25 of the Highest Paying Nutrition Jobs in 2023

The best Nutrition jobs can pay up to $137,500 per year.

High Paying Nutrition Jobs

• Nutrition Associate

  Salary range: $30,000-$137,500 per year

  The majority of Nutrition Associate salaries across the United States currently range between $30,000 (25th percentile) and $137,500 (75th percentile) annually. This large range of salary potential suggests there may be many opportunities for advancement and increased pay depending on skill level, location and years of experience. Based on recent job postings on ZipRecruiter, the Nutrition Associate job market in the United States is very active, with many companies hiring.

• Chief Clinical Dietitian

  Salary range: $92,500-$116,500 per year

  The majority of Chief Clinical Dietitian salaries across the United States currently range between $92,500 (25th percentile) and $116,500 (75th percentile) annually. This moderate range of salaries suggests pay in this role will be consistent, regardless skill level, location and years of experience, though some advancement is possible. Based on recent job posting activity on ZipRecruiter, the Chief Clinical Dietitian job market in the United States is not very active as few companies are currently hiring for this role. You can try exploring related titles to find jobs with more active opportunities.

• Certified Nutritionist

  Salary range: $71,000-$94,000 per year

  A certified nutritionist gives nutritional guidance to clients to help them with eating habits, healthy meal planning, meal prep, and more. As a certified nutritionist, you assist clients with the goal of changing their behavior regarding food and helping them succeed when starting a new diet. Overall, you motivate clients and teach them how to make a change to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Your duties and responsibilities focus on the wellbeing of your clients when it comes to their eating habits, by concentrating on sensitivities, biochemical reactions, and more to help clients succeed in leading healthier and happier lives. Certified nutritionists can work with individuals or with groups in workshop settings.

• Metabolic Specialist

  Salary range: $39,000-$92,000 per year

  A metabolic specialist is a doctor who specializes in diagnosing and treating metabolic disorders like diabetes, high cholesterol, and other diseases. Their job duties involve diagnosing patients, checking their heart rate and blood pressure, prescribing medicine, and recommending ways to have a healthier life. Career qualifications for a metabolic specialist include a medical degree and licensure from the state in which you intend to practice.

• Dietitian

  Salary range: $60,500-$88,500 per year

  A dietitian helps clients make healthy food choices to achieve a specific health-related goal—like disease management or prevention—or simply to have a healthier lifestyle in general. As nutritional health specialists, dietitians work closely with clients to assess their health needs and dietary limitations; then they create meal plans to ensure clients are eating a proper diet.

• Registered Dietetic Technician

  Salary range: $50,000-$88,500 per year

  A registered dietetic technician is a licensed nutrition professional who helps clients lead healthier lives by following a nutritional eating plan. As a dietetic technician, your responsibilities revolve around the development of programs and counseling for both clients who want to improve their diet and patients with special dietary needs. Depending on your employer, your duties may include preparing food for individuals as well. You often collaborate with other healthcare staff to design total wellness plans. Excellent communication skills are crucial for a career as a registered dietetic technician.

• Registered Dietician

  Salary range: $62,500-$84,000 per year

  A registered dietitian works with patients to assess their current nutrition or health routines and identify goals for improving health outcomes related to diet and food choices. As a registered dietitian, your duties include providing health and nutrition advice, as well as creating diet or nutritional plans tailored to your patients’ budget or food preferences. As your patients follow their dietary plans, you monitor and assess their progress and help them make adjustments to reach their goals. Other responsibilities may include helping create educational materials or promoting community health through food and nutrition education programs.

• Nutrition Consultant

  Salary range: $51,000-$83,000 per year

  A nutrition consultant is a licensed nutritionist who consults with private clients. As a nutrition consultant, you provide sound nutritional and health advice to your clients. Clients may be private companies, individuals, or public health organizations. Your job duties include planning well-balanced meals, advising on best nutrition practices, suggesting lifestyle changes, and sometimes even preparing the food yourself. Many nutrition consultants work directly with the public. They help their community set up food programs and services, often focusing on the nutritional needs of children. You must be passionate about shaping the wellness of your community to succeed in this role.

