Protecting whole populations: tracking outbreaks like a detective, figuring out which chemicals are dangerous, and keeping air, water, and food safe.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
State Epidemiologist: Leads a state's disease-tracking efforts and advises the governor during outbreaks. Typical pay $150k.
Toxicologist: Studies how chemicals, drugs, and poisons harm living things—and what doses are safe. Typical pay $115k.
Preclinical Study Director: Leads safety studies of new drugs before they're ever given to humans. Typical pay $130k.
Genetic Epidemiologist: Studies how genes and environment together shape disease risk across populations. Typical pay $115k.
Veterinary Epidemiologist: Tracks diseases that jump between animals and people, like bird flu and rabies. Typical pay $120k.
Regulatory Toxicologist: Decides whether chemicals, cosmetics, and medicines are safe enough to sell. Typical pay $135k.
Infectious Disease Modeler: Builds computer models that forecast how outbreaks will spread. Typical pay $125k.
Radiation Biologist: Studies how radiation damages and repairs living cells. Typical pay $115k.
Inhalation Toxicologist: Studies how breathing in chemicals, vapes, smoke and inhaled medicines affects the lungs and body, often using exposure chambers. Typical pay $120k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Epidemiologist: Tracks where diseases come from, how they spread, and how to stop them. Typical pay $84k.
CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer: A two-year CDC 'disease detective' fellowship that sends young scientists and doctors to investigate outbreaks anywhere. Typical pay $90k.
Disease Intervention Specialist: Finds and talks with people exposed to infections like syphilis or TB so they can get tested and treated. Typical pay $50k.
Toxicology Lab Technician: Prepares and runs samples in a lab that tests for drugs, poisons, or chemical effects. Typical pay $46k.
Epidemiology Research Assistant: Supports public health studies by collecting surveys, cleaning data, and running basic analyses. Typical pay $45k.
In-Life Study Technician: Carries out the day-to-day steps of safety studies at a contract research lab. Typical pay $45k.
Tick Surveillance Technician: Collects ticks in woods and fields by dragging white cloths, then tests them so health departments know where Lyme disease risk is rising. Typical pay $42k.
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.