Specialty & ER Lead

About the role

The Specialty and ER Lead is responsible for shaping the strategy, deployment, operating standards, and growth priorities for VCA's Specialty and Emergency hospital network. This role partners closely with hospital and field leadership, medical operations, specialty and emergency clinical leaders, and cross-functional Support Office teams to design practical, channel-specific solutions that reflect the realities of complex medicine, unpredictable patient flow, referral relationships, and 24/7 emergency care. This is a strategic, hands-on role for a veterinary operations leader who can translate enterprise priorities into field-ready programs, simplify work for hospital teams, and strengthen VCA's ability to deliver exceptional specialty and emergency care for clients, patients, referring veterinarians, and associates.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the strategic roadmap for Specialty and Emergency hospitals, aligning channel-specific priorities with company-wide goals and medical quality expectations.
• Translate high-level strategy into clear, actionable deployment plans, timelines, and success metrics.
• Partner with field, hospital, medical, and specialty leaders to deploy programs, protocols, workflows, and tools in ways that fit Specialty and ER.
• Monitor performance against channel-appropriate KPIs, including access, caseload, staffing, referral capture, client experience, clinical workflow, and economic performance; adjust plans based on data, field feedback, and business needs.
• Identify and prioritize growth opportunities across the Specialty and ER network, including service-line expansion, emergency access, specialty capacity, referral development, and integrated care models.
• Build business cases for new initiatives, partnering with Finance and Field Operations to size impact and secure investment.
• Support the integration, stabilization, and ramp-up of new, acquired, or evolving Specialty and Emergency.
• Track veterinary specialty, emergency, referral, academic, and competitive market trends to inform channel strategy and investment priorities.
• Generate and champion ideas that simplify the daily work of specialists, emergency doctors, technicians, client service associates, and hospital leaders — reducing friction, unnecessary variation, and administrative burden.
• Gather feedback directly from clinic teams and turn it into practical process, tooling, or workflow improvements.
• Partner with Learning & Development, P&O, Medical Leadership, and specialty subject-matter experts to ensure initiatives are supported with practical training, change management, and clear leader guidance.
• Serve as a visible, trusted resource for Specialty and ER teams navigating new initiatives, enterprise programs, and channel-specific operating expectations.
• Design and refine operational standards that elevate the client, patient, and referring veterinarian experience across emergency, specialty, and hybrid hospitals.
• Use client feedback, referral partner insights, hospital visits, wait-time trends, transfer patterns, and operational data to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement.
• Ensure initiatives balance operational efficiency, clinical complexity, medical quality, and the compassionate experience clients and pets expect during urgent or high-acuity moments.
• Improve intake, triage, communication, discharge, referral follow-up, and client service workflows to make the Specialty and ER experience a competitive advantage for VCA.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree or DVM a plus.
• 7+ years of experience in veterinary specialty, emergency, multi-site healthcare operations, or a related field, with a track record of leading strategic initiatives in complex clinical environments.
• Demonstrated experience deploying programs across multiple locations or a distributed team.
• Strong project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple initiatives simultaneously and drive them to completion.
• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders at all levels — from clinic associates to executive leadership.
• Analytical mindset; comfortable using data to identify opportunities, measure impact, and make recommendations.
• Deep understanding of, or strong interest in, specialty medicine, emergency care, referral workflows, hospital operations, and the challenges facing high-acuity clinical teams.
• Willingness and ability to travel regularly to hospitals up to 10% of the time, including visits to specialty, emergency.
• Openness to digital innovation, including the responsible use of AI and emerging technologies, to improve healthcare delivery, reduce administrative burden, and create a better experience for associates, clients, and patients.
• All degrees will be deemed "or equivalent combination of education and experience" unless absolutely required to do the job (i.e., DVM degree for Veterinarian, Law degree for Attorney, etc.).

Preferred skills

• You've worked directly in or closely with specialty and emergency hospitals and understand the operational realities of high-acuity, referral-based, and 24/7 care environments.
• You're energized by solving operational problems and turning them into scalable solutions.
• You balance big-picture strategic thinking with a willingness to roll up your sleeves and get into the details.
• You put people — associates, clients, and pets — at the center of every decision.

Pay

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $104,393 - $180,077. Salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location.

Schedule

This role requires associates to work a hybrid schedule out of one of the MVH North America Hub Locations - Vancouver, WA | Santa Monica, CA.

Benefits

We offer competitive compensation along with a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, vision and paid vacation/sick days, 401(k), generous employee pet discounts and more.