Senior Manager of Animal Training

About the role

The Senior Manager of Animal Training and Behavioural Programs leads the institution’s animal training, behavioural husbandry, welfare monitoring, ambassador animal, and animal presentation programmes. This role embeds behavioural management into all aspects of animal care across mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and other taxa.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and continuously improve strategic animal training and behavioural management programmes based on positive reinforcement and evidence‑based welfare science.
• Establish training frameworks that ensure consistency across departments while supporting species‑specific initiatives to improve welfare, husbandry, safety and veterinary care.
• Design cooperative medical training programmes that reduce stress during examinations, blood collection, injections, imaging, grooming and other procedures.
• Collaborate with veterinary and welfare teams to create behavioural solutions that minimise chemical restraint and increase voluntary participation in healthcare.
• Lead behavioural enrichment, monitoring and data‑collection systems to support evidence‑based welfare assessment and management.

Required profile

• Bachelor’s degree in Animal Behaviour, Zoology, Psychology, Animal Science, Wildlife Management, Conservation Biology, Veterinary Science, Behavioural Ecology or related field.
• Experience in accredited zoological institutions (e.g., AZA, EAZA, WAZA) and in zoological animal training, behavioural management and welfare science.
• Demonstrated leadership in developing and implementing institutional behavioural programmes.

Required skills

• Expertise in operant conditioning, positive reinforcement training and modern zoological training methodologies.
• Knowledge of behavioural observation, data collection, welfare assessment and activity budgeting.
• Ability to work collaboratively with curators, veterinarians, keepers, educators and conservation teams.