102 New Athletic Trainer Jobs — Monday, August 31, 2026 - The Athletic Training Job Market Is Changing. Salaries Have to Follow.

102 new athletic trainer jobs this week. The back-to-school surge is winding down and the board is settling into its fall cadence — collegiate roles account for 38% of the board, while clinic and hospital outreach had one of its stronger weeks of the summer.

Salary transparency dipped this week: 72 of 102 postings (71%) included compensation. The picks span a wide range of settings, including a children’s hospital leadership role, an NBA G League team, a private school with some of the best non-salary perks we’ve seen all year, and an Army Reserve program in Hawaii.

The What’s Worth Noting section deserves a careful read this week. A new paper asks a direct question about athletic training compensation that this newsletter has been circling around for 35 weeks. This one deserves more than a skim.

The AT Finder Talent Network is live and growing. Free for ATs. Always will be. atcfinder.app

Let’s get into the picks.

Supervisor, Athletic Trainers  | Seattle Children’s

Seattle, WA | $88,786–$133,180 (Annual)

Supervisory leadership of the full Athletic Training Program at a nationally ranked, Magnet-designated pediatric medical center serving a four-state region. The scope includes managing program operations and staff alongside direct rehabilitative care and injury prevention education. 403(b) retirement plan confirmed. The $88,786–$133,180 range is the strongest on the board this week and reflects both the supervisory scope and the institutional profile. Seattle runs roughly 44% above the national average on cost of living — the salary range is meaningful purchasing power there. Ask how the time split between clinical coverage and program administration is structured, and what the weekend and evening commitment looks like for a supervisory role.

Athletic Trainer  | Goldbelt Apex LLC

Honolulu, HI | $95,000–$120,000 (Annual)

Full-time support for the U.S. Army Reserve’s Holistic Health and Fitness program in Honolulu with extensive travel throughout the Indo-Pacific region — Hawaii, Japan, South Korea, and Guam. 401(k) with company matching confirmed. A Secret Security Clearance is required. Master’s or Doctoral degree required. The salary range is genuinely strong. The honest COL note: Hawaii runs 70–80% above the national average on cost of living and Oahu housing costs are among the most extreme in the country. The $95,000–$120,000 range is competitive for the credential but not comfortable in that market. Do the housing math carefully before evaluating this on salary alone. Ask about whether any housing allowances or base access benefits apply to this contract position.

Manager of Athletic Training Services  | Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Winston-Salem, NC | $68,000–$103,000 (Annual)

Hybrid leadership role overseeing athletic training services across high schools, colleges, universities, professional organizations, and community partners. The job blends staffing, scheduling, resource management, employee development, marketing, and business development, with 10–25% travel and some evening and weekend work. A $103,000 ceiling stands out in Winston-Salem, especially compared with leadership salaries in higher-cost markets this week. Three to five years of relevant experience required; master’s preferred. No retirement disclosure listed. The biggest question here is scope: how many athletic trainers and outreach sites would this manager actually oversee, and how much of the week is true administration versus event support and business development?

Athletic Trainer  | Donna Independent School District

Donna, TX | $61,441–$89,377 (Annual)

A strong secondary school salary range with a ceiling approaching $90,000 in one of the most affordable markets in Texas. Donna is in Hidalgo County in the Rio Grande Valley — no state income tax and cost of living runs significantly below the national average. In that market, a salary approaching $90,000 stretches considerably further than it would in most of the locations on this week’s board. No retirement disclosure listed — ask specifically about Texas Teacher Retirement System eligibility, which would add meaningful long-term value. I’d also want clarity on sport assignments, supervision of student athletic assistants, and how physician oversight and standing medical orders are structured.

★ Industrial Athletic Trainer — West Chester Township  | Moore Wellness Systems

Mason, OH | $65,000–$70,000 (Annual)

Monday through Friday, 8-hour shifts, no weekend work, no team travel. Full health, dental, and vision benefits. 401(k) confirmed. The role focuses on industrial injury prevention, ergonomic evaluations, and employee wellness education. For a Monday-through-Friday industrial role in a Cincinnati suburb, $65,000–$70,000 pairs well with both the schedule and the local cost of living. Ask about the daily shift schedule and whether physician oversight is provided on-site or remotely for injury evaluations and treatments.

Worth Calling Out This Week

Athletic Trainer, HSS Orthopedics Now  | Hospital for Special Surgery

New York, NY | $47,000–$71,750 (Annual) + $10,000 Bonus

Hospital for Special Surgery is the number one ranked orthopedic hospital in the country. Seventeen years running. The most recognized name in musculoskeletal medicine in the United States.

