Description

Associate Veterinarian

Urgent Care Vet Panama City  |  Panama City, Florida

We’re looking for one veterinarian to join us as a full-time associate — someone who would be glad to help us build something good, with a real path to ownership and a meaningful voice in how we grow.

If the description below resonates with you, we’d genuinely love to hear from you. We read every application personally and respond within five business days — we’re not running a high-volume hiring funnel; we’re looking for one person.

Urgent Care Vet Panama City opened in late 2022. We were founded to be the place our neighbors could bring their pets when their regular vet was closed — and to do that well, not as a stopgap. The nearest 24-hour emergency hospital is about an hour away, and most of our clients won’t make that drive. So when a pet needs to be seen, we see them. When a pet needs surgery or wound repair, we usually do the work here rather than send the family two hours round-trip.

We’re independent and owner-operated, intentionally present in this community and diligent in our work. This practice was built thoughtfully, and we intend to keep building it that way. We’ve grown steadily since opening — roughly 20% per year — and we’d like to keep growing: more team members, more veterinarians, expanded services over time. If you’d like to help shape what comes next, we’d love to meet you.

We want to be the best place for people to bring their pets when their own vet is closed, and the best place for veterinarians and support staff to work. We do our work with integrity, and we hold ourselves to a standard that is built into our operations and taught to everyone who joins our team.

We are earnest and transparent with our clients, our staff, and each other. Transparency isn’t a slogan here — it shows up in a clear estimate before we treat, and an honest answer when the right call is to wait or refer, even when that means less revenue for us. Our prices are appropriate for the services we provide and the timing in which we provide them — we don’t compete on price, and we don’t need to.

We understand our place in the local veterinary community. Daytime practices can refer their clients to us with confidence — we handle the urgent care and hand the patient back. We don’t sell food or preventives, and we don’t compete with primary care vets for the long-term relationship. We’re a resource, not a rival.

This is a working practice. Effort is the foundation of how we operate, and our compensation rewards it. We are cultivating emotional intelligence and resilience in our staff, and we are known in our community for kindness, knowledge, and professionalism. We’re not stagnant — we are always working to improve the client experience and the outcomes for the pets in our care.

You’d arrive in the afternoon to round on hospitalized patients, review notes from the overnight team, follow up on cases, and handle administrative items before the doors open. Public walk-in hours are 6pm to 10pm, seven days a week. During those hours, you’re the only DVM on the floor, supported by a team of 4–6 people: two or more staff members proficient in restraint, sample collection, radiographs, and procedure setup; a shift lead who handles all of that plus financial conversations with clients; and a triage clerk. Our team members aren’t credentialed technicians — they’re people we’ve trained ourselves, and they’re genuinely good at what they do.

After 10pm, you finish what’s in front of you. If a case walked in at 9:45 needing a surgical repair, you complete it — and those later nights are exactly the production your ProSal pays you for. Some nights you’re out by 10:30; some nights it’s 1 or 2am. You can’t predict urgent care — some days the census is light, others are intense. What stays constant is this: when you leave, you’re done.

The overnight team carries out your treatment plans and texts you with questions only if needed — they rarely need to call you back in. You write your orders, hand off your hospitalized patients, and your night is genuinely over. There’s no on-call rotation: when you’re off, you’re off. If a relief or partner vet is taking the next day’s shift, they handle the team’s questions from that point forward.

You’ll make the clinical calls. You’ll decide whether to perform a surgery, repair a wound, or refer to the 24-hour ER, and we’ll support your judgment. You won’t be on an island — the owner, also a DVM, is available for mentoring and to talk through difficult cases.

Surgical volume runs around six cases a week. Not every night is two or three surgeries, though — some nights are lighter on the table and heavier on workup, where a case waits on diagnostics before you settle on a treatment plan, hospitalization, or referral. That’s the real range of urgent care, and it’s the work you’d own.

We run on ezyVet, our cloud-based practice-management and medical-records system.

This is a full-time position. You’d work roughly half the days on the calendar — approximately 14–16 shifts per month — with the schedule built collaboratively to fit your life. A few structures we’re open to:

•      Traditional rotation — 3–4 days per week, with weekends shared between you and the other DVM
•      Panama schedule (7 on / 7 off, or 3–4 alternating) — especially good for someone who values long blocks of recovery time, or who lives outside Panama City and wants to commute in for stretches
•      Something else that works for you — we’re open to creative arrangements as long as the days are covered well
• If you take the Panama option, the other DVM covers your off-weeks until we hire a third veterinarian, which we expect to do as the practice continues to grow.

