Behavior Enrichment Lead

About the Humane Rescue Alliance (HRA) For more than 150 years, the Humane Rescue Alliance has championed the protection of animals, support for people, and service to the community. With campuses in the District of Columbia and New Jersey, along with the nation’s leading pet transport initiative, it stands as the largest and most comprehensive animal services provider in the region. Each year, HRA transforms the lives of tens of thousands of animals through rescue and adoption, humane protection, access to medical care, innovative community programs, and legislative leadership. Its broad reach and deep expertise enables HRA to reimagine traditional sheltering and address the most complex challenges facing animals and the people who love them.   Job Summary The Behavior & Enrichment Lead is responsible for leading and implementing HRA’s animal behavior and enrichment initiatives to ensure the well-being, safety, and successful placement of shelter animals. This role provides behavior support, training resources, and consultations to staff, volunteers, fosters, and community members, with the goal of reducing returns and relinquishments. The position oversees daily animal care and behavior programs, supervises staff and volunteers, conducts intake assessments, develops and facilitates advanced volunteer training, and ensures all behavior practices align with force-free, evidence-based methods. The Role: What You’ll Do Always represent HRA in a professional and courteous manner. Provide quality service to the public, volunteers, and employees recognizing their individual contributions to the success of the organization. Supervise/delegate animal care tasks to ensure effective completion within HRA SOP/Gs' and best practices Provide and maintain an accurate euthanasia list and schedule for euthanasia to be performed in a timely manner. Provide fosters, adopters, and community members with behavior support, training resources, and consultations to reduce returns and relinquishments. Conduct regular revenue-generating behavioral consultations, as determined by the Chief of Operations Conduct intake interviews for all canines, as well as felines with behavior concerns. Coach and train new animal care staff through onboarding and ongoing professional development, providing guidance, feedback, and cross-training to strengthen knowledge of shelter operations, safe handling, enrichment, and behavior best practices for staff and advanced volunteer teams. Develop, update, and facilitate advanced volunteer training programs and related protocols (e.g., Volunteer Behavior Assistants, Purple Level) Design and provide enrichment and behavioral interventions for shelter animals (including requests for medication), especially higher-need cases (HLE, LOS, rapid deterioration) based on behavior and/or length of stay. Design, implement, and evaluate daily enrichment and behavior programs (e.g. playgroups, interactive feeding, sensory…