Lead Veterinary Surgeon
Location: Bushey & Hatch End, Hertfordshire
Hours: 40 hours per week | 4-day week | 1 in 3 Saturdays | 1 in 6 full weekends | No on-call
Practice: Blythwood Vets
Salary: £70,000–£80,000 per annum, depending on experience
Relocation: Up to £5,000 available for direct candidates
Lead the team. Shape the practice. Keep doing the clinical work you love.
What if your next leadership role didn't mean stepping away from the patients, the clinical work or the parts of veterinary medicine you enjoy?
At Blythwood Vets, we're looking for an experienced Veterinary Surgeon to become our next Lead Veterinary Surgeon, working across our Bushey and Hatch End practices.
This is an opportunity to take real ownership of clinical standards, support and develop your colleagues, influence how the practice works and help shape where Blythwood goes next while remaining firmly part of the clinical team.
We're looking for someone who is confident, approachable, proactive and genuinely enjoys bringing people with them. Someone who doesn't wait to be told what needs doing, who enjoys sharing knowledge and who gets satisfaction from seeing both colleagues and the practice develop.
You don't need to have been a Lead Vet before. If you've already been mentoring colleagues, taking responsibility for clinical standards or informally leading a team and you're ready to take that next step, we'd love to hear from you.
Why lead Blythwood?
- Real influence: Work closely with the Directors to shape clinical standards, team development and the future direction of the practice.
- Leadership without leaving clinical practice: Continue consulting and operating alongside your leadership responsibilities, with an approximately 40% consulting / 60% surgery caseload.
- A genuinely experienced team: Work alongside skilled Veterinary Surgeons and RVNs who are encouraged to use their expertise and take an active role in patient care.
- Clinical development & collaboration: We actively encourage learning and knowledge sharing. The practice benefits from a visiting peripatetic ultrasonographer who is an Advanced Practitioner in Medicine and working towards her Advanced Practitioner qualification in Imaging, alongside an external peripatetic Orthopaedic Surgeon.
- A practice that values initiative: If you see something that could be done better, you'll have the opportunity to make it happen.
- A loyal client base: Many clients have been with Blythwood for years, with a high proportion of insured patients allowing you to work cases up properly and build lasting relationships.
- Modern clinical facilities: Digital radiography, dental radiography and ultrasound with colour flow Doppler.
- A four-day week: 40 hours across four days, with no on-call.
- A great place to actually enjoy coming to work: A sociable, friendly team who celebrate together, from homemade cakes and a very well-stocked biscuit cupboard to team dinners and trips to the pub.
- Relocation support: Up to £5,000 available for direct candidates relocating for the role.
What does being Lead Vet at Blythwood actually mean?
This isn't a title you put on your CV and then carry on exactly as before. You'll become an important clinical and cultural figurehead across our practices.
You'll work alongside the Directors to identify opportunities to improve the way we work, support colleagues with clinical development, encourage knowledge sharing and help maintain the high standards our clients expect.
You'll have the opportunity to mentor vets and nurses, contribute to clinical discussions, share your own expertise and help turn good ideas into meaningful improvements.
And, importantly... you'll still be a vet.
We know that many experienced vets don't want a role that takes them entirely away from clinical work. You'll continue to enjoy a varied first opinion caseload, including both consultations and surgery, while developing your leadership skills and making a wider impact.
You'll work alongside the Directors and wider clinical team to maintain high standards, but also to continually improve them. You'll have the opportunity to discuss best practice with colleagues, within clinical meetings involving vet and nurse teams, share knowledge and experiences collaboratively and adapt and improve clinical protocols across the practice.
If you have an idea for doing something differently, we want you to bring it to the table. If you see an opportunity to improve patient care, develop a colleague or make a process work better, you'll have the autonomy at Blythwood to help make it happen.
You won't simply be responsible for maintaining standards, you'll have the opportunity to help define and improve them
Previous line management experience would be highly advantageous, but we're equally interested in vets who have naturally taken on leadership, mentoring or coaching responsibilities and are ready for their next step.
The kind of person we're looking for:
We're not looking for someone who simply ticks every box. We're looking for someone who thinks:
"I could make this even better." You might be the person colleagues naturally come to when they need advice. You might enjoy mentoring less experienced vets. You might spot a process that could work better and find yourself thinking about how to improve it. You're confident enough to make decisions, but approachable enough that people feel comfortable coming to you.
You're happy working independently when required, but you understand that the best clinical decisions often come from discussing cases with your colleagues.
