The Plastic Surgeon's Advocate^™.

Northgate™ represents plastic surgeons across reconstructive, microvascular, aesthetic, hand, burn and trauma, craniofacial, and pediatric. Bespoke representation and permanent placement. Personal, from first private call to signed offer.

We represent the plastic surgeon.

Most firms in this category work for the hospital or the cosmetic platform. They are paid by the buyer to fill the next reconstructive seat or the next aesthetic suite. Fast. We invert that. Northgate™ works for the plastic surgeon, who is the rarer asset and the one whose career carries the longest tail.

Plastic surgery has the widest practice-model spread of any specialty we work in. An academic microvascular surgeon doing free-flap breast reconstruction and head-and-neck reconstruction is in an entirely different practice from a board-certified cosmetic surgeon running a cash-pay aesthetic practice. The decisions a senior hand surgeon makes about call structure are not the decisions a craniofacial surgeon makes about pediatric institutional support. We treat the sub-discipline and the practice model as the unit of the conversation.

A partner leads the conversation from the first private call to the signed offer. Your name does not leave this office without your written sign-off. Not in a pitch. Not on a shortlist.

The first conversation is private. There is no obligation on either side.

The work within plastic surgery.

We are deliberate about the sub-discipline and the practice model behind it. The market for a microvascular reconstructive surgeon at an NCI-designated cancer center is not the market for a senior aesthetic surgeon evaluating a partnership in a high-volume cash-pay practice. The seven sub-disciplines below are where the bulk of our plastic surgery work has lived.

Reconstructive Surgery: Post-oncologic, post-traumatic, and complex wound reconstruction. Almost exclusively academic and IDN; institutional commitment to the reconstructive service line decides most conversations.
Microvascular Surgery: Free-flap breast reconstruction, head-and-neck reconstruction, and lower extremity salvage. The senior microvascular pool is small; case volume and team continuity drive the offer.
Aesthetic / Cosmetic: Independent cash-pay practices, two-partner senior practices, and PE-backed med-spa platforms. Three different conversations; the model defines the economics.
Hand Surgery: Microvascular, peripheral nerve, congenital, and trauma. A sub-discipline that sits between plastics and orthopedics; dual-board candidates command premium offers.
Burn & Trauma: Burn-center medical directorship, complex burn reconstruction, and burn ICU integration. A small senior pool tied closely to verified burn programs.
Craniofacial Surgery: Cleft, craniosynostosis, and complex pediatric craniofacial. Almost exclusively children’s hospital; the universe of fellowship-trained craniofacial surgeons is small.
Pediatric Plastic Surgery: Children’s hospital pediatric plastic surgery; often overlapping with hand and craniofacial. Protected academic time is the dominant negotiated term.

The plastic surgeon we represent.

We are most useful to plastic surgeons who are seven to twenty years into practice, board-certified by the ABPS, fellowship-trained where applicable, and at a real inflection point. A reconstructive program-leadership role opening at a place you have followed for a decade. A cosmetic partnership offer that is materializing or expiring. A non-compete running out. A burn center adding a service line. A children’s hospital expanding its craniofacial team.

The conversation tends to work less well for trainees, for general plastic surgeons exploring without a sub-discipline anchor, and for cosmetic searches where the platform refuses to discuss case volume, marketing economics, or the partnership-track calendar up front.

Tenure: Seven to twenty years post-fellowship, with at least three years at the current practice. Earlier-career plastic surgeons better served by their fellowship network.
Practice-model preference: Academic reconstructive, hospital-employed mixed, independent aesthetic partnership, PE-backed aesthetic platform, or pediatric/craniofacial children’s hospital. The five are not interchangeable.
Aesthetic posture: Whether you currently take insurance, what percentage of your practice is cash-pay, and what the next move would require you to change. We ask early.
Subspecialty case volume: Annual case volume in the primary sub-discipline. The numbers are the conversation for reconstructive and microvascular searches.
Reason for the conversation: A specific reason this season, not general curiosity. The reason itself usually shapes the right next role.

What we are seeing.

Plastic surgery has the widest compensation spread of any specialty we work in. Senior aesthetic surgeons in high-volume cash-pay practices clear the highest comp in the field; academic reconstructive and pediatric craniofacial surgeons typically sit closer to the surgical median and require offer construction beyond cash. The recruitment lever varies more by sub-discipline here than in any other specialty.

Aesthetic, independent partner: Senior aesthetic practitioners in established cash-pay practices routinely clearing the top of the plastic surgery distribution; marketing cost and staff economics decide net.
Reconstructive, academic: Base packages sitting closer to the academic surgical median; the conversation typically includes protected academic FTE, OR block, and team continuity.
Microvascular: Senior microvascular surgeons at NCI-designated centers command premium offers; case volume and team continuity are the negotiated terms.
Hand Surgery: Dual-trained (plastics + ortho) hand surgeons command premium offers; orthopedic-employed hand surgeons typically clear more than plastics-employed.
Burn & Pediatric Craniofacial: Compensation typically below the surgical median; offer construction usually requires academic title, protected time, or hospital subsidy.
Restrictive covenants: Non-competes are the dominant negotiated term in any aesthetic-practice move; we will not pursue a search that refuses to commit to clean geographic limits.

More detail in The 2026 Compensation Notes, the firm’s annual specialty-by-specialty supplement on offers we have seen close.

Read the Plastic Surgery notes

The rooms we work in.

The institutions that engage Northgate™ for plastic surgery searches. Each has hired at this level before, knows what the seat costs when it is wrong, and comes to the firm precisely because the conversation stays quiet.

i Academic Medical Centers
ii NCI-Designated Cancer Centers
iii Children’s Hospitals
iv Verified Burn Centers
v Integrated Delivery Networks
vi Independent Aesthetic Practices
vii PE-Backed Aesthetic Platforms
viii Faculty Practice Plans

When you are ready to make a move,
you need the right people in your corner.

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