Job Description:
📍 Waltham on the Wolds
💷 £30,200 -£31,400 inclusive of rota allowance
🎁 + Company performance bonus & Exceptional Benefits
⏰ 9.5 hours per day on rotation working over 7 days (average of 37.5 hours per week)
🌟 Role Purpose
As a Unit Specialist, you will play a key role in delivering exceptional welfare standards while enabling high-quality pet science and research delivery. You will operate as part of a specialist multidisciplinary team supporting welfare, behavioural, veterinary, and scientific outcomes.
⭐ What’s in it for you?
- Private healthcare + equal parental leave
- Generous pension (up to 9% contribution)
- Life assurance (4x salary)
- Gym membership & wellbeing support
- Annual leave starting at 24 days, rising to 32 with service
- Career Opportunities, the role offers development into specialist, technical, or science-support career pathways within pet welfare, behaviour and research environments.
🧬 Key Responsibilities
- Welfare & Environment Delivery: Deliver and maintain gold-standard welfare, enrichment, and husbandry.
- Behaviour & Training Support: Support behavioural assessments, recreation and individual development plans.
- Health & Welfare Monitoring: Monitor health, behaviour, and wellbeing.
- Scientific Programme Support: Deliver accurate behavioural observations, data capture, and sample support for research studies.
✅ What We’re Looking For
- Professional animal handling experience
- Strong understanding of welfare and behaviour principles
- High attention to detail and data accuracy with a focus on quality
- Interest in scientific or technical environments
- Full UK driving licence
- Comfortable working outdoors in all weathers
🌍 What You Can Expect from Mars
- Work alongside 130,000+ Associates worldwide guided by our Five Principles
- Be part of a purpose-driven company shaping “the world we want tomorrow”
- Access world-class training & development from day one
- Join a company with an industry-leading salary and benefits package
Skills Required
- Professional animal handling experience
- Strong understanding of welfare and behaviour principles
- High attention to detail and data accuracy with a focus on quality
- Interest in scientific or technical environments
- Full UK driving licence
- Comfortable working outdoors in all weathers
Mars Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Mars and has not been reviewed or approved by Mars.
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Healthcare Strength — The benefits package is positioned as comprehensive, with broad medical coverage and additional protections like life insurance and short- and long-term disability. Mental health support is emphasized, including free mental health services and wellbeing programming under initiatives such as Mars Be Well.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave is highlighted as market-leading in the U.S., with an example of 18 weeks fully paid for both parents. Additional family-related leave types such as sick time for caregiving and bereavement leave are also described as part of the overall package.
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Retirement Support — Retirement offerings are described as strong, including 401(k) matching (with a 6% match cited) and pension plans in some cases. The broader package also references retirement savings options and contributions aligned to local market practice, supporting long-term financial security.
Mars Insights
What We Do
For more than a century, Mars, Incorporated has been driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. This idea is at the center of who we have always been as a global, family-owned business. Today, Mars is transforming, innovating and evolving in ways that affirm our commitment to making a positive impact on the world around us. Across our diverse and expanding portfolio of confectionery, food, and petcare products and services, we employ 133,000 dedicated Associates who are all moving in the same direction: forward. With $40 billion in annual sales, we produce some of the world’s best-loved brands including DOVE®, EXTRA®, M&M’s®, MILKY WAY®, SNICKERS®, TWIX®, ORBIT®, PEDIGREE®, ROYAL CANIN®, SKITTLES®, WHISKAS®, COCOAVIA®, and 5™; and take care of half of the world’s pets through our pet health services AniCura, Banfield Pet Hospitals™, BluePearl®, Linnaeus, Pet Partners™, and VCA™. We know we can only be truly successful if our partners and the communities in which we operate prosper as well. The Mars Five Principles – Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom – inspire our Associates to take action every day to help create a world tomorrow in which the planet, its people and pets can thrive.
