Veterinary Inventory Manager Job Description and Template

Role summary

A veterinary inventory manager owns what the practice buys, what sits on the shelf, and what it can prove about both.

The remit covers ordering and receiving, par levels and expiry dates, vendor relationships, the inventory module in your PIMS, and the controlled-substance records federal rules write for you.

Title the posting for the duties, not the org chart.

Inventory manager and inventory coordinator are two titles for closely related work; where the line sits is your call.

In this template, the manager version owns vendor terms, budget input and the controlled-substance program outright, while a coordinator version shares those duties with a practice manager.

Decide which you're hiring and say so in the first line; if the role is one slice of a broader operations job, the practice manager JD template covers the full role instead.

Authority is defined on paper, so put the paper in the posting.

Your practice's DEA registration covers employees who handle controlled substances in the usual course of their employment — the hire doesn't hold a separate registration — and Schedule II ordering authority, if you grant it, flows through a signed DEA power of attorney, not a verbal arrangement.

Duties

Write duties a person can be held to.

The core list is inventory work; the last two carry regulatory weight, so keep them even if you trim the rest.

• Forecast, place, receive and reconcile supply and pharmaceutical orders; resolve shortages, backorders and invoice discrepancies with vendors
• Set and maintain par levels for the storeroom, treatment areas and exam rooms, and run scheduled counts
• Manage the inventory module in your PIMS: entering costs, tracking usage, running reports
• Track expiration dates; pull, document and route expired or recalled product per practice protocol
• Maintain vendor accounts, price lists and equipment maintenance records
• Maintain the controlled-substance logs described in the next section
• Own the safety data sheet (SDS) library and the chemical inventory behind the practice's hazard communication program

Two of those are legal duties, not preferences.

OSHA's Hazard Communication Standard requires employers to give employees effective information and training on the hazardous chemicals in their work area at the time of initial assignment, and whenever a new chemical hazard the employees have not previously been trained about is introduced into their work area — the disinfectants and cleaning chemistry of a hospital make this an inventory-system job.

OSHA's 2024 HazCom update adds deadlines to that duty: where a revised label or safety data sheet identifies a newly identified hazard, employers must update workplace labeling, the hazard communication program and employee training as necessary — for substances by November 20, 2026, and for mixtures by May 19, 2028.

The inventory manager keeps the SDS library current enough for those updates to be possible.

Controlled-substance responsibilities

If your practice stocks or dispenses controlled substances, this is the section that separates an inventory-manager posting from a generic one.

Federal DEA rules write the duties for you — name them explicitly and the hire starts knowing what the job actually is.

Storage is rule one: the practice, as the DEA registrant, must store Schedule II–V controlled substances in a securely locked, substantially constructed cabinet (21 CFR 1301.75(b)).

The employee side is straightforward: DEA registration is waived for an agent or employee of a registrant acting in the usual course of their business or employment — your inventory manager works under the practice's registration, not their own.

Recordkeeping is where the role earns its keep.

Every DEA inventory and record must be kept at least 2 years from its date and be available for inspection and copying by DEA, and the practice may keep them on an in-house computer system — your PIMS — without notifying DEA or getting central-recordkeeping approval.

Under 21 CFR 1304.04(f)–(g), Schedule I and II inventories and records are maintained separately from all other records; Schedule III–V records are kept either separately or in a form that is readily retrievable.

For every controlled substance the practice dispenses, the record must show the number of units or volume dispensed, the name and address of the person it was dispensed to, the date, and the name or initials of the individual who dispensed or administered it.

That last field is a staffing decision: make the initials mandatory before the log leaves the treatment area.

The count calendar is set by rule, and this role runs it.

Each inventory must be a complete and accurate record of all controlled substances on hand on the inventory date, kept in written, typewritten or printed form at the registered location, with a separate inventory for each registered location.

A practice that opens with no controlled substances on hand records exactly that fact as its initial inventory; after that, a new inventory of all stocks on hand is due at least every two years, on any date within two years of the previous one.

