Medical Director

About the role

As an experienced veterinarian and the Medical Director of our ASPCA Community Veterinary Clinic, you’ll shape clinical standards and lead a mission-driven medical team expanding access to high-quality care for pets and families who need it most. This role combines meaningful impact, hands-on practice, and sustainable work-life balance — with no sales pressure, revenue targets, on-call shifts, overnights, or after-hours emergencies. You’ll focus on medical leadership, preventive care, mentorship, and high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter surgery while leading with purpose in the community.

Responsibilities

The Medical Director serves as the site’s senior medical leader, advancing high quality, high volume care, developing veterinary talent, and ensuring consistent implementation of Community Medicine (CM) standards. You will directly supervise veterinarians in the clinic, partner with Medical Managers and regional leaders, and help deliver excellent patient and client experiences that maximize our community impact. This role blends leadership with hands-on clinical work, including preventive care, treatment of minor illnesses and injuries, and high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter surgery. You’ll help ensure daily practices, policies, and protocols support safe, compassionate, consistent care. This position operates within a matrix reporting structure. The Medical Director reports to both the on-site Veterinary Practice Director and the Community Medicine Regional Medical Director. They also work closely with the Regional Director of Nursing and the Regional Director of Operations.

Medical Leadership

• Ensure high-quality, high-volume medicine, surgery, and nursing care are provided at the ASPCA’s CVC according to CM’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) and guidelines, working in concert with the Regional Medical Director, Regional Director of Nursing, and onsite Medical Managers.
• Establish clear clinical expectations, review performance and outcome data, identify gaps or trends, and implement corrective actions with defined owners and timelines.
• Ensure that all medical staff receive training and have mastered the skills to handle patients in a low stress manner, and that they implement these handling techniques consistently.
• Ensure all medical staff are trained and demonstrate competency in low-stress patient handling; address inconsistent practice through coaching, retraining, or performance management.
• Ensure clinic operations staff understand and consistently perform their role in creating a calm environment that supports patients’ behavioral and mental health.
• Shape, champion, and support the adoption of new medical protocols in partnership with regional medical and nursing leadership; lead clinic-level implementation through clear communication, training, change management, and follow-up.
• Train, assess, and mentor veterinarians to provide preventative care and treat common conditions on an outpatient basis following CM protocols, concentrating on signalment, medical history, and physical exam to guide decision making and conserve resources.
• Train, assess, and mentor veterinarians in high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter (HQHVSN) techniques.
• Ensure veterinary student externs, ASPCA interns, and residents receive consistent instruction in Community Medicine protocols and philosophy; develop clinic veterinarians’ mentoring capability.
• Maintain a visible floor presence, make timely decisions about daily clinic flow, provide real-time feedback, and resolve or escalate barriers to safe, efficient care.
• Serve as the responsible veterinarian for the clinic’s DEA certificate and ensure secure storage, accurate inventory, compliant documentation, discrepancy investigation, and timely reporting for controlled substances.
• Model clinical excellence and maintain credibility through direct practice as a PPC doctor and HQHVSN surgeon treating cats and dogs as both a scheduled shift and fill-in coverage as needed.
• Perform pre-surgery physical examinations on all surgical candidates; perform 30 - 40 high quality, high volume spay/neuter surgical procedures per spay/neuter clinic day with the daily number based on patient and clinic variables.
• Provide compassionate, quality preventive and basic care to patients in underserved areas, overseeing all aspects of veterinary care during a clinic day including physical examination, point of care diagnostics, treatment recommendations and delivery, prescribing of medications and discharge information.
• Diagnose and treat post-surgical complications on an outpatient basis.
• Triage and refer cases that do not fall within the Community Medicine parameters of care as appropriate.
• Provide compassionate end of life care and euthanasia when it is a humane option.
• Make and document clinic-level decisions consistent with Community Medicine’s limited-practice parameters, including referrals, management of post-operative complications, and eligibility for additional client or patient support through ASPCA programs such as the One ASPCA Fund.
• Audit medical records for sound decision-making and complete, accurate documentation. When necessary, coach direct reports and verify sustained improvement.
• Support internal ASPCA departments, such as Adoptions and Kitten Nursery (NYC) and LA Feline Programs (LA) and external partners including local municipal shelter systems, through provision of spay/neuter surgery and services, being flexible to the needs of each.
• Collaborate with veterinary colleagues across the ASPCA, share lessons learned, and follow through on commitments that advance the organization’s mission and medical standards.

People Leadership

• Directly supervise 3–5 veterinarians and be accountable for team performance, engagement, development, conduct, and coverage.
• Set clear role-specific expectations, support professional growth, and foster trust.
• Empower veterinarians to make confident, informed decisions within Community Medicine protocols and available client options using sound clinical judgment, accurate documentation, and client-centered communication.
• Lead regular effective feedback conversations, career conversations, and ongoing check-in conversations with each team member on a cadence that’s appropriate for their role and stage of development.
• Prepare and deliver annual evaluations.
• Coach and assess effective client communication, including difficult end-of-life conversations, and intervene when communication standards are not met.
• Partner with the People Team to forecast staffing