Seasonal EMT jobs: 10 summer and winter contracts, and when to apply for each

Seasonal EMT jobs run for a few months and then end, and you can stack them into a working year. Summer EMT jobs cover scout bases, national parks, beaches, theme parks, Alaska and the fire line. Winter brings ski patrol and the Antarctic summer, and hurricane deployments run June to November. Most of these gigs hire in the fall and winter before the season, and the federal ones close fast.

The short version, checked November 9, 2026:

• When to apply: fall and winter for summer gigs, late summer and fall for ski season.
• License: you need one that’s valid where the job is. National Registry certification alone isn’t a license.
• Housing: some gigs include it and many don’t. Get it in writing.

Our board screens listings for pay, so the seasonal work on it is mostly fire. On November 8, 2026, 32 of the 1,024 distinct postings live on our board used seasonal wording, and 26 of them were wildland fire. We matched words like “seasonal” in titles and descriptions, so the counts are approximate.

Are some EMT jobs only a few months a year?

Yes. A lot of EMS work is built to end after one season. The Park Service’s 2027 Preventative Search and Rescue (PSAR) ranger job is capped at 1,039 hours, about 26 weeks of full-time work. Most summer jobs at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico run May 23 to August 11. The U.S. Antarctic Program sends most of its people south from October through February.

A season isn’t a rotation. Offshore hitches and flight rotations run all year, as our offshore medic guide explains. For contracts, 1099s and licensing in general, see our guide to contract EMT work.

When summer EMT jobs hire: the seasonal calendar

Summer EMT jobs hire in the fall and winter before the season. Federal jobs open and close first, sometimes in days.

Most people start looking too late. US Google searches for “summer EMT jobs” peaked in March, at about 480 a month (DataForSEO, October 2025 to September 2026). By March 2027, the 2027 PSAR posting will have been closed for five months.

10 seasonal EMT jobs for summer and winter

Seven of the ten run in summer, two in winter, and hurricane deployments run from summer into fall.

1. Scout high adventure bases and youth camps

• What it is: first aid, backcountry response and patient transport at a camp or high adventure base. Scouting America runs four national bases: Philmont, Northern Tier, Sea Base and the Summit Bechtel Reserve.
• Season: Philmont wants its medical services staff from May 20 to August 12.
• License and tickets: an EMT license or other advanced medical training. Philmont also asks for ICS-100 and ICS-200 (FEMA incident command courses) and New Mexico search and rescue field certification training, and staff must be 21.
• Camp rules: camp EMT jobs sit under state health codes, which can set who runs camp health care. In New York, an EMT can be a children’s camp health director, and an overnight camp’s director must be on site.
• Housing and pay: Philmont’s starting base salary is $1,485 a month plus room and board. Medical services staff are listed at salary level IV, its manager and director level.
• How to get hired: rolling hiring, with most interviews from September through April and no deadline.
• The catch: the hours. Philmont warns of “workdays in excess of 24 hours” in rough terrain. Much of the job is radio, driving and teaching first aid.

2. National parks: PSAR rangers and park EMTs

• What it is: federal seasonal rangers who run Preventative Search and Rescue (PSAR) patrols and give emergency care “under medical oversight.” The Park Service has also hired seasonal EMTs as Health Technicians (Emergency Medical Technician).
• Season: entry on duty is usually April or May.
• License: five of the eight parks on the 2027 PSAR posting required a National Registry EMT or higher by the day the posting closed.
• Housing: “Depending on location government housing may be available.”
• How to get hired: USAJOBS. The 2027 PSAR posting, for eight parks from the Grand Canyon to Glacier, opened October 5, 2026 and closed October 7, capped at 250 applications.
• Pay: GS-5 to GS-7 on the federal General Schedule, $19 to $31 an hour before locality pay.
• The catch: speed. Have your NREMT card, a federal resume and a saved USAJOBS search ready by September.