You're ambitious about your own development but just as interested in helping the people around you develop too.
And ideally, you bring a bit of personality with you. We're a friendly and sociable team, so being approachable, positive and someone who enjoys a laugh is very much part of the brief (extra points if you can bake!)
The team & practice
Blythwood Vets has been part of the local community for over 40 years, caring for generations of pets and building relationships with clients who have stayed with us throughout the years. We're a first opinion small animal practice with four closely located sites across Bushey, Hatch End, Stanmore and Northwood, with our main clinical hubs in Bushey and Hatch End.
We're proud to be part of the RCVS Practice Standards Scheme and a Veterinary Nurse training practice. Our nurses are highly experienced and play an active role in patient care and inpatient monitoring, meaning you'll have a clinical team around you that you can genuinely rely on.
We also have a strong culture of discussing cases and sharing knowledge. Nobody is expected to know everything, and asking a colleague for a second opinion is viewed as good clinical practice, not a weakness. With visiting peripatetic support in ultrasonography and orthopaedics, our vets also have access to additional clinical expertise when managing more complex cases, as well as opportunities to continue developing their own skills.
Our clients are another big part of what makes Blythwood different. Many have been with us for years, and our high proportion of insured patients means we can investigate and manage cases thoroughly rather than constantly working against financial limitations.
You'll have the opportunity to build genuine relationships with clients and follow cases through
We also work closely with Cats Protection in Harrow, providing an opportunity to get involved with charity work and support feline patients in the local community.
We're serious about veterinary medicine, but we don't take ourselves too seriously. There are always sweets, cakes or biscuits appearing somewhere in the practice, and the team regularly get together outside work for dinners, drinks and social occasions.
We're looking for someone who will add to that culture, not just manage it.
Bushey is one of those places that gives you a little bit of everything. It's leafy, green and genuinely pretty, with a village feel, independent cafés, green spaces and a strong local community, while still having everything you need close by. You can be in Watford within minutes for shopping, restaurants, entertainment and leisure, while Watford Junction offers direct trains into central London in under 20 minutes. Whether you're looking for somewhere quieter to settle down, relocating with a family, wanting more space than London can offer, or simply fancy having countryside walks and London nights within easy reach, Bushey gives you both. If you're relocating, we can provide up to £5,000 towards your move.
What we're looking for
- 5+ years' small animal veterinary experience, ideally within UK practice.
- Previous line management, mentoring or clinical leadership experience is highly desirable.
- A confident clinician comfortable with a varied first opinion caseload, including surgery and consultations.
- Someone who naturally takes ownership, uses their initiative and looks for ways to improve.
- A strong communicator who can build trust with both clients and colleagues.
- Someone who enjoys developing others and creating a positive, high-performing team environment.
- A vet who is comfortable working independently when required while knowing when to seek support.
If you're looking for a leadership role where you can influence the practice, develop people, drive clinical standards and still be a hands-on vet, we'd love to talk to you.
For an informal conversation about the role, contact Joanne Gray at [email protected]
Benefits:
- 5 weeks holiday + bank holidays and birthday off (pro-rata for part-time)
- No out-of-hours (OOH)
- RCVS and VDS fees paid
- External CPD funded
- Extensive free online Linnaeus CPD program
- Career progression opportunities
- Staff discount schemes
- Enhanced sickness pay
- Enhanced equal family leave
- Wellness program including:
- Employee assistance program
- Eyecare voucher scheme
- Free annual flu jab
- Cycle to work scheme
Recruitment referral reward scheme.
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Blythwood is part of Linnaeus and Mars Veterinary Health, the largest family-owned veterinary company in the world. Being privately owned, we can truly be driven by our purpose, to create a better world, and think long-term as opposed to being focused solely on short-term profits.
At Linnaeus, A BETTER WORLD FOR PETS starts with a better world for our people. Our Associates are over 6000 strong and empowered to speak up, step up and deliver quality services. You’ll have access to a huge network of specialists, worldwide development opportunities and an easily accessible, comprehensive wellbeing package that prioritises your physical and mental health, allowing you to focus on what you do best – care for pets.
We are committed to fostering a culture that is inclusive and diverse, we care about you and want you to be authentic, with everything you need to perform at your best. We are all individual but two important things bring us together: a commitment to excellence and our passion to achieve our purpose.
If you would like to apply for the role or for an informal chat to discuss it further, please get in touch with Joanne in the recruitment team [email protected]
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