The Dog Wellbeing Technician helps people with sight loss to live the life they choose by ensuring the wellbeing and specialist care of our dogs are met. This is achieved through carrying out husbandry duties in order to provide for the wellbeing of dogs whilst accommodated at a Guide Dogs site. 

This role will be based on site at our Maidstone office, working closely with a team of guide Dog Wellbeing Technicians. You’ll be working 17.5 hours per week, worked between Monday and Friday. 

We offer a generous pension scheme, annual leave, life assurance and enhanced pay for parenting and sickness leave. In addition, we provide an Employee Assistance Programme, flexible benefits package and discounts and cashback scheme to care for our people.

More details can be found in the attached candidate pack and job description.

We reserve the right to close adverts earlier than the closing date.

Diversity
Guide Dogs welcomes applications from all sections of the community and actively encourages diversity to maximise achievements, creativity, and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or nationality.

We encourage applications from people with disabilities as they are currently under-represented in the organisation and guarantee an invitation to interview for all applicants with disabilities who demonstrate, within their application form, sufficient evidence to meet the essential criteria for the job.

Safeguarding
Guide Dogs is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children, young people and adults at risk of harm with whom we work. We expect all our employees and volunteers to fully share this commitment.

At Guide Dogs, we believe in fair and equitable hiring practices. A criminal record will not automatically disqualify an applicant from consideration for a position. Each case will be evaluated individually, taking into account the nature of the offense, its relevance to the role, and the time that has passed since the incident. We encourage all candidates to disclose relevant information, and we assure you that it will be handled confidentially and fairly.

To be able to fulfil this role, the skills and experience we are looking for in a potential candidate include;

• Experience of working in a kennel type environment - paid employment or voluntary.
• Experience of supporting a customer serving based organisation.
• Proven understanding of the core principles of animal wellbeing.
• Demonstrable basic understanding of health and safety and safeguarding.
• Proven understanding of dog care principles and health conditions.
• Computer literate, with good Microsoft Office skills and ability to effectively use databases.
• Excellent verbal and written skills as well as a basic level of mathematics required.
• Ability to demonstrate aptitude for dog handling and recognising canine communication.
• Effective time management skills and ability to manage multiple tasks.
• Adaptability and flexibility to the changing needs of the role.
• Effective communication skills.
• Independent and able to make decisions/direct others based on own knowledge and experience.
• Ability to problem solve and be resourceful in non-routine situations.
• Demonstrate ability to coach/train others.
• Emotional resilience to manage demands of the role.

For the complete list of essential and desirable criteria necessary to be successful in this role please see the Person Specification within the Job Description below. The candidate pack contains more information about this role & the recruitment process at Guide Dogs.

If you are successful you will need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK. We cannot provide sponsorship for this role.

How to apply
If you have any accessibility needs, please contact our Recruitment Team on 0118 3540345 or TATeam@guidedogs.org.uk

Applications need to be made using the online application form, accessed using the ‘apply’ button above.

As part of your application ensure you provide evidence and examples of how your skills & experience meet the criteria as set out in the attached job description.

The system has a one-hour time limit. We would advise you to prepare your answers separately and then copy and paste into the online form once finalised.

If any mandatory fields are missed, a pop-up box will appear at the top of the page advising which sections require completion.

Guide Dogs follow Safer Recruitment practices to ensure we are safeguarding the vulnerable people we work with. As part of this, we require a full work history with any gaps accounted for & a minimum of 2 professional referee details fully covering the past 5 years. If there is not enough space in your application form to provide this information, please ensure you upload additional documentation containing the additional detail.

Please contact our Recruitment Team on 0118 3540345 or TATeam@guidedogs.org.uk if you require any support with your application.