165 New Athletic Trainer Jobs — Monday, May 18th, 2026 - Market Insight Edition

Edition 20. 165 new athletic trainer jobs this week — the biggest single edition on the board since we launched. Across all 20 editions, AT Finder has now tracked 2,357 unique athletic trainer job postings. At this point it is safe to say we have built the largest athletic training job board in existence and the most comprehensive market dataset of AT postings available anywhere.

For the first time since we started, there is no six-figure ceiling on the board this week. The top of the market is $95,000, courtesy of PWHL Las Vegas — and that story is worth more than the number.

Two roles from the same organization lead the picks this week. PWHL Las Vegas posted both a Head Athletic Trainer and an Assistant Athletic Trainer — both with transparent salary ranges, both for the inaugural season of a brand new professional women’s hockey franchise. They posted the salaries, they posted both roles simultaneously, and they are building a full medical department from scratch. That is the story this week.

Let’s get into the picks.

Head Athletic Trainer  |  PWHL Las Vegas

Las Vegas, NV  |  $88,000–$95,000 (Annual)

Building a medical operation from the ground up for a brand-new professional hockey franchise is a rare opportunity in any sport. The PWHL Las Vegas Head AT will serve as first-line emergency responder during practices and games, lead a team of assistant trainers, coordinate with the medical director and performance staff, and help establish the team’s medical care standards from day one. Three years of full-time elite hockey experience within the past five years required — professional, major junior, or collegiate. BOC or CATA certification, Nevada licensure, and full road trip travel required. Las Vegas runs just 3% above the national average on cost of living and Nevada has no state income tax — $88,000–$95,000 is genuinely comfortable money in that market. Applications close August 20, 2026. For an experienced AT with an elite hockey background who wants to be part of building something, this is the role of the week.

Assistant Athletic Trainer  |  PWHL Las Vegas

Las Vegas, NV  |  $65,000–$72,000 (Annual)

The companion role to the Head AT posting above. The PWHL Las Vegas Assistant AT supports the Head AT in all aspects of player care, coordinates care for non-traveling players during road trips, and contributes to establishing the medical infrastructure for the franchise’s inaugural season. Three to five years of elite hockey experience required. BOC or CATA certification, Nevada licensure required. $65,000–$72,000 is competitive for an assistant-level professional sports role — most comparable assistant positions in men’s leagues do not post a number at all. Las Vegas runs close to the national average on cost of living with no state income tax, which makes the salary more meaningful than it would be in a high-COL market. Both roles close within a day of each other in August, signaling the organization is building the full medical staff on the same timeline. If you have the hockey background and want professional sports experience with a transparent salary, this is as clean an entry point as the market offers right now.

Certified Athletic Trainer — Manager  |  Athletic Training Solutions

Canton, OH  |  $70,000–$82,500 (Annual) + $2,500 Sign-On

The highest non-professional-sports ceiling on the board this week. Industrial AT site lead role in Canton, Ohio with direct supervisory responsibility over at least one full-time staff member. The $2,500 sign-on bonus adds to an already competitive base. Scope includes ergonomic job risk analysis, OSHA recordability oversight, and wellness program development alongside traditional AT clinical work. Canton runs below the national average on cost of living — the salary ceiling is solid purchasing power in that market. Four years of experience required. Ask how the site’s weekend rotation is structured and what the administrative documentation expectations look like on top of clinical hours.

Outreach Athletic Trainer  |  Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center

Hartsville, SC  |  $25.00–$40.00/hr + $10,000 Sign-On + $5,000 Relocation

The largest sign-on bonus on the board this week. Carolina Pines is a hospital-affiliated outreach model placing an AT in Darlington County high schools with no hospital-based duties. The $10,000 sign-on and $5,000 relocation package is an aggressive recruitment posture for a secondary school outreach role. The $2,000 annual CEU allowance is also explicitly confirmed. Hartsville, SC is a small city in the Pee Dee region — cost of living is well below the national average, which changes what the hourly rate actually buys. Confirm full-time status before converting the hourly rate to annual. Ask which specific schools and sports you are assigned to, who the directing physician is, and what coverage looks like during off-season and summer months.

