Chief Veterinary Officer

Guide Dogs has an exciting opportunity for an experienced Veterinary professional to join us as a Chief Veterinary Officer (CVO).

 

As a world leader and largest breeder of working dogs in the world, the CVO helps people with sight loss to live the life they choose by developing and maintaining national veterinary standards of care for a total population of around 8000 dogs of all ages. This role ensures that the national dog care and welfare service is delivered efficiently, effectively, and ethically, and that our dogs, of all ages and in all roles, benefit from the latest and best developments in veterinary care, health, and welfare to maximise their overall wellbeing.

 

You will join other senior leaders by acting as the ‘voice and face’ of Guide Dogs in your areas of expertise in dog health and veterinary science whilst proactively raising our profile through representation in key professional events, networks, and the media.

 

This role is 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, 35 hours per week, with 26 days paid holiday (excluding bank holidays) a year. As a charity, we’re always keen to support flexible working as best we can. We offer a generous pension scheme, life assurance and enhanced pay for parenting and sickness leave. In addition, we provide an Employee Assistance Programme, flexible benefits package and discounts and cashback scheme to care for our people.

 

National travel as required on ad–hoc basis.

 

More details about this role, the Organisation and the recruitment process can be found in the attached candidate pack and job description.

 

We reserve the right to close adverts earlier than the closing date.

 

Diversity

Guide Dogs welcomes applications from all sections of the community and actively encourages diversity to maximise achievements, creativity and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability or nationality. We encourage applications from people with disabilities as they are currently under–represented in the organisation and guarantee an invitation to interview for all applicants with disabilities who demonstrate, within their application form, sufficient evidence to meet the essential criteria for the job.

 

Safeguarding

Guide Dogs is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children, young people and adults at risk of harm with whom we work. We expect all our employees and volunteers to fully share this commitment.

 

 

Candidate requirements

 

To be able to fulfil this role, and provide help to those with sight loss, the skills and experience we are looking for in a potential candidate include;

 

Essential

 

 

Appropriate Veterinary Medicine degree. 
Recognised Management qualification.
Membership of appropriate professional organisation.
Solid and demonstrable experience as a practicing veterinary surgeon and previous experience in a supervisory role or as a principal of a vet clinic.
Substantial track record of leadership at senior management level
Experience with managing population health, infectious disease, and biosecurity protocols.
Extensive current research based and operational knowledge of veterinary practice, health, and welfare.  Proven credibility to work with veterinary professionals. 

 

 

Desirable

 

Post graduate degree in specialist veterinary science, health, or behaviour
Understanding of charity governance.
Experience of strategy implementation and leading organisational and cultural change initiatives.

 

For the complete list of essential and desirable criteria necessary to be successful in this role please see the Person Specification within the Job Description below.

 

If you are successful you will need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK. We cannot provide sponsorship for this role.

 

How to apply

Applications need to be made using the online application form, accessed using the ‘apply’ button above. As part of your application ensure you provide to evidence and examples of how your skills & experience meet the criteria as set out in the attached job description.

 

The system does have a time limit, we would advise you to complete your answers and copy and paste into the online form once finalised. Please note that you’ll have to upload a CV as this is a mandatory requirement as part of our Safer Recruitment Policy.

 

Guide Dogs follow Safer Recruitment practices to ensure we are safeguarding the vulnerable people we work with. As part of this, we require a full work history with any gaps accounted for & a minimum of 2 professional referee details fully covering the past 5 years. If there is not enough space in your application form to provide this information, please ensure you upload additional documentation containing the additional detail.

 

Remember to refer to the attached job description and candidate pack for more information about this role & the recruitment process at Guide Dogs.