20 jobs in sports science (With salaries and duties)
Updated 24 August 2023
Sports science is a popular degree subject and is available at many universities across the country. After obtaining a degree, many graduates look for jobs in sports science or related fields to put their qualifications to good use. Sports science can qualify you to apply for a wide range of jobs related to sports, recreation, health, sales, education and fitness. In this article, we list 20 jobs for sports science graduates with details of average salaries and common responsibilities for each role.
Jobs in sports science
Below are 20 jobs in sports science. Some of these roles are directly related to sports science, while others use the skills and knowledge gained from a sports science degree in a different field:
1. Sports coach
National average salary: £18,802 per year
Primary duties: A sports coach works with either amateur or professional sports teams to arrange practices and provide coaching in a specific sport. Coaches can work with adults, teenagers or children. Common responsibilities include scheduling practices, teaching techniques, planning game strategies and arranging attendance at events and competitions.
Related: How To Become a Gymnastics Coach
2. Massage therapist
National average salary: £20,373 per year
Primary duties: A massage therapist uses massage to offer relief from injuries and strains, including sports-related injuries. As a massage therapist, your responsibilities include assessing patients for vulnerabilities and tension, giving massages that manipulate soft tissues and muscles and offering advice on posture and recovery techniques.
Related: How To Become a Massage Therapist
3. Sports administrator
National average salary: £20,599 per year
Primary duties: A sports administrator is an administrator who specialises in working in sports settings, such as leisure centres and sports clubs. Your responsibilities as a sports administrator include common administrative duties like printing and copying, responding to calls and enquiries, liaising with local councils and promoting sports in schools and community centres.
4. Sports sales executive
National average salary: £23,036 per year
Primary duties: A sports sales executive is a sales professional who specialises in sports sales. You may work in a sports retail store or in B2B sports sales from an office base. Your responsibilities as a sports sales executive include persuading people to buy your products, negotiating sales prices, presenting to clients and meeting sales targets.
5. Sports photographer
National average salary: £23,807 per year
Primary duties: A sports photographer is a photographer who specialises in photographing sporting events and athletes. An interest in sports and some knowledge of sports science can aid a career in sports photography. Your responsibilities include photographing sports events, negotiating prices with buyers and seeking new clients.
6. Fitness centre manager
National average salary: £24,639 per year
Primary duties: A fitness centre manager works in a fitness centre or a gym and is responsible for managing the centre and its staff. Common responsibilities as a fitness centre manager include marketing the centre, managing staff, coordinating health and safety and managing maintenance and repairs within the centre.
7. Personal trainer
National average salary: £26,152 per year
Primary duties: A personal trainer offers guidance on personal fitness and nutrition. As a personal trainer, your responsibilities might include assessing clients' health and fitness levels, drawing up a personal exercise plan for clients, demonstrating the correct use of gym equipment and showing your clients proper exercise techniques.
Related: Personal Trainer Skills: Definition and Examples
8. Sports marketing executive
National average salary: £26,159 per year
Primary duties: Knowledge of sports science gives you the expertise to succeed in sports marketing. The responsibilities of a sports marketing executive include tracking analytics, compiling reports, presenting to clients and creating marketing materials to help sports companies to boost brand awareness and sales.
9. Primary school teacher
National average salary: £26,583 per year
Primary duties: By studying for a further qualification in primary education, sports science graduates can become primary school teachers. As a primary school teacher, your responsibilities include preparing and delivering lessons for primary age children, looking after the health and wellbeing of your students, preparing pupil reports and liaising with parents.
10. Health information technician
National average salary: £28,111 per year
Primary duties: A health information technician is responsible for inputting data into systems used by hospitals and care providers across the country. As a health information technician, typical responsibilities include data entry, coding and administration duties. The role involves using data to make larger assessments of health care trends and suits logical people.
11. Nutritionist
National average salary: £28,220 per year
Primary duties: Further education can qualify you to work as a nutritionist. A nutritionist specialises in offering advice relating to diet and exercise. Your responsibilities as a nutritionist might include assessing patients' diets, making meal plans for patients and tracking and monitoring patient progress.
Related: How To Become a Nutritionist
12. Sports agent
National average salary: £28,395 per year
Primary duties: Sports agents represent athletes in their chosen field. As a sports agent, your responsibilities might include finding new clients, negotiating contracts, marketing your client to teams and providing professional career advice and guidance. Sports agents are valuable across the full spectrum of sporting opportunities, meaning you can specialise in a sport that you enjoy.
13. Exercise physiologist
National average salary: £31,638 per year
Primary duties: An exercise physiologist uses knowledge of physical activity and its effects on the human body to provide support and advice to athletes and sports teams. This role involves fitness testing athletes, developing fitness programmes, monitoring training plans and educating athletes on long-term fitness, recovery and hydration.
Related: What are sports doctor jobs? (Plus how to become one)
14. PE teacher
National average salary: £31,755 per year
Primary duties: A PE teacher is a secondary school teacher who teaches Physical Education to students aged 11 and up. Your responsibilities as a PE teacher include preparing and delivering lessons to students, marking written work, writing student reports and setting up and taking down gym equipment between classes. Becoming a PE teacher requires further study for a PGCE or similar teaching qualification.
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15. Higher education lecturer
National average salary: £33,714 per year
Primary duties: By studying for a PhD, you could qualify to teach sports science and similar subjects in a college or university. Your responsibilities as a higher education lecturer include researching and writing papers on your subject, teaching students, marking papers and delivering seminars. The role suits people that wish to further their own research agenda while supporting others on their education journey.
16. Physiotherapist
National average salary: £35,512 per year
Primary duties: Further education could qualify you to become a physiotherapist. As a physiotherapist, you work with patients to assess and manage both sports and non-sports-related injuries. Responsibilities include assessing patients, managing a recovery plan and demonstrating exercises that can help patients' recovery. Physiotherapists work with clients from all walks of life so you can expect plenty of variety day-to-day.
Related: How To Become a Physiotherapist: A Step-by-Step Guide
17. Sportswriter
National average salary: £35,759 per year
Primary duties: A sportswriter is a journalist who reports on sports matches and fixtures. Your responsibilities as a sportswriter may include attending local matches, writing and editing articles on sports matches and players and carrying out interviews with sports personalities, players and managers.
18. Sports therapist
National average salary: £36,367 per year
Primary duties: Sports therapists specialise in providing physical therapy to athletes and individuals suffering from sports-related injuries. Your responsibilities as a sports therapist might include conducting fitness assessments, testing joints, providing emergency aid, rehabilitating serious injuries and monitoring rehabilitation and recovery after an injury.
Related: How to become a first aid trainer in 6 steps (Plus duties)
19. Clinical scientist
National average salary: £42,891 per year
Primary duties: A degree in sports science can start you off on a career path into working in science research, especially health-related sciences. Your responsibilities as a clinical scientist include testing subjects using echocardiography and other tools, monitoring patients and maintaining accurate records of research and results.
Related: How To Become a Clinical Scientist
20. Choreographer
National average salary: £28.95 per hour
Primary duties: Choreographers plan out routines for dancers and entertainers. You may work for a theatre or performance centre or you may work as a freelance choreographer. Your responsibilities include planning a performance, choosing music and other effects for your performance, and working with performers to offer direction.
Salary figures reflect data listed on Indeed Salaries at time of writing. Salaries may vary depending on the hiring organisation and a candidate's experience, academic background and location.
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