Director, Community Cat Program

Who we are:

Flatbush Cats is a Brooklyn-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to reduce overcrowded animal shelters in New York City and prevent more cats from ending up on the street in the first place. What began as a grassroots rescue effort has grown into a citywide organization addressing the root causes through affordable veterinary care, access to spay/neuter services, and community outreach.

At the heart of our work is Flatbush Veterinary Clinic, a high-volume nonprofit clinic serving low-income pet owners, rescue organizations, and Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) volunteers throughout Brooklyn. Each year, the clinic performs more than 7,500 spay/neuter surgeries—a number that continues to grow—while providing affordable wellness and dental care to thousands of pets.

By combining high-quality veterinary care with a commitment to accessibility, we're helping keep pets with their families while creating a city where more people and pets can receive the support they need.

What you’ll do:

Flatbush Cats' Community Cat Program is a best-in-class model for trap-neuter-return (TNR), community outreach and support to reduce the outdoor cat population in Brooklyn. As part of this work, we also manage friendly cat rescue, temporary sheltering, medical care, fostering, and adoptions.

The Director will lead us through an exciting period of growth and expansion. They are responsible for the strategic leadership, systems/operations, and long-term sustainability of this program to maximize our impact in New York City.

This role ensures that community engagement, rescue and field work, medical care, sheltering and adoptions operate as a cohesive pipeline, backed by efficient and humane systems. As the leader of this work, the Director will align program goals to the mission and oversee execution, clarify ownership and decision-making, and build infrastructure that allows the program to scale far beyond our service area.

This is a systems and people leadership role, not a frontline execution role.

Work Schedule:

This is a full-time, on-site position in Flatbush, Brooklyn, with a Monday through Friday workweek. 

Flexibility is required, including occasional evening or weekend hours for offsite events and program activities, with advance scheduling whenever possible.

What you’ll get:

Compensation

The hiring range is $150,000-$170,000 annually, based on experience, skills, and qualifications.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance with 100% employer-paid premiums

  • Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) fully funded to cover the plan deductible, with funding levels based on coverage tier (employee-only, employee + spouse, or family)

  • Flexible Spending Account (FSA) with optional employee enrollment

    • $500 annual employer contribution to the FSA, provided regardless of enrollment, plus an additional employer match of up to $500 for employees who enroll

  • 401(k) retirement plan with employer match: 100% match on the first 3% of contributions, plus 50% match on contributions up to 5%

  • Transit and parking benefit: $60 monthly employer contribution, applicable to either transit or parking at the employee’s discretion

  • Paid time off

  • Paid sick time

  • Paid holidays

Responsibilities:

Community Cat Program Strategy & Operations

  • Create and lead the Community Cat Program into its next phase, standardizing and formalizing the work done by staff, medical teams and volunteers. 

  • In collaboration with the VP of Operations and Medical Director, expand our work to new service areas in Brooklyn, and build out support networks for other rescuers in NYC through training initiatives.

  • Establish clear program goals, success metrics, and priorities. Identify bottlenecks and work with the VP of Operations to overcome those barriers.

  • Develop relationships with key rescue groups to provide services, support, and capacity building.

  • Ensure consistency in standards of care, volunteer experience and community trust.

  • Lead efforts to document our work, track key data, and showcase the impact of the Community Cat program.

  • Serve as an external contact for access to care initiatives - connecting partner organizations, key stakeholders and community members with clinic / program services and resources.

  • Represent the organization, our values and core beliefs externally at conferences, community events and other touchpoints.

People Management and Leadership Development

  • Directly manage program leads and coordinators, providing:

    • Clear expectations and decision authority

    • Regular coaching, feedback, and performance evaluation

    • Support during high-stress or emotionally complex situations

  • Develop leadership capacity in managers so they can:

    • Own decisions within their scope

    • Proactively surface risks and opportunities

    • Build resilient volunteer-facing teams

  • Collaborate with the VP of Operations and Program Leadership on development of key staff and roles, ensuring we are building a bench of leaders both in the volunteer program and within program team members.

Volunteer and Community Systems Oversight

  • Ensure volunteer-facing programs are:

    • Clearly structured

    • Supported with strong onboarding and documentation

    • Retention-oriented and values-aligned

  • Oversee consistency in communication tone, expectations, and conflict resolution across programs.

Medical, Shelter and Rescue Operations Oversight

  • Provide strategic oversight of:

    • Medical triage systems and escalation pathways

    • Shelter capacity, flow, and compliance

    • Foster, adoption, and rescue throughput

  • Partner with the Medical Director to:

    • Ensure all medical services are provided to cats in care (shelter and foster) appropriately, following best practices as outlined by the Medical Director.

    • Medical decisions are timely, documented, and sustainable

    • Shelter and foster capacity align with intake decisions

  • Ensure full compliance with New York’s Agriculture and Markets Law Article 26-C, which sets comprehensive operational and care standards for animal shelters and rescues statewide.

Process Design, Documentation and Governance

  • Establish and maintain program protocols and ensure all staff and volunteers are appropriately trained.

  • Drive continuous improvement initiatives across programs.

  • Collaborating with the Leadership and Infrastructure team, this role would lead the integration of new systems and database tools, aligning communication and important documentation to maximize efficiency and scalability.

Qualifications:

  • 8+ years of progressive experience in animal welfare, community cats, veterinary services, rescue, sheltering, or other sectors that  includes significant program or team leadership.

  • 3+ years of experience managing multidisciplinary teams, with a demonstrated ability to develop leaders and build high-functioning teams.

  • Proven experience building, scaling, or significantly improving complex programs, including developing systems, workflows, protocols, and infrastructure to support growth.

  • Strong understanding of community cats, TNR, rescue, sheltering, and/or access to veterinary care, with experience overseeing interconnected programs and services.

  • Demonstrated ability to translate strategy into execution, including setting goals and metrics, clarifying ownership, identifying bottlenecks, and driving continuous improvement.

  • Excellent communication, judgment, and relationship-building skills, with a commitment to humane, accessible, evidence-based animal welfare and the ability to represent Flatbush Cats externally.