Ordering Schedule I and II substances runs on a DEA Form 222 or its electronic equivalent, CSOS, required for each distribution, with limited exceptions.

The registrant can authorize one or more people — an inventory manager, for instance — to order those substances on the practice's behalf by executing a power of attorney, kept with the executed order forms and available for inspection.

The power of attorney must be signed by the registrant or a partner or officer, the person receiving the authority, and two witnesses, and the registrant may revoke it at any time.

If the hire orders Schedule II drugs in week one, execute the power of attorney before their start date.

Give the hire a script for a short count.

A registrant must notify its DEA Field Division Office in writing within one business day of discovering a theft or significant loss of controlled substances, and file a complete and accurate DEA Form 106 within 45 days after discovery.

DEA judges whether a loss is "significant" on factors including the quantity lost relative to the size of the business, the specific drugs involved, whether the loss appears tied to specific individuals' access, and any pattern of losses over time.

The posting should say who does what in the first day after a variance appears.

DEA also treats the practice's own people as a control.

DEA's position is that an employee who knows a coworker is diverting drugs must report it to the employer's security official; the employer must keep the report confidential and must inform all employees of the policy.

DEA's position is also that an employee who possesses, sells, uses or diverts controlled substances immediately becomes the subject of independent employment action — suspension, transfer or termination, weighed on the seriousness of the conduct, the employee's position and their record.

Your inventory manager is the person those reports and counts run through, so say so in the posting.

Then check your state's layer on top of the federal rules.

Illinois requires anyone who dispenses controlled substances to hold a state registration from the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, on top of DEA registration.

Michigan requires a state controlled-substances license for anyone who prescribes or dispenses a controlled substance in the state, while exempting an agent or employee of a licensed prescriber or dispenser acting in the usual course of employment.

Texas went the other way — its separate DPS controlled-substances registration was discontinued as of August 31, 2016, and DPS stopped accepting applications September 1, 2016.

Requirements differ by state: confirm yours with your state veterinary board and controlled-substance authority before you write a licensure line into the posting.

This section covers what the inventory role does; the practice-wide program — registrations, log checks, the board relationship — is covered in our controlled substances guide for practice managers.

The stakes are not only regulatory.

CDC researchers concluded that improving administrative controls for pentobarbital might be a promising suicide-prevention strategy among veterinarians, while different strategies are likely needed for veterinary technicians.

Tight access control is part of protecting your team.

Requirements

Requirements are where vague postings go to die, and this role has two you don't get to write yourself.

The first is the employment bar.

A DEA registrant may not employ, in a role with access to controlled substances, anyone convicted of a felony relating to controlled substances, or anyone whose DEA registration application was denied, whose registration was revoked, or who surrendered a registration for cause.

That disqualifier is written into the federal rule — decide how you'll check for it before interviews start.

The second: DEA's employee-screening questions under 21 CFR 1301.90 are addressed to non-practitioners — manufacturers, distributors — not to veterinary practices, so using them is not a federal requirement for your hire.

A practice may choose to ask similar questions of anyone who will have controlled-substance access, subject to your state's background-check and fair-chance laws; confirm those with employment counsel before the questions touch an application.

The requirements list itself is an advertisement, and the advertising rules attach by headcount.

Title VII covers employers with 15 or more employees for each working day in 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding year, the ADA's employment provisions cover employers with 15 or more employees on the same measure, and the ADEA covers employers with 20 or more employees — protecting individuals who are at least 40 years old.

Those rules reach the wording.

It is illegal for an employer to publish a job advertisement showing a preference for, or discouraging someone from applying because of, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information — the EEOC's own example is a help-wanted ad seeking "females" or "recent college graduates," which may discourage men and people over 40 from applying and may violate the law.

The ADEA makes it unlawful to publish a job notice or advertisement indicating any preference, limitation, specification or discrimination based on age, and the EEOC's ADEA rule names terms like "age 25 to 35," "young," "college student," "recent college graduate," "boy" or "girl" as violations unless a statutory exception applies.