The floor for a full-time Athletic Trainer at this institution is $47,000. In Manhattan.

A $10,000 bonus is disclosed, which brings year-one total closer to $57,000. That still does not close the gap between what this credential is worth and what this posting reflects in one of the most expensive housing markets in the country. A one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan is around $5,200 per month. The prestige of the HSS name is real. The compensation math in that market is not.

If the institutional platform is what appeals to you, go in knowing exactly what you are trading. Negotiate hard. The bonus is there — ask whether the base is too.

What's Worth Noting This Week:

Part of the Problem or the Solution?

A new paper from Julie Cavallario, Cailee Welch Bacon, and Chad Starkey asks a pretty uncomfortable question about athletic training salaries:

Are we part of the problem or part of the solution?

If you haven’t read the paper yet, you should.

I genuinely think it’s one of the most important pieces of literature to come out for the profession of athletic training in a long time. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about compensation and the athletic training job market over the last year, and this paper puts structure around many of the problems I’ve been seeing firsthand.

It doesn’t just say athletic trainers need to be paid more. It looks at why salaries have remained stagnant, how some of our own systems and behaviors contribute to that, and what educators, athletic trainers, employers and national organizations can actually do differently.

One of the most interesting parts is the cycle the authors describe.

Employers often make initial offers toward the lower end of their available range expecting candidates to negotiate. Many athletic trainers don’t. Those accepted salaries then become benchmarks that help establish future salaries.

Low offers become accepted salaries. Accepted salaries become benchmarks. Those benchmarks help create the next low offer.

The authors call for changes throughout the profession: better financial literacy and negotiation education, an end to the idea that low-paying positions are simply the price of gaining experience, greater salary transparency from employers, better benchmarking, and stronger action from our national organizations.

One recommendation especially stood out to me: salary data needs to reach employers.

We can keep telling athletic trainers they deserve more, but if the employers setting the salaries don’t understand the market, we’re only solving half the problem.

The paper points out that some of the profession’s best salary information is still difficult for employers to access. That’s a problem when those are the people building positions, setting budgets and deciding what an athletic trainer should be paid.

That gets directly at something AT Finder was built around from the beginning.

Salary transparency has always been at the forefront of our mission.

Before I ever started compiling thousands of postings, I wanted athletic trainers to be able to see the opportunities available to them and what employers were actually advertising for compensation. It’s why I highlight some of the strongest opportunities every week. It’s why I track salary inclusion. And it’s why compensation has consistently been part of the conversation around AT Finder.

But there’s another part of this conversation that I think deserves more attention than it gets in the paper:

The supply-and-demand equation is changing.

I see it every week. Jobs stay open. Positions get reposted. Employers reach out because they’re struggling to hire. Multiple organizations in the same market are competing for the same athletic trainers. And increasingly, it isn’t just employer versus employer — it’s setting versus setting. A high school, hospital system, college, industrial employer and clinic may all be competing for the same workforce.

When that competition becomes intense, advertised salaries move. I’ve watched ranges increase in competitive markets, and I’ve had employers reach out to AT Finder specifically because they want to understand what other organizations are paying.

That changes the leverage available to athletic trainers. If you’re considering a $60,000 offer, you need to know whether another employer nearby is offering $75,000+, what other settings are paying, and how much competition exists in that market.

You can’t take advantage of a changing labor market if you can’t see it.

Employers need the same visibility. What you paid the last person isn’t necessarily what will fill the position today. If a job has been sitting open for months, the relevant question is what you’re competing against now.

Traditional salary surveys tell us what athletic trainers report earning. Job-posting data tells us what employers are trying to hire athletic trainers for right now. Both matter, but when the labor market is moving quickly, current market information matters more than ever.

The more jobs AT Finder tracks, the more this becomes something beyond a list of openings. It becomes labor-market intelligence: where salaries are moving, where competition is greatest, what different settings are offering, and how employers compare with the rest of the market. That’s where I see AT Finder growing — as a better window into the athletic training labor market for both athletic trainers and the employers trying to hire them.

AT Finder isn’t going to solve the profession’s compensation problem on its own. But if better information, greater transparency and stronger competition can help move the market in the right direction, I want AT Finder to be part of that.

The paper asks whether we’re part of the problem or the solution.

I know which side I want AT Finder to be on.

The AT Finder Talent Network is free for athletic trainers and always will be. Create your profile at atcfinder.app.

Until next week — stop looking, start finding.