119 New Athletic Trainer Jobs — Monday, June 15, 2026 - Ipswich is back in the headlines and this one isn't about cigars

119 new athletic trainer jobs this week. And the school that has been at the center of one of the profession’s most discussed stories of the year is back on the board.

Ipswich Public School District reposted their Athletic Trainer position this week. If that name is familiar, it should be. At the end of March, a lacrosse scrimmage at Ipswich High School ended in a serious injury with no AT on site. The response was chaotic. The school’s longtime AT resigned in the days that followed, citing social media backlash. The district reposted the job part-time. We covered all of it. 

This week the position is back — this time structured as a full-time role at $66,684 to $111,308 (decent range). That sounds like progress until you read the fine print. The only way they got to full-time was by attaching a 0.6 FTE Health Teacher requirement. The actual athletic training component is 0.4 FTE. The same community that called for more athletic training coverage after a serious injury is calling for 40% of a full-time AT. And in the same week this posted, Ipswich made national news again for a separate controversy involving cigars and members of the lacrosse program. Apparently cigars must not have been major topic in that health class either. This school and this program has been a magnet for headlines all spring and honestly, it sounds like a district I’d want to steer clear of. 

With that said, we have a handful of solid roles that came onto the board this week.

Let’s get into the picks.

Assistant Athletic Director / Sports Medicine  |  American University

Washington, DC  |  $95,000–$100,000 (Annual)

Asst AD title with direct oversight of six full-time athletic trainers, budget responsibility, and the designated Athletics Healthcare Administrator role for a D-I program with over 290 student-athletes. Affiliate faculty status for the Military Sports Medicine Fellowship adds a professional development dimension that is genuinely rare at this level. Five to eight years of experience and a Master’s degree required. Washington, DC runs roughly 45–50% above the national average on cost of living — the $95,000–$100,000 range is adequate in that market at the senior leadership level but not without the COL conversation. No retirement disclosure for an institution of this profile — ask specifically. American University also has a standard AT role posted this week at $58,000–$63,000 for the same D-I program if you are earlier in your career, but those salary numbers make DC living much more challenging.

Athletic Trainer  |  OrthoLive

Moses Lake, WA  |  $90,000–$100,000 (Annual)

OrthoLive is a telehealth-integrated industrial and field service platform — on-site injury prevention, assessment, and rehabilitation in industrial settings and remote areas. The $90,000–$100,000 range is exceptional for the market. Moses Lake is in central Washington — Columbia Basin, well below the national average on cost of living. That purchasing power is real. 401(k) matching confirmed. The autonomous nature of the role is the thing to understand before applying — ask who the medical director is, what the standing orders process looks like, and how clinical decisions are documented and reviewed. For an AT comfortable with independent practice in a non-traditional setting who wants strong compensation in an affordable market, this is worth a close look.

High School Athletic Trainer  |  Ector County Independent School District

Odessa, TX  |  $70,334–$99,145 (Annual)

Odessa, Texas — Permian Basin, no state income tax, cost of living well below the national average. A ceiling approaching $99,000 in that market is genuine purchasing power. The 207 or 217-day contract provides a defined structure with built-in time off outside the school year. The role includes implementing a human growth and development curriculum alongside traditional athletic training duties. Texas AT licensure required. Ask about sole provider status, sport assignments, and what the supply budget looks like. Between the salary ceiling, the COL, and the no-income-tax math, this is one of the stronger financial pictures on the secondary school board this week.

Injury Prevention Specialist  |  Amazon.com Services LLC

Sparrows Point, MD  |  $60,200–$90,200 (Annual) + Sign-On + RSUs

Amazon’s third appearance on this board this year — consistent structure, consistent range, consistent RSU compensation model. Sparrows Point is in Baltimore County, Maryland, which runs roughly 10–15% above the national average on cost of living — manageable in context. Day-one benefits, 401(k) matching, and stock units on top of the base salary. Ask about shift structure, whether solo coverage or team coverage applies at this location, and how clinical decisions are documented within Amazon’s reporting chain.