Paid time off: you’ll receive 15 paid shifts off per year, granted at the start of the year rather than accrued over it — on a ~14–16 shift month, that’s roughly three weeks of working time. We’d rather you take it than bank it; rest is part of doing this work well. This is separate from the 3 paid CE days above and from shared holiday coverage.

The associate we hire won’t be walking into a system that’s already finished. You’ll have a real voice in how we operate — clinical protocols, staff training, scheduling, policies, and how we expand. We don’t want a vet who just shows up for shifts. We want a vet who helps us build what comes next. The degree of influence will grow naturally with your tenure and your investment in the practice.

Pro-Sal structure: base draw plus 20% of personal gross production, paid as the greater of the two.

For an associate doing quality work and producing well, $250,000 annually is the floor, not the ceiling. A previous associate of ours earned $250K under this structure; at our current volume and continued ~20% annual growth, a committed full-time associate has meaningful room above that.

•      No Florida state income tax — at this income, that’s often $10,000 or more a year that stays in your pocket compared with most states
•      Sign-on bonus: $20,000 (half at start, half at 12 months)
•      Relocation assistance: $10,000 (flat, paid at start)

•      Health, dental, vision, and life insurance — we cover 80% of employee premiums
•      Employer-funded retirement (SEP-IRA): Once eligible, the practice contributes the same percentage of your income that the owner contributes for himself — no contribution required from you, and it’s 100% vested immediately. Eligibility begins after 3 years of service. We set it up that way on purpose: this benefit is built for the people who stay and grow with us, and when it kicks in, it’s substantial. We’d be glad to walk through the numbers when we meet.
•      $2,000 annual CE allowance and 3 paid CE days
•      Florida license, DEA, AVMA, and FVMA dues covered
•      Professional liability insurance

Panama City sits on Florida’s Gulf Coast, on the stretch known for some of the world’s most beautiful white-sand beaches and clear emerald water. Inshore and offshore fishing, scuba, snorkeling, boating, and miles of bike trails are all part of an ordinary weekend here.

It’s a real community, too — with HCA and Ascension hospitals, a Florida State University campus, and the Naval Surface Warfare Center all here, a relocating partner has real options to build a career as well. School options include charter and specialty schools like Rising Leaders Academy and University School, and there are events such as the Gulf Coast Jam, Panama City Beach Bike Week, and IRONMAN Florida each year. For a vet weighing a move, the work is only half the decision — and the rest of it, the part that usually makes or breaks a relocation, holds up here too. A no-income-tax salary stretches further while you build a life around it.

For the right associate, equity and partnership discussions are genuinely available. This isn’t a phantom carrot — it’s a real possibility for someone whose values align with ours, who is committed to the practice and the community, and who demonstrates excellence over time. If that’s you, we’d love to build toward something together. If it’s not the right fit, we’ll both know, and you’ll still have a good role with a good practice.

•      DVM from an AVMA-accredited program
•      Active Florida veterinary license, or eligibility for licensure by endorsement (must be licensed before start date)
•      2+ years of clinical experience preferred; ER, urgent care, or strong surgical experience is a significant plus
•      Confident with soft tissue surgery, wound management, and the range of urgent care presentations
•      Someone who treats each patient as if it were their own, and each client as a long-term relationship
•      A clear and kind communicator — with staff, with clients, and with us

Must be authorized to work in the United States. We are not sponsoring work visas. This is an on-site role in Panama City, Florida.

We’d love to hear from you. Please send your CV along with a brief note — just a few sentences — about what you’re looking for in your next role and what’s pulled you toward or away from your current one.

Send to [email protected]. We read every application personally and respond within five business days. We’re not running a high-volume hiring funnel. We’re looking for one person.

What happens next: a conversation to get to know each other, and then — if it feels right on both sides — we’ll fly you out to spend a working shift with us. You’ll meet the team, see how we practice, and get a feel for Panama City before anyone commits to anything. We’d rather you experience the place than take our word for it.