Animal Rescue Coordinator Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

JJ Studio AI — Pleasanton, CA / Tri-Valley

If you've spent time around dogs and cats — in a clinic, a shelter, a grooming table, a training yard — you already notice things most owners miss. The dog that's not "fine," just quiet. The cat that stopped jumping onto the counter three weeks ago and nobody connected the dots.

We're looking for someone with that eye to go talk to pet owners for us.

About us

JJ Studio AI is an early-stage pet wellness company in Pleasanton. We're working on ways to help dog and cat owners notice and understand changes in their pet's everyday behavior and wellbeing. Before we build anything further, we want to genuinely understand the people and animals we're building for.

The question we're trying to answer: What do dog and cat owners actually struggle with day to day — how do they notice when something's off with their animal, what do they do about it, and when does outside help really matter?

You'd be the person who goes and finds out.

What you'll actually do

• Talk with dog and cat owners, one on one — in person, by phone, or by video. Real conversations, not surveys. You ask about their animal, and you keep asking until you get past the polite answer to the real one.
• Get out into the Tri-Valley about 1–2 times a week — Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore and around. Meeting owners, visiting clinics, shelters, groomers, trainers, and pet businesses.
• Build relationships with local vet clinics, shelters, trainers, groomers, and pet service businesses — many of which you may already know.
• Write down what you saw and what you heard, keeping the two clearly separate: what the animal actually did vs. what the owner thinks it meant. This distinction is the heart of the job, and it's exactly the discipline good clinical or shelter notes already require.
• Find the patterns across conversations and bring them back to the founding team.
• Keep the pipeline warm — recruiting owners, scheduling, following up, thank-you notes. Nobody should ever feel forgotten.
• Keep the files tidy so the team can actually use what you gathered.

Who we're looking for

You've worked hands-on with dogs and/or cats. That could look like:

• Veterinary assistant, RVT, or vet clinic staff
• Shelter or rescue work — kennel, adoptions, behavior, foster coordination
• Dog training or cat behavior consulting
• Grooming, boarding, doggy daycare, professional pet sitting or dog walking
• Animal welfare or humane education work

What we're really after:

• You read animals well. You notice subtle behavior and wellness cues, and you can describe what you saw without jumping straight to a conclusion.
• You're easy to talk to. Strangers relax around you and tell you the real story — including the embarrassing parts they wouldn't tell their vet.
• You're curious about why. You don't take the first answer. You ask "what happened right before that?" and mean it.
• You separate what you observed from what you concluded. If you've written clinical or shelter behavior notes, you've already been doing this.
• You run your own schedule. Your own calendar, your own notes, your own follow-through.
• You can travel locally in the Tri-Valley about 1–2 times a week.

Nice to have

Any of these are a plus, but their absence won't count against you:

• Customer discovery, user research, or interviewing experience
• Comfort with everyday tools like Google Workspace, Notion, or Otter — or willingness to pick them up
• Clinical or field research coordination background
• Existing relationships in the Bay Area pet and veterinary community

How you'll work

You'll work directly with the founding team. No layers, and no research that sits unread. What you learn in the field goes into what we decide to build next, usually within the same week.

The kind of person who does well here

• Warm with nervous animals and nervous humans.
• Genuinely curious about why people do what they do, not just what they say they do.
• Reliable in the unglamorous parts — the reschedules, the thank-you notes, the tidy file names.

Scope note

This is a field and interviewing role. You won't be writing code, building models, or designing product UI — if you're looking for a software engineering, AI/ML, or product design position, this isn't it.

Employment details

• Status: Part-time W-2 (20 hours per week)
• Compensation: $27.00 – $29.00 per hour
• Duration: Initial 3-month period, with extension potential based on performance, research needs, and company resources
• Location / Schedule: Hybrid — typically 1–2 days per week in our Pleasanton office. Fieldwork across the Tri-Valley, documentation work generally remote
• Benefits: Paid sick leave in accordance with California law

This position does not include a guaranteed automatic conversion to full-time employment.

Hiring process

1. Application review
2. Introductory conversation + structured screening interview
3. Live practical session for selected candidates — about 30 minutes, using a fictional pet-owner scenario, to see how you talk with an owner and how you reason about animal behavior
4. Reference check and final conversation
5. Offer