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Role description

Job title: Cat Welfare & Operations Director
Reports to: Chief Executive Officer
Department: Cat Welfare & Operations/Senior Leadership team
Directorate: Cat Welfare & Operations
Pay Band: Individual

 

About the role:

  • Lead the delivery of cat welfare excellence across our UK-wide operational network, encompassing over 200 community-based volunteer teams (including over branches), more than 30 centres, nationally managed services, and the specialist support functions that enable them to thrive
  • Champion the consistent application of expert welfare advice, ensuring our advocacy and research insights are translated into action. Drive the continuous development of our people and embed a culture that is truly ‘All for Cats’
  • As a key member of the Senior Leadership Team, play a pivotal role in shaping the strategic direction of the charity. Provide visible, accountable leadership for the delivery of exemplary cat welfare standards across our operations and 24/7/365 customer-facing infrastructure
  • Accelerate excellence and innovation across a UK-wide delivery model that meets both national priorities and local needs
  • Ensure the highest standards of welfare across care, rehoming, neutering and microchipping grounded in expert veterinary insight, research evidence and recognised Association of Dogs and Cats Homes and veterinary standards. Establish and maintain a robust quality framework that provides assurance of exceptional welfare, safety and safeguarding across every aspect of the delivery model
  • Foster a culture of capability, professionalism and compassionate leadership across all operational and specialist teams, enabling them to deliver outstanding outcomes for cats. Set expectations that surpass external regulatory requirements and sector norms
  • Shape delivery models that cultivate strong, positive, and collaborative partnerships between employees and volunteers, ensuring their experience with us is inspiring, rewarding and guided by our values and behaviours
  • Work with the Chief Veterinary Officer to safeguard full compliance with all standards required to maintain Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons membership. Ultimate responsibility and reporting remain with the Chief Veterinary Officer and their membership to the RCVS
  • As a Senior Leadership Team leader, contribute to cross-organisational strategic thinking and champion a culture of unity, collaboration and collective responsibility, We Work as One

Key responsibilities

Strategy and Operational Service Delivery

  • Lead the directorate in delivering the All for Cats strategy, driving continuous improvement, inclusive culture, and cross-organisational collaboration
  • Ensure directorate plans align with organisational priorities, resources are effectively prioritised, and activity is regularly reviewed for impact
  • Strengthen Cats Protection’s profile and sector influence through strategic positioning, external visibility, and values-driven leadership
  • Oversee objective-setting, monitoring, and reporting to ensure coherent, evidence-based delivery across the Cat Welfare and Operations functions
  • Ensure our impact is delivered through both direct and indirect delivery spanning the spectrum of preventative to rehoming services

Cat Welfare Operational Delivery and Veterinary Support

  • Oversee a unified, expert-driven programme of improvement, via the Service Design and Continuous Improvement teams, that ensures the highest welfare standards for all cats in Cats Protection’s care
  • Provide strategic leadership around cat welfare, ensuring appropriate professional, research-based advice, and compliance with all welfare legislation
  • Maintain structures that support expert guidance to operational teams, uphold minimum veterinary standards, and oversee the management of health and welfare risks across the organisation
  • Oversee welfare outcomes across the charity, ensuring safe, consistent, agile, and cost-effective delivery
  • Champion data, insight, and human behavioural science to strengthen rehoming, owner support, risk management and crisis response

Veterinary Services, Medicines Control & Procurement

  • Oversee safe, compliant procurement and management of veterinary medicines, products, and services
  • With the Chief Veterinary Officer, ensure robust policies for medicine handling, disease control, euthanasia decision-making, and safe cat handling
  • Oversee work with procurement partners to manage providers, service level agreements, and risk, and ensure alignment with health and safety guidance

Innovation and Product Development

  • Drive service innovation, testing and scaling new community and welfare models that expand social impact
  • Ensure collaboration across directorates to support estates, retail, volunteering, communications, income generation and digital infrastructure
  • Lead growth of nationally managed services (for example Lifeline, Paws to Listen, Cat Guardians) and embed a culture of learning, continuous improvement, and safeguarding

