Veterinary careers

Become a vet at RSPCA Victoria and join a team of passionate people working to improve the welfare and quality of life for animals. 

Working at an RSPCA Victoria vet clinic is a unique experience, with opportunities to work in both private practice and shelter medicine helping pets and animals in our care.

RSPCA Victoria has two clinics at our animal care centres in Burwood East and Peninsula. Here we provide a comprehensive array of veterinary services to help people’s pet live a happy and healthy life.

We strive to be a centre of excellence and pride ourselves using the latest research and treatments to ensure we are providing best practice, compassionate veterinary care to our patients.

More than 14,000 animals come through the doors of RSPCA Victoria every year. Some of these animals have come from unsafe living environments and are very unwell, while others simply need routine desexing and vaccinations to prepare them for a new loving home – either way, our vet team is integral in giving them a second chance at life.

A day in the life of a veterinarian or vet nurse might involve facilitating vet consults for the private clinic, desexing shelter animals and providing vet care to Inspectorate animals who have been neglected or subjected to cruelty.

RSPCA Victoria has more than 30 vets and vet nurses across our clinics. Hear from some of our long-standing team members about their experiences. 

“I started at RSPCA Victoria as a volunteer. They supported me through my studies and I have gone on to become the nurse team leader at RSPCA Peninsula. There is a strong support network from both colleagues and managers. The difference with RSPCA Victoria is that there is a clear focus on animal welfare, not add-on products and sales targets.” – Melissa, Veterinary Nurse Team Leader, 18 years’ service.

“I love the ‘can do’ attitude and collegiate feel at RSPCA Victoria, it is a supportive environment and you can find your niche and grow into it. It is a multicultural workplace with lots of people who share their wisdom, and with a large workforce, there is always something happening.” – Sue, Veterinarian, 15 years’ service

At RSPCA, we aim to provide the best clinical outcome to patients from both our shelter and private clinics. We strive to be a centre of clinical excellence, with highly skilled teams performing best practice medical care to our animals.

We are committed to enhancing the skills of our veterinary teams, with access to financial support and allocated time to complete continued professional development within work hours. You can read more about benefits of working at RSPCA Victoria here.

Graduate veterinarians are supported with shorter consultation times, professional development and opportunities to experience and participate in surgery for private patients and shelter animals.

The Wotherspoon Scholarship has been made possible by way of a generous bequest made by Mr John Owen, in memory of his dog Honey. It is a $5,000 scholarship to undertake advanced formal study, research or professional practice in a discipline that will contribute to the understanding and development of shelter medicine at RSPCA Victoria.

To join the team, view the current vacancies in our veterinary team on our opportunities page.