• Outpatient Dietitian

  Salary range: $62,000-$82,500 per year

  An outpatient dietician provides diet counseling and nutrition advice to patients and families. Your responsibilities include providing education and guidance on weight management, diabetes education, renal and cardiovascular disease, malnutrition, cancer and nutrition therapy, sports nutrition, and gastrointestinal disorders and nutrition. Duties include meeting with patients and families and providing nutritional information, evaluating patient nutrition requirements, and providing referrals to healthcare professionals as appropriate. You offer meal plan guidance, assess patient nutrition intake, and maintain detailed and confidential patient records. You work in outpatient settings such as doctor’s offices, independent practices, schools, sports facilities, corporate locations, and public health programs.

• Research Dietitian

  Salary range: $50,000-$81,500 per year

  A research dietician performs a variety of clinical tests and analyses of food to determine things like calorie and vitamin content, and decide whether the food is appropriate for different people. Job duties of a research dietitian in a health care facility include determining the proper diet for patients, while responsibilities in a factory may be studying how cold a food item can get before it breaks down. To pursue this career, you must be a registered dietician. Qualifications include a bachelor’s degree in nutrition or a related field and national certification, although many states also require licensure. You should have problem-solving skills and research experience.

• Clinical Nutritionist

  Salary range: $63,500-$81,500 per year

  A clinical nutritionist helps clients understand their eating habits, educates them on proper nutritional needs, and works with them to develop health and weight-loss goals. As a clinical nutritionist, you must stay current with the latest nutrition research to help your clients achieve the best results. You may work as a private consultant or as part of a health or medical care facility.

• Clinical Dietitian

  Salary range: $53,000-$78,500 per year

  A clinical dietitian designs and administers nutrition programs for patients in healthcare facilities. Clinical dietitians assess patient health needs, educate patients on food habits that can improve health, design customized diet plans based on patient health and disease, and promote health education through presentations and speaking engagements. A career as a clinical dietitian includes evaluating the effectiveness of nutrition programs through patient consultation and health monitoring. Similar roles include dietitian nutritionist, food education nutritionist, dietetics facilitator, food planner, and health consultant.

• Renal Dietitian

  Salary range: $69,500-$72,500 per year

  As a renal dietitian, your job is to work with kidney patients and help them make diet and nutrition choices designed to improve the overall function of their kidneys. In most cases, a renal dietitian works with patients who are undergoing dialysis treatment for kidney problems and may offer consultation during those treatments to help maximize the efficiency of each visit. You may discuss the results of blood tests with patients, help monitor weight changes, and collaborate with other caregivers. Fulfilling the responsibilities and duties of a renal dietitian requires communication skills and the ability to maintain any licensing qualifications required by your state.

• Public Health Nutritionist

  Salary range: $47,500-$72,000 per year

  For many people, the pace of modern life makes maintaining a healthy diet challenging. Public health nutritionists help clients throughout their community develop a positive relationship with food by offering education programs and support groups to teach good nutritional habits. Your duties and responsibilities as a public health nutritionist might also include creating policies to promote proper diet plans through institutions like schools and care facilities and developing meal plans to fit available budgets and cultural standards. This is often a much different career than a standard nutritionist, as your focus is on the public as opposed to private clients.

• Nutritionist

  Salary range: $42,000-$61,000 per year

  A nutritionist educates clients and the community about the relationship between food and health. As a nutritionist, your responsibilities include evaluating clients’ dietetic and health needs, meal planning, and helping your clients work toward their health goals through nutrition. Your job duties include consulting with clients, researching the relationship between food and health concerns, developing meal plans, and adjusting your recommendations based on what works to help your clients. You need a strong understanding of dietetics and nutrition as well as good interpersonal skills for this job.

• Nutrition Coordinator

  Salary range: $39,500-$59,000 per year

  A nutrition coordinator is a healthcare professional who oversees food-related programs at a hospital or medical facility. As a nutrition coordinator, your job duties include creating nutrition programs for patients, directing staff and volunteers on how to educate patients and families about nutritional lifestyle changes, and developing training tools for patients and members of the community. You also work to ensure compliance with federal and state health and nutrition performance standards. The career typically requires a bachelor’s degree in food science, nursing, or another health-related field. You may also need prior experience in a medical setting and extensive knowledge of food science. Additional qualifications include excellent interpersonal, leadership, and critical thinking skills.

