Job opportunities

Aquatics Supervisor

Full time team leader for busy aquatics department within a luxury hotel.

Ideal candidate must have staff management experience, and a background in fish husbandry in the aquatic retail sector or experience working within public aquariums.

You will be working with a diverse array of rare tropical marine fish & corals, tropical freshwater aquariums & koi.

The ideal candidate must a full working knowledge of maintaining a diverse range of life support and a high level understanding of water chemistry.

This is a very hands on role and you will be competent in completing all tank maintenance tasks to a meticulously high standard along with daily water testing, record keeping, quarantine protocols and life support system maintenance. You will be expected to lead by example, as well as providing support to the rest of the aquatics team.

The collection is experiencing further growth, opening up this new position within an established, dynamic team.

Skills required include the ability to effectively time manage, self motivate and problem solve, these key skills along with an excellent work ethic and genuine desire to care for the species you are responsible is of primary importance.

Formal qualifications are secondary to industry experience and a proven track record in staff management.

Dive qualifications are advantageous, however the ability to swim competently is a requirement.

In return we offer a very competitive salary, workplace gym access, dynamic working environment where every day is exciting and diverse, regular CPD training from industry experts along with a commitment to developing our employees wherever an opportunity arises.

Weekend work is required, normally on a 3 in 4 basis rota basis, with 5 out of 7 days on.

50 hour week, 10 hours per day, including a 1 hour paid lunch break per day.

Work hours can vary pending winter/summer requirements.

Responsibilities

• Dynamically leading by example a team of aquarists.
• Overseeing the accurate preparation of all diets for all animals on the aquatics section, including ensuring correct and timely administration of any medications or supplements that may be given within these.
• Ensuring the daily feeding regime of all animals, including monitoring body condition fluctuations, reporting any concerns to your management.
• Ensuring twice daily visual health checking of Animals within the section, taking necessary action where needed and reporting of any anomalies to your management immediately.
• Ensuring you uphold high standards of cleaning and aquatic maintenance, disinfection of equipment & other related cleaning tasks are carried out accurately & diligently.
• Maintaining records and relevant data into the section logbooks and uploading this date to the Animal Care Database on a periodic basis to include but not limited to, water quality, condition of animals, food intake, training programmes.
• Ensuring fish always have high quality water parameters which are closely monitored and recorded.
• Awareness of the condition and welfare of all livestock within your section, monitoring environments to ensure they are kept safe and suitable, and subsequent.
• Ensuring yours and your teams full compliance with all issued SOP’s & RA's.
• Some working between areas of the site if required.
• Ensuring excellent presentation of the aquariums, enclosures and aquatic animals, meeting the collections high standards.
• Giving great interactions with the owners of the collection through site tours, answering any questions they may have and implementing any structural or husbandry changes they see fit.
• Training and oversight of junior staff when working within your section.
• Arranging veterinary treatment where needed, including reporting of any sick animals to the management, administering medications as per veterinary professionals or managements instructions.
• Learning to provide accurate information to supervisory colleagues for the submission of AHEF requests.
• Checking the security and safety of the area you are working within and and arranging for the repair of any damage or repairs required within your work area.
• Maintaining of animal equipment as required, inclusive of daily use equipment, regular checking of the areas handling equipment and PPE.
• Ensuring your workspaces within the department and site are always kept clean, presentable, and reporting of low stocks to the procurement team.
• Reporting of any H&S incidents or near misses in the accident book and any other issues that could affect yourself or your colleagues safety at work to the overall Manager in a timely manner.
• Checking security and safety of all areas within your section, ensuring all areas are secured at all times un-manned and any suspicious activity or unusual circumstances are reported immediately to Security and the duty manager.
• Any extra research or projects your management team requires you to undertake to enable you to care for new or unknown animals or to enable you to undertake specific client or managerial requests (i.e. breeding, coral propagation or other special projects allocated to your section).
• Hold a valid UK driving license and own a car that you are willing to partake in driving tasks as/when required, this can be moving staff to sites and doing vet runs, this is paid mileage and business insurance must be undertaken (at the company’s expense).
• Some snorkel cleans in exhibits
• Keeping work fleet buggies and vehicles presentable, including washing after every use, and reporting any maintenance issues through the relevant channels.
• Any other reasonable request your managers makes.
• Driving of work vehicles as required
• Ensuring any guest areas you work within are left in the same condition you found them in, not leaving any equipment out if not present.
• Assisting with new designs and builds within the Aquatics department, reviewing proposals and ensuring they meet the needs of our clients and animals.
• reporting & arrangement of any maintenance of filtration systems and other work that must be completed externally.
• Assistance within other departments of the site, if required.
• Any other reasonable request your manager makes.

You will be required to pass a full DBS check and have suitable references.