000 team members who are at the heart of what makes Denver, Denver.

What We Offer

The City and County of Denver offers a competitive salary commensurate with education and experience. The salary range for this position is $80,217.00 - $106,288.00. We also offer generous benefits for full-time employees which include but are not limited to:

• A guaranteed life-long monthly pension, once vested after 5 years of service

• 457B Retirement Plan

• 140 hours of PTO earned within first year + 12 paid holidays, 1 personal holiday, 1 Wellness Day and 1 volunteer day per year

• Competitive medical, dental and vision plans effective within 1 month of start date

Location & Schedule

In this position you can expect to work on site at the Denver Animal Shelter, located at 1241 W. Bayaud Ave., Denver, CO 80223. This position may alternate between 4-10 or 5-8 schedule depending on seasonal business and operational needs.

What You’ll Do

Denver Animal Protection (DAP) protects the safety and welfare of Denver’s animals and residents by fostering the human animal bond. DAP emphasizes public and animal safety and health, encourages responsible pet ownership through education and enforcing compliance with animal-related municipal code requirements, and cares for animals at the Denver Animal Shelter (DAS). More information can be found at: Denver Animal Protection.

We foster an inclusive culture by respecting the values, customs, and authenticity of everyone and by implementing equitable public health strategies so Denver communities can thrive.

Denver Animal Protection is seeking an Animal Protection Field Supervisor to supervise animal protection employees who enforce local and regional laws concerning the care and treatment of animals, investigate complaints of non-compliance with animal ordinances and laws, perform facility compliance inspections, perform court liaison duties pertaining to the issuance of legal summonses, and provide education to the public regarding public health, animal care, safety, and welfare.

Additionally, the Animal Protection Field Supervisor:

• Provides day-to-day leadership and works with staff to ensure a high-performance service environment that enforces local and regional laws concerning the care and treatment of animals and recommends process improvements and changes in practices and procedures to increase operating efficiency and expedite work flow

• Plans, assigns, and evaluates the work of animal protection staff members, provides technical expertise to staff, and establishes unit and staff work goals and objectives

• Trains staff members on local and regional laws and ordinances, testifying in court, and providing training to the public on the responsibilities of pet ownership and proper pet care and orients new staff with policies, procedures, and practices

• Supervises the issuance of legal summonses regarding various animal control violations and testifies in court on law violations involving cases of animal cruelty, neglect, abuse, and/or abandonment

• Maintains detailed daily reports of protection activities and animal inspections, ensures that staff prepare comprehensive records, reports, and documentation that complies with standards and requirements

• Implements safety standards and develops procedures to ensure compliance

• Develops or modifies work plans, methods, and procedures and determines work priorities

• Assigns and distributes work, reviews work for accuracy and completeness, and returns assignments with recommendations for proper completion

• Resolves problems encountered during daily operations and determines standards for problem resolution including escalations from clients

• Develops performance goals, documents performance, provides performance feedback, and formally evaluates the work of employees

• Responds to formal and informal employee grievances and prepares written responses

• Documents cause for disciplinary action and initiates letters of reprimand and formal recommendations for disciplinary action

• Provides work instruction and assists employees with difficult and/or unusual assignments

• Performs humane euthanasia on animals

• Operates vehicle and two-way radio in performance of duties

• Assists in the development of departmental budgets

• Reviews "problem inspections" of establishments and ensure compliance with municipal ordinances, laws, regulations, and contracts.

• Along with all department staff, this position will actively participate on an emergency preparedness and response team to support DDPHE’s responsibilities outlined in the City’s Emergency Operations Plan. This may require being ‘on-call’ from time to time to help respond to emergencies. Additional training commensurate with assigned duties will be provided.

• Other duties as assigned.

This position requires availability to work a variety of shifts, including mornings, evenings, overnights, , weekends, and holidays. While this position does not work mandatory on-call shifts unless there are severe staffing shortages, it does supervise staff working mandatory on-call and may be routinely called upon during those shift hours to answer operational questions and must maintain availability for the team. Shift work and on-call availability are core, essential functions of this role. While officers and their supervisors currently work a 4-day per week, 10-hour per shift schedule, scheduling and shift configurations are subject to change based on the operational needs of the agency.

This position is physically demanding, requiring intermittent periods of intense physical activity broken up by periods of driving or administrative work. Physical demands include lifting large animals into trucks or vans, running both short and longer distances, climbing, pulling, pushing, and sometimes awkward physical movements.

What You’ll Bring

We value diversity of ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, sexual identity, gender, religion, language, ability, and experience and exemplify this through the makeup of our team at all levels. You'll be right at home here if you cultivate strong relationships and push yourself, your work, the people around you and Denver to the next level.

Our ideal candidate has some or all the following experience, skills, and characteristics:

• Bachelor’s degree in Animal Science, Criminal Justice, Public Health, Environmental Health, or related field.

• Superior customer service skills

• Experience designing, planning, and implementing major projects

• Bilingual proficiency in Spanish

• Availability and willingness to: work evenings, weekends, and holiday shifts; work outside and be exposed to inclement weather; handle sick and/or aggressive animals and train staff in performing animal euthanasia; clean animal excrement/secretions.

Required Minimum Qualifications

• Education requirement: Bachelor's Degree in Public Health, Environmental Health, or in a related field based on a specific position.

• Experience Requirement: Three (3) years of experience performing professional level environmental or public health scientific analysis or inspections.

• Education/Experience Equivalency: One (1) year of the appropriate type and level of experience may be substituted for each required year of post-high school education.

• Additional appropriate education may be substituted for the minimum experience requirements.

• License/Certifications: Requires a valid Driver's License at the time of application.

• Licenses and certifications must be kept current as a condition of employment.

As a condition of continued employment, you will be required to obtain the following certifications within the specified timeframes after your date of hire:

• Within 6 Months: Expandable Baton Certification, OC Spray Certification, and Euthanasia by Injection Certification.

• Within 12 Months: Animal Welfare Association of Colorado (AWAC) State Certification for Animal Control Officers.

Application Deadline

This position is expected to stay open until Friday, September 25, 2026. Please submit your application as soon as possible and no later than that date at 11:59 p.m. to ensure consideration.

About Everything Else

Job Profile

CE2270 Environmental Public Health Program Supervisor

To view the full job profile including position specifications, physical demands, and probationary period, click here.

Position Type

Unlimited

Position Salary Range

$80,217.00 - $132,358.00

Target Pay

Based on education and experience

Agency

Dept of Public Health & Environment

The City and County of Denver provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, genetic information, age, or any other status protected under federal, state, and/or local law.

It is your right to access oral or written language assistance, sign language interpretation, real-time captioning via CART, or disability-related accommodations. To request any of these services at no cost to you, please contact Jobs@Denvergov.org with three business days’ notice.

Applicants for employment with the City and County of Denver must have valid work authorization that does not require sponsorship of a visa for employment authorization in the U.S.

For information about right to work, click here for English or here for Spanish.