San Diego Humane Society is hiring a Full-Time Operations Captain for our Humane Law Enforcement team!

How you’ll impact our mission:

At San Diego Humane Society, we’re united by our mission to Inspire Compassion, providing hope and advancing the welfare of animals and people. In this role, you’ll be support our mission by working as a strategic partner to the Chief and to the Administrative Captain to lead the San Diego Humane Society’s Humane Law Enforcement (HLE) Department. The Operations Captain serves as the department’s field operations and performance leader, ensuring operational excellence through comprehensive oversight of field response, deployment/scheduling, daily team cohesion, field training execution, and operational performance reporting.

This role delivers service at the gold standard level in alignment with the SDHS Way, to meet the needs of animals and the people who love them by leading with compassion, finding creative solutions, providing personalized care and building connections. If you’re passionate about making an impact in the animal welfare movement, we’d love to talk to you.

What’s in it for you?

At SDHS, we’re proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer and commit to being a place where every person – staff, volunteer, and guest – can feel a sense of belonging. We support and invest in employees through conscious delivery of benefits and a workplace environment based on our Core Values.

As an employee you’ll enjoy:

• Competitive pay and paid time-off (including your Birthday Day Off!)
• Comprehensive benefits package, training and well-being programs
• 403(b) retirement plan with 5% match after 1 year
• Free pet adoptions, pet vaccines and spay/neuter services
• …and so much more!

What you’ll do:

• Partner with the Chief and Administrative Captain to provide unified leadership and strategic direction for the HLE Department across all campuses.
• Serve as the department’s primary operational leader, with accountability for day-to-day field response oversight, deployment and scheduling, call/queue management and operational prioritization, operational efficiency and response time performance, and field team readiness, cohesion, and accountability.
• May serve as Acting Chief when required, or as Incident Commander/command staff as designated for SDHS participation in emergency situations/disasters.
• Provide overnight on-call duty coverage with other campus personnel as assigned on an as needed basis to support with emergent needs such as staffing or emergencies. On-call coverage will assist public safety agencies or others in responding to Priority One calls.
• Direct and oversee daily field operations across campuses/jurisdictions, ensuring consistent service delivery and alignment with contractual obligations and SDHS standards.
• Own field staffing plans and scheduling practices (shift coverage, workload balancing, resource deployment), in coordination with Lieutenants and /Sergeants.
• Monitor call demand and operational constraints; adjust deployment tactics and priorities to meet response expectations and animal welfare outcomes.
• Serve as the primary owner of operational performance management, including the identification and resolution of barriers to efficiency.
• Hold primary responsibility for daily/weekly/monthly operational reporting, including response times, call volume and call types, workload distribution and staffing impacts, productivity and service-level performance indicators, and field training progression metrics (in coordination with training owners).
• Serve as an operational point of contact for investigation-related logistics and coordination with external stakeholders (e.g., District/City Attorney’s offices, forensic specialists) as designated by the Chief.
• Own the execution of the Field Training Program and readiness standards in partnership with Lieutenants and /Sergeants.
• Collaborate with the Administrative Captain (SOP governance and compliance owner) and field leaders to implement and operationalize SOPs in the field.
• Assist with budget preparation by providing operational forecasting (staffing impacts, equipment needs, overtime drivers) to support the Chief and Administrative Captain.
• Work closely with Government Relations to support municipal animal field services and contracts by providing operational performance insight, metrics, and field coordination.

What we’re looking for:

• Bachelor’s degree in Administration of Justice, Animal Science, Public Administration, Human Resources, or related field with at least seven (7) years of full-time progressively responsible related experience in law enforcement, investigations, or animal control organizations, including at least three (3) years supervisory experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience required.
• Must successfully complete P.O.S.T. 832 and CA state-approved humane academy and satisfy requirements of Government Code Sections 1029, 1030, and 1031 within one year of employment (as applicable to assignment).
• Must pass a full P.O.S.T. background check, medical and psychological screening, drug screening and LiveScan. 
• Must have a valid driver’s license and be approved by SDHS insurance carrier to drive a company or personal vehicle for work purposes. 
• Demonstrated strength in operational leadership, scheduling/deployment management, performance analytics, performance management and continuous improvement. Excellent organizational, problem-solving, interpersonal, conflict resolution, and verbal/written communication skills; strong report writing skills with ability to synthesize and translate information for diverse audiences.
• Bilingual in English/Spanish preferred. 

Location & Hours: Based at our San Diego Campus. This position works 40 hours per week. Must be able to work weekends/evenings as required and during disasters may involve overnight work.

Pay: Starting range is between $92,429 – $120,158 per year.

The listed hiring range for this position depicts the target range of pay rates for candidates. The maximum of the hiring range is reserved for candidates with the highest qualifications and relevant experience. Compensation for internal candidates may increase beyond the listed range based on performance over time. For all candidates, the actual starting pay rate is determined by a variety of factors, including but not limited to your years of related education and experience, internal pay equity, and position location.

To learn more about our benefits and perks, click here.

Applicants can be submitted through our Job Opportunities Page!

To learn more about our benefits and perks, head to our Careers Page!