Title VII's advertising provision does the same for race, color, religion, sex and national origin, except where religion, sex or national origin is a bona fide occupational qualification.

Describe the work; skip the imagined person.

The lines you do write should be concrete: years of purchasing or inventory experience you'll actually screen for, the PIMS by name, spreadsheet fluency, the lifting and standing the stockroom involves, and the schedule.

Vague requirements ("detail-oriented team player") sort nobody; measurable ones let candidates self-select.

Does the posting have to include a pay range?

Depending on where the practice is and how many people it employs, yes.

VeterinaryHires' Q4 2026 tracker counts 14 states plus DC with a law requiring a pay range in job postings as of October 6, 2026, and the employer-size thresholds differ by state.

If you're posting in one of them, the details matter.

California requires employers with 15 or more employees to include the pay scale in any job posting, and defines "pay scale" as a good-faith estimate of the salary or hourly wage range the employer reasonably expects to pay for the position upon hire.

Washington requires the wage scale or salary range — or the fixed wage, if only one is offered — plus a general description of benefits and other compensation, for employers with 15 or more employees, effective January 1, 2023.

Illinois requires employers with 15 or more employees to include the pay scale and benefits in any specific job posting; a hyperlink to a publicly viewable page with that information satisfies the rule.

New York requires businesses with four or more employees to list compensation ranges for advertised job opportunities, promotions and transfers, per the state Department of Labor.

Colorado requires compensation, benefits and how and when to apply in all postings, internal and public — and does not allow open-ended ranges like "$30,000 and up" or "up to $60,000."

New Jersey requires postings for new jobs and transfers to include the hourly wage or salary, or a range, plus a general description of benefits and other compensation programs.

Massachusetts requires covered employers — those with 25 or more employees in the commonwealth — to disclose the pay range in job postings, effective October 29, 2025.

One habit travels everywhere: VeterinaryHires counts listings that describe pay only in words — "competitive," "DOE" — as not stating pay at all.

Fill the template's pay line with a real range before you post, in every state.

You may see two applicant pools: veterinary people who want off the clinical floor, and inventory people from medical, pharmacy or retail supply.

The template lets both self-select; the interview sorts them.

Ask for an ordering cycle they ran end to end, what they did the last time a count came up short, and how they would document a variance they couldn't immediately explain — that last answer is a live read on how they'd handle a controlled-substance discrepancy.

Before you finalize the pay line, settle how the role is classified.

The federal FLSA salary level for the executive, administrative and professional exemptions is $684 per week — equivalent to $35,568 a year — as of October 22, 2026.

Salary alone doesn't decide it: the executive exemption requires a primary duty of managing the enterprise or a recognized department, customarily and regularly directing two or more other employees, and hire/fire authority or recommendations given particular weight; the administrative exemption requires office or non-manual work directly related to management or general business operations, with discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance.

An inventory role that is mostly hands-on stock work may fit neither, and if you benchmarked the number against the 2024 overtime rule's thresholds, those were vacated — the DOL removed that rule's text from the CFR effective May 15, 2026, so the level above is the operative one.

Classification calls are fact-specific; confirm yours with employment counsel.

Three setup steps make the posting's promises real.

First, if the hire will order Schedule II drugs, execute the DEA power of attorney and file it with your executed order forms where an inspector can reach it.

Second, train them on the hazardous chemicals in their work area at initial assignment — the HazCom duty triggers at assignment — and fold them into the routine for updating training when SDSs change.

Third, tell the whole team the diversion-reporting policy; DEA's position is that the employer must inform all employees of it, and your new hire is about to become the person those reports run through.

If your controlled-substance records already live in your PIMS, that part is settled — in-house computer systems are allowed without notifying DEA.

For the systems this hire will run — turns, ordering cadence, shrink — our veterinary inventory management guide covers the operator's side of the job, from count routines to who counts versus who reconciles.

This template is general employer information, not legal advice. Controlled-substance, workplace-safety and pay-transparency rules vary by state and by employer size — confirm the ones that bind you with your state veterinary board and an employment attorney who knows veterinary practices.