Addiction & Recovery

Helping people break free from drugs, alcohol, gambling, and other addictions — through treatment, prevention, harm reduction, and the lived experience of people in recovery themselves.

Top pay: highest pay, longest training

• Addiction Psychiatrist: Medical doctor who treats addiction and the mental illnesses that often come with it, including with medications. Typical pay $260k.
• Treatment Center CEO / Executive Director: Runs a residential or outpatient addiction treatment center. Typical pay $135k.
• Addiction Medicine Physician: A doctor who treats addiction with medicine, including prescribing drugs like buprenorphine. Typical pay $260k.

Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship

• Clinical Director (Addiction Treatment): Oversees all therapy and clinical care at a treatment program and supervises counselors. Typical pay $100k.
• Substance Use Disorder Counselor: Counsels people with drug and alcohol addiction, in groups and one-on-one. Typical pay $59k.
• Professional Interventionist: Helps families plan and lead an intervention to convince a loved one to enter treatment. Typical pay $75k.
• Drug Court Coordinator: Runs a special court program where people with addiction get treatment instead of jail. Typical pay $62k.
• Prevention Specialist: Runs programs in schools and communities to stop drug use before it starts. Typical pay $63k.
• Collegiate Recovery Program Coordinator: Runs a campus program that supports college students in recovery from addiction. Typical pay $55k.
• Gambling Addiction Counselor: Treats people addicted to gambling, a fast-growing problem with sports betting apps. Typical pay $60k.
• Tobacco Treatment Specialist: Helps people quit smoking, vaping, and chewing tobacco. Typical pay $58k.
• Recovery High School Director: Runs a high school designed for teens recovering from addiction. Typical pay $85k.
• Opioid Treatment Program Dosing Nurse: Gives daily doses of methadone or buprenorphine at a licensed opioid treatment clinic and checks how each patient is doing. Typical pay $72k.
• Overdose Fatality Review Coordinator: Runs a county team that studies each overdose death in detail to find missed chances to save lives and recommend changes. Typical pay $68k.

Starter: fastest way in

• Sober Companion: Lives with or accompanies a person in early recovery to help them stay sober. Typical pay $50k.
• Peer Recovery Specialist: Uses their own recovery experience to support people who are starting the journey. Typical pay $40k.
• Harm Reduction Outreach Worker: Meets people who use drugs where they are — handing out naloxone, clean supplies, and connections to care. Typical pay $40k.
• Recovery House Manager: Runs a sober living home where people in early recovery live together. Typical pay $36k.
• Detox Technician: Monitors and cares for patients going through withdrawal in a detox unit. Typical pay $39k.
• Treatment Admissions Coordinator: Answers calls from people seeking addiction treatment and gets them admitted. Typical pay $44k.
• DUI Education Program Instructor: Teaches classes that people must take after a drunk-driving arrest. Typical pay $45k.
• Drug Checking Technician: Tests samples of street drugs with lab machines so people who use drugs learn what is really in them, like hidden fentanyl or xylazine. Typical pay $48k.
• Recovery Residence Certification Specialist: Inspects sober living homes against national standards so people in recovery have safe, honest places to live. Typical pay $48k.

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.