3. Beach patrols and lifeguard EMS

• What it is: water rescue and first aid on a national park, county or town beach.
• Season: April to September in Pinellas County, Florida.
• License: a lifeguard certificate first. The Park Service’s 2026 lifeguard job at Golden Gate National Recreation Area required an EMT or higher, or the ability to get one. Pinellas lists first responder, EMT or paramedic certification as “highly desirable” and pays EMT-certified guards more.
• Housing: “Government housing is available” on the Golden Gate posting. Ask local agencies.
• How to get hired: federal lifeguard jobs can post in winter. Golden Gate’s ran December 30, 2025 to February 9, 2026.
• Pay: $24 to $35 an hour at Golden Gate. Pinellas pays $20 to $23.
• The catch: an EMT card won’t replace the lifeguard certificate.

4. Theme parks and water parks

• What it is: emergency response and first aid for guests and staff at a theme or water park.
• License: a state license. One Georgia park’s 2026 seasonal posting took emergency medical responders (EMRs) through paramedics. It asked staff to keep National Registry certification and set a minimum age of 18.
• Housing: not mentioned in the posting.
• How to get hired: apply to the park. That Georgia park was still posting on June 30, 2026.
• Pay: $19 an hour for EMTs and $21 for paramedics.
• The catch: the pay, with a paramedic premium of $2 an hour.

5. Alaska summer

• What it is: fire crews, flight programs and town EMS. Our board had 25 live Alaska postings on November 8, 2026: 12 wildland fire, 7 flight and critical care, and 5 fire-department or 911 EMS.
• Season: summer for fire, year-round for the rest.
• License: you need a license valid in Alaska. The EMS Compact’s site lists Alaska as participating, enacted in 2026, so a license from another Compact state may cover you through an Alaska agency. Confirm it with the employer.
• Housing: varies. Ask who pays travel: a commenter quoted in our contract guide said one Alaska program doesn’t pay your way to Anchorage.
• How to get hired: watch all year. US searches for “alaska EMT jobs” ran 260 to 480 a month from September 2025 to August 2026.
• Pay: the 15 Alaska postings on our board that showed pay had a median of $44 an hour on November 8, 2026. That counts every Alaska posting, not only seasonal ones.
• The catch: distance. Get travel, licensing and housing in writing before you fly.

6. Wildland fire season

Fire is where most seasonal medic work on our board sits, and it hires early. Federal temporary firefighters for 2027 start between April 18 and June 13, 2027, and the Forest Service was taking applications in November 2026. An EMT card gets you onto fires on a crew or as a fireline medic. Under the 2026 federal casual-hire (AD) pay plan, an EMT Fireline earns $36 an hour, an AEMT Fireline $40 and a Paramedic Fireline $44. Fireline EMT and paramedic positions need the Red Card courses and the arduous pack test. Our wildland firefighter guide has the details, and our wildland fire jobs page lists what’s open.

7. Festival and event season

Event season runs from spring to early fall: concerts, festivals, races and fairs. You work per diem shifts for a licensed EMS agency or event company, under its medical director. Pay is mostly hourly, so the shift length decides what a day is worth. Apply in late winter or spring. Our event EMT guide covers pay, 1099 or W-2, and getting on a roster.

8. Ski patrol

• What it is: on-hill emergency care, toboggan transport and hill safety at a ski area.
• Season: winter, for as long as there’s snow.
• License: Ski NH’s patrol page says most ski areas accept an EMT-B. Since August 2024, the National Ski Patrol has accepted EMT and WFR credentials for membership without its Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC) course. OEC needs a yearly refresher.
• Housing: ask the resort.
• How to get hired: paid patrols hire in late summer and fall. One resort’s 2026/27 posting was open in November 2026. US searches for “ski patrol jobs” peaked in August and December, at about 1,600 a month.
• Pay: that 2026/27 posting starts at $21 an hour.
• The catch: many ski areas depend on volunteer patrollers. A commenter on r/skipatrol (late 2025) said a pro patrol “requires advanced level skiing.”