Athletic Trainer  |  Lynnfield Public Schools

Lynnfield, MA  |  $80,000–$85,000 (Annual, 10-Month)

Ten-month contract with a built-in summer break and town-sponsored benefits. The $80,000–$85,000 range is competitive for a Massachusetts public school AT role. Lynnfield is on Boston’s North Shore — cost of living runs above the national average but is considerably more manageable than Boston proper or the inner suburbs. BOC certification, Massachusetts licensure, and CAATE-accredited degree required. No retirement disclosure — ask specifically given the town employment structure. Sole provider status is the most important operational question before accepting.

Athletic Trainer  |  Colorado Sports Physical Therapy

Lafayette, CO  |  $70,000–$85,000 (Annual)

One-on-one, evidence-based treatment sessions — no double-booking, no volume model. Clinical mentorship program built in. Annual continuing education stipend. 401(k) with matching confirmed. M–F schedule. Lafayette is in the Boulder–Denver corridor — cost of living runs close to the national average, well below Boulder proper. The $70,000–$85,000 range is solid purchasing power in that market. Ask about the specific patient population mix, the case volume expectations per day, and how the mentorship program is structured.

FEATURED ROLES OF THE WEEK

These employers have committed resources to enhancing their job's visibility and confirmed their salary ranges.

Assistant Athletic Trainer | Lindsey Wilson University 

Columbia, KY | $50,000–$55,000/year + relocation assistance

Multiple full-time, 11-month Assistant Athletic Trainer positions are open within a large NAIA athletics department supporting 800+ student-athletes across 36 teams. $50,000–$55,000 salary with benefits and relocation assistance included in a lower cost-of-living area compared to many collegiate markets. Opportunity for broad sport exposure, clinical autonomy, and mentorship experience supervising MSAT students and athletic training observers.

This is the kind of smaller-college environment where you’re going to get a ton of reps quickly. The travel and schedule demands that come with collegiate athletics are real, but the lower cost of living helps this salary stretch further than it would in many NCAA markets. For early-career ATs looking to build experience across multiple sports while developing independence as a clinician, there’s real value here.

Athletic Trainer | Willis Knighton Health

Shreveport, LA | $50,960–$61,100 (Annual)

Hospital-based athletic trainer role working with local high school athletes and community events. Responsibilities include injury evaluation, treatment planning (including modalities), on-field assessment, and emergency care. The position involves collaboration with physicians, a medical director, and other athletic trainers, along with team travel and coverage of nights, weekends, and holidays. Schedule is listed as 8:00am–4:30pm, with additional event coverage as needed.

This is a traditional outreach-style hospital role with solid physician integration and exposure to both clinical and field-based care. The salary range is clearly listed, which is always a plus, and the structure suggests a team-based environment rather than being on an island. Like most roles in this setting, the schedule likely extends beyond standard hours, so understanding how coverage is shared across staff will be important—but for someone looking to work closely within a sports medicine model at the high school level, this is a steady, established option.

Worth Calling Out This Week

Athletic Trainer | The University of the South | Sewanee, TN | Starting at $46,000

^PLEASE NOTE: AFTER THIS NEWSLETTER WAS PUBLISHED, WE WERE NOTIFIED BY THE DIRECTOR OF SPORTS MEDICINE AT SEWANEE THAT THE FLOOR FOR THIS POSITION WAS POSTED INCORRECTLY AT $26,500 ON THE NATA JOB BOARD. THE ACCURATE FLOOR IS $46,000 FOR THIS ROLE.

The University of the South — commonly known as Sewanee — is a private liberal arts university with a well-regarded academic reputation and a price tag to match. Tuition runs over $50,000 a year for students. The floor for a BOC-certified Athletic Trainer at the same institution is $26,500. That is the lowest annual salary floor posted on this board since we launched in January. Sewanee, Tennessee has a very low cost of living which helps at the margins, but $26,500 for a licensed healthcare professional with a graduate degree is not a starting salary. It is a signal about how the institution values the credential. The $50,250 ceiling is equally telling — that is the top of the range for a position requiring national certification, state licensure, and ongoing continuing education at a school that charges students more than that to attend for a single year.

