Seeing more postings bundling sports science, data engineering, and travel ops into one full-time role at $55–70k with game-day obligations… Example from this week: an NCAA D1 ad wanted Catapult, ForceDecks, Python-built dashboards, GPS QA, and rehab coordination — how are you negotiating comp or narrowing scope when the deliverables span both performance monitoring and data infrastructure?
I’ve had luck sending a one-page addendum at offer that splits “core” vs “add‑on” tasks and sets a game‑day day rate. At my last D1 stop we made Catapult/ForceDecks + Python dashboards the core, then $250 per travel day and a small stipend for rehab coordination; they signed it, and when another school wouldn’t, I narrowed the first 90 days to just monitoring and QA. Not every department will budge, but framing it as risk management and SLA clarity helped.
And quick example: I brought a backlog with hour estimates to the offer meeting and made anything past ‘monitoring + Catapult QA’ (Python dashboards, rehab coord, travel ops) a project add‑on with a monthly stipend and capped hours. That got me +$500/mo in‑season and a cap of two away trips; when base wouldn’t move, I traded for 5 comp days and a GA line to handle GPS QA. If they still balk, define ‘game day = 1.5 days’ in writing so you’re not playing overtime whack‑a‑mole.
And quick example from a mid‑major offer: I used a “build vs maintain” clause — maintenance (Catapult QA, basic reporting) stays salaried up to 12 hrs/week, but any build work (“if it lives in Git, it’s a project rate”) bills at $60/hr with a quarterly cap. Travel was either 1.5x comp days or a flat $250/day; if they balk, I push all build work to offseason sprints. +1 to @lucas_b92’s addendum idea, but the explicit hours cap is what finance honored.