Director of Operations at Vetster
Vetster (vetster.com) is the world’s fastest-growing veterinary telehealth and pet care marketplace. Since our launch in 2020, we have established ourselves as a leader in the rapidly growing pet care industry. Named Pet App of the Year, Vetster makes it easier for pet owners to connect with the veterinary care they need - anytime, anywhere.
We know that by empowering pet owners with easy-to-use, convenient services and an open marketplace, we can move the industry forward, create professional opportunities in the veterinary community, and fundamentally improve animal well-being and access to care. The work we are doing is groundbreaking and is changing lives.
We work in cross-functional teams and believe ownership and accountability, along with trust, respect, and inclusion, are core tenets of success in our new working paradigm. At all levels, successful Vetster team members are those who seek to advance their careers and share our ambition to build a global, high-growth brand. Please note that this role is hybrid, with 2 days per week spent in our office in midtown Toronto, located at Yonge and Summerhill.
Join our mission
Reporting to the COO, the Director of Operations will lead two things at once, company-wide operations and planning, and leadership of our Customer Experience organization. CE brings two functions together under one team: Support & Pet Care, and the RVT chat service for pet parents.
On the operations side, you'll partner with the COO on quarterly planning, process design, and the efficiency work that lets Vetster run at twice today's scale, freeing up the COO's time for the relationships and priorities only they can own.
On the CE side, you're stepping into a team made up of people who care, and it shows. We've served our customers well because of them. But the growth ahead is bigger than the systems built for the growth behind us, and we need someone who has lived that exact moment before: a strong team asked to do more, without the tools or structure built for the next stage.
This is not a ramp-up role in either direction. From day one, you'll run CE and shape how the company plans and operates. The two halves feed each other. Patterns you catch in CE often point to fixes the rest of the company needs, and operations work elsewhere often changes what's possible inside CE.
Key Responsibilities
Running Operations
- Quarterly Planning & Execution: Partner with the COO on company-wide quarterly planning. Turn strategy into a plan, and a plan into work that ships, giving the COO time back for the relationships and priorities that need their direct attention.
- New Initiative Scoping: Take a rough idea from the COO or CEO and turn it into a scoped plan before it goes to a full team, so the first draft of thinking doesn't eat executive time.
- Process & Systems: Audit how things get done today. Design and roll out the systems, tools, and standard operating procedures that let the company run at twice today's scale.
- Cross-Functional Project Ownership: Initiatives that touch Product, Marketing, and Sales but have no clear single owner today land with this person, so they get scoped and shipped instead of stalling between departments.
- Vendor & Budget Ownership: Support tooling, contractor relationships, and any operational spend that currently has no clear owner.
- Org-Wide Documentation: Map how work moves across departments, not just inside CE, so key knowledge doesn't live in one person's head.
- Risk & Dependency Tracking: Flag where one team's delay quietly becomes another team's blocker, before it shows up in a missed deadline.
- Decision Follow-Through: Own the gap between a decision made in a leadership meeting and that decision actually happening, so good calls don't die from lack of a tracker.
- Performance & Analytics: Define the KPIs that matter across CE and operations. Use them to catch problems early and to make the case for change.
Leading CE
- Team Leadership: Own and lead the CE organization, Support and Pet Care, starting day one. Take a team that already cares and already delivers, and build the structure, systems, and bench strength it needs for the next stage of growth.
- Tooling & Efficiency: Bring real fluency with support and CX software, ticketing systems, workforce management, chat platforms, whatever the category. Evaluate what we run today, fix what's slowing the team down, and build the case for what comes next.
- AI Competency & Innovation: Active engagement with our AI technologies to optimize operational workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and drive innovation across CE and internal processes.
- Operational Efficiency: Cut the time and friction in how CE works, so our RVTs spend more of their day on medical care and less on administrative work.
- Core Metrics: Cut cost to serve per ticket by moving repeat, low-complexity issues off RVT time and onto tooling or tiered support, so the expensive hours go to the cases that actually need a medical mind. Improve time to close by fixing the handoffs and queue structure that make simple tickets sit, not by asking people to work faster.
Required Skills & Experience
- Been There, Done That: This is the requirement that matters most. You've taken a support or CE function through a fast scale-up, and you can walk us through it in detail: team size before and after, ticket volume, resolution time, the tools you brought in, what broke along the way, and how you fixed it. General operations experience without this specific chapter is not a fit for this role.
- Support Software Fluency: Direct, hands-on experience with the tools that make a support team efficient: ticketing platforms, workforce management, chat and CX systems. You should be able to name what you've used and what you'd change.
- Team Development: A track record of taking a great team and making it the envy of any industry. Hiring, coaching, and building the bench strength a team needs to handle more without breaking.
- Process Optimization: A history of building systems that outlast the person who built them. Come ready to walk through one, in detail.
- Data Fluency: Comfortable turning a messy set of numbers into a clear recommendation, and defending it in a room with the CEO in it.
- Communication: Clear writing and clear speaking. You can brief a room of executives or a new hire on their first day, and neither one leaves confused.
- Judgment Under Ambiguity: You've made calls with incomplete information and lived with the result. Tell us about one that didn't go the way you planned.
- Domain Knowledge (Strong Asset): Experience in veterinary, healthcare, telehealth, or online marketplaces.
Why Join Us?
- The expected salary band for this position is $160,000-$180,000
- Unlimited access to Vetster for your pets.
- Dog-friendly office environment.
- Generous vacation and personal day policy.
- Comprehensive health and dental benefits for you and your family.
- RRSP matching program with Wealthsimple
- Employee Stock Option Plan.
- Parental leave top-up
- Opportunities for career growth and international assignments.
- A culture of inclusivity, equity, and team engagement.
Interview process:
- Introductory 30-minute Google Meet video call with Keltie Neville, People Operations, and Lyndal Moody, Director of Community
- 30-minute in-person interview at Vetster HQ with Brody Slacer, COO
- 60-minute in-person case study with Brody Slacer, COO, and other leaders in the business
- References and background checks
- Offer
Ready to Make a Difference?
Embark on a fulfilling journey with us to shape the future of pet healthcare. If you're driven by innovation, collaboration, and a love for pets, apply now to join our mission-driven team.
Accommodations
Vetster welcomes and encourages applications from everyone! We are committed to accommodating candidates in ways that will make them comfortable and successful throughout the hiring process - both physically and mentally. These accommodations are available at every stage of the application process upon request.
AI Use Statement
For this role, we will use AI screening in our Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to identify keywords and minimum qualifications, as well as note-taking in interviews. These tools will help us identify qualified candidates and move the recruitment process along at a steady pace. If you have any questions about our use of AI, please reach out to us.
