The business behind the games: running teams, signing players, selling sponsorships, and managing college athletics.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Team President: Runs the business side of a pro sports franchise: tickets, sponsorships, media, arenas, and finances. Typical pay $600k.
General Manager (Pro Team): Builds a pro team's roster through the draft, trades, and free agency. Typical pay $1.5M.
College Athletic Director: Leads a college's entire athletic department: coaches, budgets, facilities, compliance, and fundraising. Typical pay $160k.
Sports Attorney: Handles legal matters in sports: player contracts, league rules, NIL deals, team sales, and disputes. Typical pay $151k.
Salary Cap Analyst: Manages a team's payroll under league salary cap rules so the team can afford the best roster. Typical pay $120k.
Player Engagement Director: Helps pro and college athletes with life off the field: mental health, finances, school, and careers after sports. Typical pay $110k.
League Commissioner: Leads a sports league, from youth conferences to the NFL. Typical pay $250k.
Team Security Director: Protects a team's players, coaches and facilities, planning security for road trips and public events and working with stadium and local police. Typical pay $120k.
Director of Player Personnel: Leads a pro or college team's scouting department, ranking draft prospects and advising the general manager on trades and free agents. Typical pay $180k.
Bowl Game Executive Director: Runs a college football bowl game year-round, selling sponsorships, booking teams through conference deals, and hosting fans for game week. Typical pay $160k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Sports Agent: Represents athletes, negotiating contracts and endorsement deals and managing their careers. Typical pay $84k.
Sponsorship and Partnerships Manager: Sells and manages sponsorship deals between teams and brands, like jersey patches and arena naming rights. Typical pay $85k.
Sports Marketing Manager: Plans marketing campaigns for teams, leagues, or sports brands. Typical pay $90k.
NCAA Compliance Officer: Makes sure a college athletic department follows NCAA, conference, and NIL rules. Typical pay $65k.
NIL Director: Helps college athletes earn money from their name, image, and likeness through sponsorships and deals. Typical pay $80k.
Sports Event Manager: Plans and runs sporting events like marathons, tournaments, and championships. Typical pay $59k.
Team Community Relations Manager: Connects a pro team with its city through charity events, youth programs, and player appearances. Typical pay $65k.
Athletic Academic Advisor: Helps college athletes stay eligible, choose classes, and graduate. Typical pay $55k.
Team Travel Coordinator: Plans every detail of a team's travel: charter flights, hotels, buses, meals, and equipment. Typical pay $62k.
Director of Team Operations: Runs the daily logistics of a team: schedules, facilities, staff, and budgets. Typical pay $75k.
Ticket Operations Manager: Runs a team's ticketing systems, seat maps, and box office. Typical pay $70k.
Sports Licensing Manager: Approves and manages products that use team logos, from jerseys to video games. Typical pay $90k.
Athletics Development Officer: Raises money from donors and boosters for a college athletics department, building relationships and asking for gifts to fund teams and facilities. Typical pay $75k.
Clubhouse Manager: Runs the clubhouse and locker room for a pro baseball or other sports team, handling laundry, meals, equipment and travel packing for players. Typical pay $80k.
Team Interpreter: Interprets for players who speak Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and other languages, in the clubhouse, on the mound, and at press conferences. Typical pay $70k.
Starter: fastest way in
Ticket Sales Representative: Sells season tickets, group packages, and suites for teams and venues. Typical pay $48k.
Sports Marketing Coordinator: Supports a team's marketing: promotions, giveaways, ads, and game-day events. Typical pay $48k.
Partnership Activation Coordinator: Makes sure sponsors' signs, promotions, and events happen as promised during games. Typical pay $46k.
Team Store Associate: Sells jerseys, hats, and gear at team stores and stadiums. Typical pay $33k.
Season Ticket Account Manager: Works with season ticket holders for a pro team, college or arena, checking in with them, handling seat changes, and getting them to renew. Typical pay $48k.
Minor League Promotions Director: Dreams up wacky theme nights, giveaways, and between-inning games for minor league teams, so fans have fun even when the game is slow. Typical pay $45k.
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.