Customer Experience and Service

  • Ensure a customer-centred experience for all users, volunteers and supporters, grounded in behavioural insight and co-design
  • Encourage feedback and satisfaction metrics to continually refine services and strengthen engagement

Regulations and Standards

  • Ensure frameworks, quality standards, training and coaching that enable safe, consistent, high-quality cat welfare delivery
  • Oversee performance monitoring, risk escalation, compliance (animal welfare, H&S, data protection, safeguarding), and crisis management.
  • Maintain key performance indicators (KPIs) and outcome-based measures to track progress and mitigate operational risks

Communities and Social Impact

  • Strengthen volunteer partnership models that reflect the value and centrality of volunteers to Cats Protection’s mission
  • Support community-based engagement, local fundraising, workforce pathways, and initiatives that enhance social impact and visibility of “in-community” services
  • Drive meaningful donor, adopter and customer engagement to support organisational sustainability

Sector Influence and Policy

  • Act as a sector leader, sharing best practice, influencing policy, and responding to government and devolved nation requirements in times of crisis
  • Ensure Cats Protection continues to shape and contribute to sector-wide standards and debates

Finance, Governance, Risk and Resource Management

  • Oversee a transparent directorate budget ensuring sustainability, growth, and strategic alignment
  • Ensure efficient resource deployment, robust financial and risk management, and compliance with all statutory and regulatory duties.
  • Monitor external partners to ensure ethical and compliant support of organisational goals

People Leadership and Management

  • Embed an inclusive, collaborative culture that values employees and volunteers equally and supports a “one charity” ethos
  • Lead and develop the directorate leadership team, fostering capability, accountability, and continuous learning
  • Ensure organisation-wide training and competence in welfare, veterinary standards, disease control and best practice
  • Promote strong cross-team working, effective change management, and leadership behaviours that model trust, integrity and innovation

Stakeholder Relations

  • Act as a visible ambassador for Cats Protection, strengthening relationships with funders, partners, regulators, and sector leaders
  • Represent Cats Protection externally, supporting brand and reputation, influencing stakeholders and enabling organisational strategy
  • Collaborate effectively with the Senior Leadership Team and the Board on planning, risk, and crisis management, ensuring clear communication and collective leadership

Other and Ad-hoc

  • In common with all posts, ensure compliant with Cats Protection’s policies and procedures, statutory obligations and best practice, and to undertake such other duties as may be reasonably required
  • Cats Protection is committed to safeguarding children and adults at risk and protecting anyone that comes into contact with us from harm.  We expect all employees and volunteers to share this commitment

Role dimensions

People accountability

Direct reports: Four

Team size: Associate Director of Community Operations, Chief Veterinary Officer, Head of Central Operations and Head of Service Design & Partnerships.

Volunteers: This role requires an understanding of Cats Protection volunteering strategy and will promote the volunteering partnership to promote inclusion, togetherness, celebration, and involvement. Specifically, it will create an environment where the views and experience of our circa 8,000 volunteers is valued and encouraged, leading to co- creation and a broadening of our knowledge and expertise.

Financial accountability

Budget: Budgeted expenditure for 2026 is £47m
Direct/Indirect/Shared accountability: Direct accountability

Values and behaviours

Our shared values act as a guiding compass to shape our behaviour and the decisions we make at work. They are a call to action for every one of us and the benchmark against which we measure ourselves, both current and future colleagues.

Through our values and behaviours we help people see the world through cats’ eyes. Together we can make a difference.

Safeguarding

At Cats Protection, we are dedicated to safeguarding both children and vulnerable adults, ensuring the safety of everyone who interacts with us. We expect all our employees and volunteers to share this commitment. For certain roles, a Criminal Record Check through the Disclosure and Barring Service, Disclosure Scotland, or Access NI may be required before an offer of employment is made.

This role will not require a Criminal Record Check.