---
title: "Pediatric Surgeon"
description: "Diagnose and perform surgery to treat fetal abnormalities and birth defects, diseases, and injuries in fetuses, premature and newborn infants, children…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/pediatric-surgeon"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Pediatric Surgeon

**Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-1243 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-1243.00

Diagnose and perform surgery to treat fetal abnormalities and birth defects, diseases, and injuries in fetuses, premature and newborn infants, children, and adolescents. Includes all pediatric surgical specialties and subspecialties.

Also advertised as: Cardiovascular Surgeon; General Surgeon; Hand Surgeon; Physician; Plastic Surgeon; Surgeon; Thoracic Surgeon; Vascular Surgeon.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $559,030 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $268.76/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $215,410 to $726,660, with the middle half between $336,380 and $583,200
- **Total US employment:** 1,190
- **Typical entry education:** Doctorate
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +2.0% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 0 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** not scored for this occupation

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 1,190 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $215,410 |
| 25th | $336,380 |
| 50th (median) | $559,030 |
| 75th | $583,200 |
| 90th | $726,660 |
| Mean (average) | $502,050 |

### Pay by state

The 4 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| OH | $488,160 | $526,182 | Not published by BLS |
| NY | $378,110 | $350,358 | 90 |
| NJ | $288,930 | $265,548 | Not published by BLS |
| TX | $239,200+ | Not comparable (top-coded) | 300 |

Values shown as $239,200+ exceed the BLS publication ceiling; exact figures are not published.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 1,300 in the 2025–2035 base year to 1,300 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 0 jobs, or +2.0%. Slower than average: 2.0% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 0 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Doctoral or professional degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Internship/residency.

## What the work involves

- Analyze patient's medical history, medication allergies, physical condition, and examination results to verify operation's necessity and to determine best procedure.
- Conduct research to develop and test surgical techniques that can improve operating procedures and outcomes.
- Consult with patient's other medical care specialists, such as cardiologist and endocrinologist, to determine if surgery is necessary.
- Describe preoperative and postoperative treatments and procedures, such as sedatives, diets, antibiotics, or preparation and treatment of the patient's operative area, to parents or guardians of the patient.
- Direct and coordinate activities of nurses, assistants, specialists, residents, and other medical staff.
- Examine fetuses, infants, children, and adolescents, and diagnose health issues to determine need for intervention, such as surgery.
- Examine instruments, equipment, and operating room to ensure sterility.
- Examine patient to obtain information on medical condition and surgical risk.

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Investigative (I), Social (S), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 6.52 |
| S — Social | 4.99 |
| R — Realistic | 4.95 |
| C — Conventional | 3.91 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.43 |
| A — Artistic | 1.55 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 69.2 |
| ISTP | 69.0 |
| INTJ | 63.4 |
| ISFJ | 61.2 |
| ISFP | 57.9 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, ISTP.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Orthopedic Surgeon, Except Pediatric](https://nuecareer.com/careers/orthopedic-surgeon) — median $358,550
- [Ophthalmologist, Except Pediatric](https://nuecareer.com/careers/ophthalmologist) — median $300,080
- [Urologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/urologist) — median $265,930
- [Anesthesiologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/anesthesiologist) — median $391,490
- [Dermatologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dermatologist) — median $328,730
- [Cardiologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cardiologist) — median $496,010
- [Emergency Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/emergency-medicine-physician) — median $335,550
- [General Internal Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/general-internal-medicine-physician) — median $256,560
- [Neurologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/neurologist) — median $248,560
- [Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon](https://nuecareer.com/careers/oral-and-maxillofacial-surgeon) — median $352,220

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

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