• Community Dietitian

  Salary range: $34,500-$52,000 per year

  Community dietitians are trained to develop programs and promote healthier food choices to the specific groups of people, such as children or senior citizens. They assess the nutritional needs of these groups and suggest resources on healthful diets that are easily accessible. They may also help food service workers enforce dietary restrictions. Community dietitians may work in a health clinic, fitness center, public health agency, or a corporate wellness program.

• Nutrition Specialist

  Salary range: $32,500-$51,000 per year

  A nutrition specialist develops nutritious food programs for clients. These trained food science experts help others understand how foods provide fuel and nutrients for better overall health. As a nutrition specialist, your job duties include meeting with clients to assess their current health and nutrition intake, creating individualized meal plans, monitoring the progress of your clients, and suggesting changes to achieve overall health goals. You must also stay up-to-date with the latest information on diet and nutrition, disease prevention, and healthy living in order to offer the most effective guidance for your clients.

• Nutrition Technician

  Salary range: $32,500-$50,000 per year

  As a nutrition technician, your job is to support the health and wellness of others by providing education about things like dietary services, meal plan creation, and selecting the best food for a particular situation. This job comes in two common forms. The first is in the medical field, where your duties mainly consist of providing advice to patients with special dietary needs. In this role, your goal is to ensure that each patient gets adequate nutrition even when they can't eat certain foods. Alternatively, you may find a nutrition technician position in the corporate world. In this position, your responsibilities revolve around educating employees on their health while implementing various wellness initiative for the company.

• Nutrition Counselor

  Salary range: $41,500-$49,000 per year

  A nutrition counselor educates patients about food nutrition and how it affects quality of life and health care issues. In this career, your duties include meeting with clients, assessing their current nutritional habits and comprehension, and helping them to understand how healthy eating and diet play roles in their overall health. In some cases, you may simply provide more information for your clients, while other times a nutritionist works with the patient to develop health and nutrient goals and a new meal plan that contributes to the patients reaching their goals.

• Dietetic Technician

  Salary range: $37,500-$48,000 per year

  A dietetic technician prepares client meals, conducts diet analyses, works with clients to create customized diet plans and advise clients on healthy food choices. Dietetic technicians often help clients achieve goals in weight loss and fitness, post-surgery and postpartum recovery, and disease prevention. Dietetic technicians often act as health allies, assisting clients with achieving healthier nutrition habits. Similar occupations include nutrition specialist and clinical dietitian.

• Dietary Clerk

  Salary range: $37,000-$47,000 per year

  A dietary clerk is an assistant position in a cafeteria, whose duties are helping to provide proper nutrition. These positions may be found in schools, hospitals, or any other facilities with cafeterias or personal dining options. As a dietary clerk, you work under the supervision of a nutrition specialist or head of the cafeteria. Qualifications for the job include prior experience in a restaurant or other food service industry and some post-secondary education related to food, nutrition, and diet. Essential skills for the career include customer service, attention to detail, and the ability to take direction.

• Clinical Dietetic Technician

  Salary range: $42,000-$44,000 per year

  A clinical dietetic technician works in the medical field, providing food and nutritional advice to patients. As a clinical dietetic technician, you typically report to a more experienced dietetic technician or a registered dietitian. Your responsibilities are to record and monitor your patients’ current diet, identify any food intolerances or allergies, and document changes in their weight or appetite based on your department’s dietary counsel.

• Nutrition Assistant

  Salary range: $31,000-$42,000 per year

  As a nutrition assistant, you educate clients or patients on healthy eating and nutrition. You evaluate your patient's dietary habits and help them develop a plan for healthy meals. Your job duties are to conduct patient interviews, provide dietary guidance, and report patient progress to the dietitian in charge. Depending on your employer, you will be responsible for other duties related to food and nutrition services. You can find nutrition assistant jobs in hospital settings, health facilities, and government food assistance programs such as the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program.

• Nutrition Representative

  Salary range: $32,500-$34,500 per year

  A nutrition representative is a specialty position in food service working for medical or health care organizations. As a nutrition representative, your responsibilities are to serve meals to patients based on specific dietary plans. You ensure that patients’ trays are prepared with the proper portions for their diet based upon the available food menu. You may also discuss the nutritional options available to patients and work with them to customize their meals and diets based on their needs. Other duties include cleaning the dining area and cooking tools, keeping track of food stocks, and preparing food trays for patients.

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