Everyone it takes to safely operate on a person: surgeons, anesthesia providers, heart-lung machine operators, and the techs who keep instruments sterile.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Anesthesiologist: A physician who keeps patients safely unconscious and pain-free during surgery and manages their vital functions. Typical pay $400k.
Cardiothoracic Surgeon: Operates on the heart, lungs, and major blood vessels, including bypasses, valve replacements, and transplants. Typical pay $550k.
Transplant Surgeon: Removes organs from donors and transplants kidneys, livers, and pancreases into patients who need them. Typical pay $450k.
Pediatric Surgeon: Operates on babies, children, and teens, including newborns born with life-threatening defects. Typical pay $450k.
Anesthesiologist Assistant: A highly trained clinician who delivers anesthesia under the direction of an anesthesiologist. Typical pay $180k.
Perfusionist: Runs the heart-lung machine that keeps patients alive while their heart is stopped during surgery. Typical pay $140k.
Colorectal Surgeon: Operates on the colon, rectum, and anus, often to treat cancer or inflammatory bowel disease. Typical pay $470k.
Hand Surgeon: Repairs injured hands, wrists, and arms, including reattaching fingers. Typical pay $500k.
Bariatric Surgeon: Performs weight-loss surgeries like gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy. Typical pay $450k.
Surgical Oncologist: Surgeon who specializes in removing tumors and cancer-affected tissue. Typical pay $480k.
Ex Vivo Organ Perfusion Specialist: Keeps a donated heart, lung or liver warm and supplied with blood inside a machine while it travels to the patient who needs it. Typical pay $120k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Perioperative Nurse: A registered nurse who cares for patients before, during, and right after surgery. Typical pay $97k.
Organ Procurement Coordinator: Coordinates organ donation, from supporting donor families to getting organs to recipients in time. Typical pay $85k.
Surgical First Assistant: Works directly beside the surgeon, holding tissue back, controlling bleeding, and closing incisions. Typical pay $62k.
Surgical Technologist: Prepares the operating room and hands surgeons instruments during operations. Typical pay $63k.
Robotic Surgery Program Coordinator: Keeps a hospital's surgical robots running, scheduled, and staffed with trained teams. Typical pay $75k.
Autotransfusionist: Runs the 'cell saver' machine in surgery that collects a patient's own lost blood, cleans it and returns it to them. Typical pay $62k.
Starter: fastest way in
Sterile Processing Technician: Cleans, inspects, sterilizes, and packs every surgical instrument a hospital uses. Typical pay $46k.
Anesthesia Technician: Sets up and maintains the anesthesia equipment and supplies for surgeries. Typical pay $48k.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.