Dog Supply Manager

This is a Fixed Term Contract for 11 months

You’re an experienced people manager from an animal care background, ready to step into a new role where you can make a lasting impact.  You thrive on leading teams, managing change, and driving forward high standards in service delivery.

As Dog Supply Manager, you'll lead the operational activity at our new Redbridge site, overseeing the journey of our dogs through training and into life-changing partnerships. You’ll be at the centre of a newly established team, with up to 10 direct reports, and play a vital role in setting the tone and building a strong, positive culture from the ground up.

This is a high-profile role with a wide reach across Guide Dogs. You'll provide visible leadership, working closely with senior stakeholders to ensure dogs are trained and progressed in line with national standards, while delivering a consistent, ethical and person-centred service. Your ability to interpret data, make strategic decisions, and manage people and animal welfare with confidence will be key.

You’ll be comfortable managing operations in a complex, evolving environment and have experience handling staff performance. You’ll be someone who can build a collaborative, motivated team and respond flexibly to change, with a problem-solving mindset and excellent communication skills.

To be successful, you’ll need a certified management qualification such as ILM or equivalent professional experience in managing operations, teams, or volunteers. You’ll also bring proven experience of working in animal care, education, or health and social care settings, with strong safeguarding awareness and confidence working across multi-disciplinary environments.

If you’re looking to lead from the front and help shape the future of dog supply at a brand-new site, this is a unique opportunity to do just that while contributing to a service that transforms lives every day.

No two people with sight loss are the same, and none of our people are either. So, we are proud to offer a range of person-centred benefits that can support each member of staff in ways that really mean something to them – and show them how much they mean to us. We offer a flexible benefits package, discounts and cashback scheme, a generous holiday allowance and matched contributory pension scheme to care for our people.  

This role will be based on site at Redbridge, working 35 hours per week, 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. 

Initial interviews for this role are planned to take place W/C 28 April.

For high volumes of applications, we reserve the right to close adverts earlier than advertised.

How to apply 

Further details on the full role are attached below. When you are ready to apply, submit an online application form via this page.

If you would like to have an informal conversation about the role before applying, or require any accessibility support to apply, our friendly recruitment team is ready and waiting to help. Call them on 0118 3540345 or drop an email to [email protected].

As part of your application ensure you provide evidence and examples of how your skills & experience meet the criteria as set out in the attached job description. You’ll also be asked to complete a few job-specific questions as part of this application process, so please be prepared to write your answers to these questions. 

If you want to know more about the teams who work at Guide Dogs, you can find it on our Careers Page

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

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. 

As a Disability Confident Employer, we are proud, whenever possible, to offer an interview to all candidates that meet our selection criteria, and who indicate they wish their application to be considered under our Disability Confident interview commitment. For more details, visit our careers site.

If you are successful you’ll need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK via our digital ID checking supplier; in addition, we cannot offer visa sponsorship at this time.

Every day is different at Guide Dogs. And no person with sight loss is the same. We work side by side, on our sites and in the community, in schools and on our streets, supporting people to live the life they choose. Our staff therefore also work in different ways to support the delivery of our life changing work.

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.

At Guide Dogs, we believe in fair and equitable hiring practices. A criminal record will not automatically disqualify an applicant from consideration for a position. Each case will be evaluated individually, taking into account the nature of the offense, its relevance to the role, and the time that has passed since the incident. We encourage all candidates to disclose relevant information, and we assure you that it will be handled confidentially and fairly.

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 you are applying for a disclosure role, please note that you’ll be required to undergo an enhanced DBS check and sign up to the DBS update service.