Location – Graves Animal Farm, Graves Park, Sheffield S8 8LL

Hours of Work – Average of 37 hours per week over 5 days, 1 weekend in 4, enhancements are paid for weekend working.

Graves Park Animal Farm is based in Sheffield’s largest park and is one of the busiest park attractions with over 250,000 visitors per year. The Farm looks after a variety of animals including chickens, guinea pigs, goats, sheep, llamas, alpacas, wallabies, horses, pigs and a small herd of Highland Cattle. The farm maintains a 5* Animal Welfare standard at the same time as running a busy event program and opening to the public 7 days a week.

We are looking for a candidate that can maintain a high standard of animal welfare at the same time as providing an excellent visitor experience for members of the public and educational trips.

The successful candidate will have:

• Minimum 3 years’ experience working with a variety of animals in a public animal park or commercial farm and competent in utilising resources and machinery.
• Comprehensive knowledge of animal husbandry encompassing stock control and experience of breeding programs as well as the ability to undertake, manage, and record all aspects of animal care on site.
• Self-motivated and organised with the ability to work to deadlines, effectively multi-tasking in a busy environment.
• In the absence of the Head Stockperson to direct and supervise other staff and volunteers to deliver high quality animal care and an excellent visitor experience.
• Excellent customer service skills remaining calm under pressure while working in a public-facing environment.
• Enthusiastic about the farm with a willingness to actively pursue ideas for improvement.
• Flexible as there is a need to work regular weekends, occasional evenings, and Bank Holidays to cover events and ensure service delivery.

Join us and you will receive a generous rewards package including membership of the Local Government Pension scheme. In addition, you will be working in a supportive environment where you will have the chance to make Sheffield a better place and contribute to its future.

For further information about this position, including application details, please visit Sheffield City Council's job vacancies web page. For informal enquiries, please contact Catherine McDougall on catherine.mcdougal@sheffield.gov.uk.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all individuals, ensuring a safe and supportive environment for everyone and where appropriate to the role the successful applicant will be required to undertake relevant safeguarding checks.

We are investing in our workforce and are promoting opportunities to our under-represented groups. We value equality, diversity and inclusion and are focused on increasing the diversity of our workforce, particularly the number of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, Disabled and LGBTQ+ people, so that our teams reflect the communities in the city we serve. We are also supporting staff with unpaid caring responsibilities to work flexibly.

It is a great time to join us and we welcome your application.

Under the Disability Confident Scheme, disabled applicants, who meet the essential criteria of this job, are guaranteed an interview.

Full-time employees work 37 hours for 52 weeks of the year and we offer a generous holiday entitlement. We are open to discussions about a wide range of flexible working opportunities which benefit you and the Council, including reduced hour contracts, working part time or as a job share.

If you are appointed to this role, your starting salary will be at the bottom of the grade. If you provide payslip evidence that your basic pay is greater than the bottom of the grade, we will consider starting you at the point of minimum advantage within the grade.

Equality of pay is extremely important to us. All roles at Sheffield City Council are going through an evaluation process which may result in changes to some pay arrangements from 2026. Find out more on our Sheff news page.