Industrial Athletic Trainer  |  Moore Wellness Systems

Pasco, WA  |  Longview, WA  |  Spanish Fork, UT  |  $52,000–$67,000 (Annual)

AT Finder’s staffing partner is back on the board with three new locations this week — Pasco, WA ($62,000–$67,000), Longview, WA ($60,000–$64,000), and Spanish Fork, UT ($52,000–$62,000). All confirmed full-time, M–F, no nights, no weekends. SIMPLE IRA with employer matching, MedBridge CEU subscription, license and credential reimbursement. Pasco and Longview are in the Columbia Basin and Southwest Washington markets respectively — both run below the national average on cost of living. Spanish Fork is in Utah County south of Provo, also below national average. For an AT evaluating the industrial occupational health space in the Pacific Northwest or Intermountain West, all three are legitimate new opportunities.

FEATURED ROLE 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 ★ Featured

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.

Worth Calling Out This Week

Athletic Trainer  |  Oklahoma Baptist University

Shawnee, OK  |  $11.00/hr

Eleven dollars per hour. Full-time. BOC certification required. Oklahoma state licensure required. That is $22,880 annually at 2,080 hours, a salary that would not clear the federal poverty line for a family of three. For a licensed healthcare professional with a graduate degree and national board certification, $11 per hour is not a compensation structure. It is a statement about how the institution values the credential.

I reached out directly to the Head Athletic Trainer at Oklahoma Baptist University to ask if the salary was a typo. I never heard back. The posting stands as listed.

There is a second requirement in this posting worth noting separately. Candidates must be active members of a local evangelical Christian church. That is an explicit religious requirement tied to employment eligibility for a clinical healthcare position. Whether that requirement is enforceable and how it interacts with employment law in Oklahoma are separate questions. What is not a separate question is whether it belongs in a job posting for a BOC-certified athletic trainer. It is listed, it is real, and candidates deserve to know it is there before they apply.

What's Worth Noting This Week:

Edition 20. Twenty weeks of data. 2,357 unique athletic trainer job postings tracked since we launched. Here is what the market actually looks like when you step back and read all of it at once.

The profession is predominantly full-time — but not as much as you’d think. 69.6% of all tracked postings were full-time. Nearly one in three postings was part-time, PRN, or temporary. A significant portion of the “job market” in athletic training is still built on non-permanent, non-benefited work.

Collegiate dominates the market by setting. 27% of all postings came from collegiate programs, followed by secondary school at 21% and clinic/hospital outreach at 15%. Industrial and occupational health — the fastest growing non-traditional setting — represented 11% of all postings. More than military and professional sports combined.

Pay transparency is a documented problem, not an impression. 36.6% of all unique postings listed no salary. Among full-time postings specifically, 39.5% left compensation blank. Nearly two out of every five full-time job postings asked candidates to make a major career decision with no information about what they would be paid.

The salary numbers are not what the profession deserves. Among full-time postings with valid salary data, the median floor was $55,000 and the median ceiling was $68,330. The average ceiling across 897 full-time salary-disclosed postings was $70,533. Only 26.1% of full-time postings had a ceiling at or above $80,000. Only 5.1% cleared $100,000.

Professional sports actually pays better than its reputation suggests — when it posts a salary at all. The average ceiling for professional sports postings was $85,765. The problem is that 55% of professional sports postings across 20 weeks listed no salary at all. Only 45 out of 109 professional sports postings disclosed what they pay. The ones that do represent a narrow — and often sobering — slice of the full picture.

Industrial and occupational health outperforms its reputation. Average industrial AT ceiling: $75,160. That is above collegiate ($64,391), above secondary school ($72,922), and above clinic/hospital ($68,204). The setting most ATs historically overlooked is now consistently among the best-compensating settings on the board.

Texas leads the country in postings by a significant margin. 199 unique postings — nearly 50% more than California (136) and Florida (120). The no-state-income-tax advantage and growing school district budgets are producing real volume. Ohio, North Carolina, and New York round out the top five.

Sign-on bonuses are more common than most people realize. 15.4% of all unique postings included some form of sign-on or supplemental bonus. That number is likely understated since many employers disclose bonuses only in the description rather than a structured field.

Retirement disclosure is rare. Only 39.9% of postings disclosed any retirement benefit information. For a profession where long-term financial security is already a concern, six in ten postings tell candidates nothing about their retirement structure before they apply. That is a problem worth naming.

Twenty weeks of data. The market is wide, the pay transparency gap is real and measurable, and the non-traditional settings are consistently outperforming the traditional ones on compensation. We will keep tracking it.

Until next week — stop looking, start finding.