Also called: Applied Sports Scientist, Performance Scientist
Collects and analyzes athlete data to guide training, recovery, and injury prevention.
They strap GPS units on soccer players, test jump heights on force plates, and build dashboards for coaches. When a player's numbers dip, they flag injury risk. Pro teams, colleges, and the military hire them.
Estimate.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Master's degree, about 6 years after high school. Master's in sports science or exercise physiology.
Ways in: Graduate school. Training cost: $60k – $150k.
Majors to look at: Sports Science, Exercise Science, Data Science.
Growing faster than average. Rapid growth as teams adopt data.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI dashboards analyze athlete data automatically; scientists who turn it into coaching decisions stay, but data roles shift.
Classes: AP Statistics, AP Biology, AP Computer Science Principles.
Official data: O*NET occupation 19-1099.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.