^PLEASE NOTE: AFTER THIS BLOG WAS PUBLISHED, WE WERE NOTIFIED BY THE DIRECTOR OF SPORTS MEDICINE AT SEWANEE THAT THE FLOOR FOR THIS POSITION WAS POSTED INCORRECTLY ON THE NATA JOB BOARD. THE ACCURATE FLOOR IS $46,000 FOR THIS ROLE.

Head Football Athletic Trainer | Bucknell University | Lewisburg, PA | $49,200–$61,500

Bucknell is a Patriot League Division I institution. This is a Head Football Athletic Trainer role — primary medical coverage for a D-I football program, the highest clinical risk assignment in collegiate sports medicine. The floor is $49,200. The ceiling is $61,500. For context, we have featured assistant-level industrial AT roles this year that clear $80,000. Bucknell is asking for a department head covering football and pricing it below where much of the market starts for non-leadership positions. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania runs below the national average on cost of living, which helps. But the title and the responsibility attached to it deserve compensation that reflects both.

What's Worth Noting This Week:

The NATA Loan Access Debate — And the Question Nobody Is Asking

A post from Shelby Daly, DAT, ATC, CSCS made the rounds on LinkedIn this week and it deserves more than a like.

Daly’s point, paraphrased: NATA advocating for expanded federal loan access for athletic training students is not advocacy. It is a subsidy for tuition inflation. And it raises a question worth sitting with.

Here is some context. Since 1980, college tuition has increased by more than 1,200% while the Consumer Price Index rose roughly 300% over the same period. Over the past twenty years, college tuition has grown twice as fast as the Consumer Price Index. Athletic training education has not been immune to that trend. The entry-level master’s degree requirement means candidates are now investing more time and more money into credentialing than any previous generation of ATs — and entering a profession that, by our own dataset, has a median full-time salary ceiling of $68,330.

That tension is real. The profession genuinely needs people to enter it. Athletic training is a healthcare discipline that serves athletes and active populations across every setting. Demand for ATs is not going away. If anything it is growing. The pipeline needs to stay open and accessible.

But accessible through debt and accessible through value are not the same thing.

Daly’s argument is that preserving loan access without addressing what drives the cost of entry does not solve the underlying problem. It funds it. Universities raise tuition in part because the federal loan system removes the price ceiling — the downside of high costs falls on the graduate, not the institution. Advocating for more borrowing capacity without simultaneously pushing for cost transparency, employer-sponsored pathways, or more affordable routes into the profession treats the symptom and not the cause.

There is a version of this where both arguments are right. We need ATs. We need them to be able to afford the education required to become one. And we need that education to cost something that reflects an honest return on investment for the people who choose this career. Those goals are not mutually exclusive — but they require the profession, the association, and the institutions offering these programs to be willing to have a harder conversation than loan access allows.

Daly also raised a governance question worth noting. As paying NATA members, we were never consulted on whether this advocacy reflects our priorities. That is not a small point.

But the bigger issue is cause and effect. Every decision made about how people enter this profession — the degree requirements, the accreditation standards, the loan structures, the advocacy positions — has a downstream consequence on who becomes an AT, what they earn, how long they stay, and whether the profession can sustain itself. Those are not separate conversations. They are the same conversation.

If the cost to enter keeps rising and the compensation on the other end does not keep pace, the pipeline does not stay open — it narrows. The candidates who can absorb $80,000 to $120,000 in graduate debt on a $55,000 starting salary are a shrinking group. And the profession cannot serve athletes in high schools, community colleges, rural clinics, or underserved markets if the economic math only works for a narrow slice of candidates who can afford to absorb the cost.

Making this career attractive means making the full picture make sense. The education has to be worth what it costs. The credential has to open doors that reflect the investment. And the compensation at the end has to be honest about what it asks people to sacrifice to get there. Loan access does not fix any of those things on its own. It just makes the debt more available.

The profession deserves a big-picture strategy. Advocacy that addresses one variable in isolation is not that.

Until next week — stop looking, start finding.