9. Antarctica

Antarctica is the long-shot winter gig. The U.S. Antarctic Program deploys about 3,000 people a year, mostly from October through February. Its medical contractor hires “physicians and medical support staff.” For most EMTs, the likelier door is the station fire department. The department’s unofficial site lists EMT-Basic among firefighter requirements, along with Firefighter II and airport firefighting. Our guide to overseas EMT and paramedic contracts covers remote and overseas work.

10. Hurricane-season deployments

The Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30 and peaks around September 10, per the National Hurricane Center. Ambulance services with disaster contracts send crews out for days to weeks, often on short notice. You can’t plan a year around a storm, so treat deployments as a bonus on top of a home job. Rosters, pay and packing are in our guide to EMS disaster deployment.

Cruise ships didn’t make the list. The American College of Emergency Physicians’ cruise guidelines (revised May 2026) want physicians and clinical staff with three years of post-registration experience. They don’t mention EMTs.

What seasonal EMT jobs pay

Seasonal postings we read paid $19 to $44 an hour, from a theme park EMT to a federal fireline paramedic. Seasonal paramedic jobs pay more at the top end: $44 an hour on the fireline against $36 for an EMT. On our board, US postings with seasonal wording that showed pay had a median of $33 an hour (24 postings, November 8, 2026). Most were fire jobs. Only 6 of the 32 seasonal postings mentioned housing anywhere in the description. Each posting counts once, at the middle of its posted range, with day rates left out and cents dropped.

Keep your home job: the PRN base

A PRN or part-time job at home is what makes seasons work. The host of a travel EMS interview on YouTube (October 2026), a travel EMT, works PRN at a Pennsylvania ambulance service. In the host’s words, “they’ll just put me on the schedule when I’m home.” The EMT-firefighter being interviewed stays part-time at a city service, works the required hours before leaving, and picks up the city’s event shifts on return.

Before you commit to a season:

1. Ask your service for its minimum hours, and whether you can work them early.
2. Get the season’s start and end dates in writing.
3. Start the next state’s license before you leave.
4. Budget for the weeks between seasons.
5. If an offer sounds too good, check it against our EMT contract red flags.

When a season ends, our travel and contract EMS jobs page lists contracts open now. Year-round openings are on our EMT jobs, AEMT jobs and paramedic jobs pages.

From the field: what seasonal medics say

Medics who work seasons describe great places, thin pay and a lot of planning. These are individual accounts from public posts, not statistics.

• The scout base door. An EMT-firefighter with about five years of contracts (YouTube interview, October 2026) started at a scout high adventure base in New Mexico. The bases “need medics there to both… do first aid and then also be a guide.” The wilderness first responder card came first: “I got it for that purpose.” The only repeat contracts since have been “the two different scout bases.”
• Summer or the roster. A travel EMT hosting a YouTube interview (October 2026) said a roster means staying home all summer, and “what if they don’t get any deployments”? The EMT-firefighter being interviewed keeps October free: “I might be here, I might not.”
• Parks want the card. A commenter on r/NewToEMS (October 2026): “The national parks system has positions within Preventative Search and Rescue. Many spots require EMT cert.”
• Ski patrol needs an off-season. The top comment in an r/skipatrol thread (August 2026) said a patrol “career” needs off-season work, “ideally your own small business.” A commenter who works at a resort: “I do EMS when not working at resort. Works great.”
• Fire is feast or famine. A travel paramedic and new fireline paramedic (YouTube, October 2026): “you may not get a patient for a whole fire season.”
• The 2015 answer, updated. An EMTLIFE reply from October 2015 listed “Theme Parks, Waterparks, Summer Camps” among places that “often hire a lot of newbies.” Camps and theme parks still hire every summer. The better-paid seasons, fire and federal parks, want an NREMT card, fire courses or both.