On - Call Foster Support Coordinator

About the role

The On-Call Foster Support Coordinator is an experienced animal welfare professional who provides scheduled weekend and holiday support for urgent foster situations and placements. This remote, on-call position is ideal for someone who remains calm during unexpected situations, understands foster-home matching and animal safety, and can make thoughtful decisions while working independently. Training, written protocols, and leadership backup are provided.

Responsibilities

• Oversee urgent, non-medical foster home concerns on weekends and holidays, including bite incidents, animal fights, lost foster animals, immediate safety concerns, and immediate foster animal moves.
• Review and approve weekend foster placements, temporary placements, and foster-to-foster moves.
• Document and handoff on-call incidents to the appropriate staff teams.
• Respond to urgent non-medical concerns involving the immediate safety of an animal, foster home, household member, or another animal (lost or escaped animals, bites, animal fights, unsafe containment, etc.).
• Provide immediate guidance based on established safety and behavior protocols, including separation, secure confinement, safe transport, preventing further injury or exposure, and completing required incident procedures.
• Coordinate emergency foster moves when an animal cannot safely remain in its current home until the next business day.
• Refer illness, injury, medication concerns, and potential veterinary emergencies to the Medical On-Call team.
• Communicate calmly, clearly, and compassionately with fosters, volunteers, staff, transporters, and rescue partners.
• Check designated foster and placement Facebook groups approximately every two hours during assigned weekend and holiday coverage.
• Document significant concerns, decisions, placement approvals, contacts made, and needed follow-up in the designated spreadsheet.
• Escalate significant human safety or liability concerns, law enforcement matters, public or media concerns, significant expenses, and decisions outside established policy to the Senior Placement Manager or designated leadership contact.

Qualifications

• Must be 18+.
• Reliable access to the internet and a smartphone.
• Ability to use Gmail, Shelterluv, Facebook, and other designated communication and recordkeeping systems.
• Animal welfare, foster support, intake, placement, shelter, rescue, or comparable crisis-response experience preferred.
• Knowledge of animal behavior, safe handling, foster-home matching, and Ruff Start Rescue policies and procedures.
• Ability to assess risk and make timely decisions with incomplete information.
• Ability to remain calm, organized, and solutions-focused during urgent situations.
• Ability to recognize when escalation or additional support is required.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and collaborate across departments.
• Physical demands: sitting for extended periods while working at a computer or on a smartphone and communicating effectively by phone, email, and other electronic platforms.
• Personal characteristics: flexibility, resourcefulness, resilience, ability to manage stress and change; integrity, maturity, sound judgment, discretion, accountability; calm, compassionate, solutions-focused during urgent or emotional situations; clear and respectful communication skills, including the ability to set boundaries and explain decisions; strong problem-solving skills and ability to manage several moving pieces; approachable and responsive to people's needs while maintaining established policies and expectations; ability to accept responsibility and lead by example; possibility-driven, proactive, personable, collaborative, and tactful; ability to work as a team player and support the overall goals of the organization.

Pay

On-call pay structure: Friday at 6 pm–Monday at 6 am on-call is $150 per weekend shift, and holidays are $75 per shift. + $20 per hour (total pay fluctuates due to work volume).

Schedule

Availability: This is a remote on-call role shared by two on-call coordinators, who will alternate coverage for assigned weekends and organizational holidays. Weekend coverage runs continuously from 6:00 p.m. Friday through 6:00 a.m. Monday. During this period, the assigned coordinator must remain reachable through the designated phone and communication channels for true emergencies involving immediate human or animal safety, including bites, animal fights, lost foster animals, immediate safety concerns, or an animal that cannot safely remain in its current home. These emergencies must be addressed as soon as possible. Facebook monitoring hours are 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on assigned weekends and holidays. During those hours, designated Facebook groups should be checked periodically, generally every two hours, for placement requests. Coordinators are not expected to continuously monitor Facebook outside these hours unless additional coverage has been specifically scheduled.