Veterinary Practice Manager job description
410 verified openings in Veterinary Practice & Front Desk
A veterinary practice manager runs everything in an animal hospital except the medicine: staff, schedules, budgets, and the systems that hold the records. BLS has no veterinary line for the job. It counts these managers under medical and health services managers, an occupation built mostly on human health care. Inside veterinary services, 4,390 of them held jobs in May 2025, with a median of $80,580. That is well below the occupation's national median of $123,860, and the range is wide, from under $56,120 at the tenth percentile to over $179,990 at the ninetieth.
Core Duties and Responsibilities
Supervising and evaluating staff tops the O*NET task list, followed by setting up and keeping the record systems that store personnel and business data and produce reports. Managers plan and run the practice's services, manage its finances, set budgets, authorize spending, and set the rates charged for services. They build work schedules around workload, space, and equipment. Recruiting, hiring, and training staff falls to them, as does writing the policies and procedures the hospital runs on. They also keep track of changes in regulation and equipment that affect the business.
Common Skills and Technologies
Speaking and critical thinking score highest in O*NET's skills survey, with reading comprehension, active listening, writing, and monitoring just behind. The technology list for the occupation is written for human health care. What carries across to a veterinary office is the part employers ask for most, Microsoft Excel, Outlook, and the Office suite, along with accounting software such as QuickBooks.
Education, Training, and Career Path
Job Zone Four. Nearly half of O*NET's respondents, 46 percent, said the position needs a bachelor's degree, and 21 percent a master's. The field's own credential is the Certified Veterinary Practice Manager, sponsored by the Veterinary Hospital Managers Association. Candidates need three years of practice management experience, 18 semester hours of management coursework, 48 hours of management continuing education, and four letters of recommendation. They then have two years to pass the exam, and recertification takes 48 hours of continuing education every two years.
Sources: O*NET 30.0, 11-9111.00 Medical and Health Services Managers, https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/11-9111.00. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, 11-9111, veterinary services (NAICS 541940), https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm. Veterinary Hospital Managers Association, https://www.vhma.org/certificatesandcertification/cvpmroadmap.