The Dermatologist's Advocate^™.

Northgate™ represents dermatologists across medical, Mohs and procedural, dermatopathology, pediatric, and cosmetic disciplines. Bespoke representation and permanent placement. Personal, from first private call to signed offer.

We represent the dermatologist.

Most firms in this category work for the consolidator. They are paid by the buyer, almost always a private equity platform, to fill the next clinic, the next acquired group, the next Mohs lab. Fast. We invert that. Northgate™ works for the dermatologist, who is the rarer asset and the one whose career carries the longest tail.

Dermatology has been reshaped by capital in ways most specialties have not. A senior partner inside a PE-backed platform asking about the next earnout is in a different conversation than a junior partner in an independent group deciding whether to sell. A Mohs surgeon evaluating an academic appointment is in a different conversation than a cosmetic-only dermatologist running a cash-pay practice. We treat the practice model as the unit of the conversation, not the line on the certificate.

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 dermatology.

We are deliberate about the sub-discipline and the practice model behind it. The market for a Mohs surgeon coming out of a fellowship is not the market for a senior medical dermatologist leaving a consolidator after the second earnout. The five sub-disciplines below are where the bulk of our dermatology work has lived.

Medical Dermatology: General medical and immunodermatology, biologics-heavy practice, complex medical referral. Productivity model and biologic-infusion economics often drive the conversation.
Mohs & Procedural: Mohs micrographic surgery and complex reconstruction. A small universe; fellowship-trained Mohs surgeons command the highest comp in dermatology and the most disciplined offer construction.
Dermatopathology: Slide-reading volume, sign-out economics, and laboratory affiliation define most senior moves. Often a path to lab medical directorship.
Pediatric Dermatology: Almost exclusively children’s hospital and academic. A small senior pool; the negotiation tends to be about protected academic time more than headline base.
Cosmetic & Aesthetic: Energy devices, injectables, and procedural cosmetics. Independent cash-pay practices and PE-backed med-spa platforms are two very different conversations.

The dermatologist we represent.

We are most useful to dermatologists who are seven to twenty years into practice, board-certified, and at a real inflection point. A buy-in decision in a group that is preparing for a sale. A second earnout that is materializing or evaporating. A non-compete running out. An academic appointment opening at a department you have followed for years. A move out of a consolidator and back to independence.

The conversation tends to work less well for trainees, for physicians early in a private practice ramp, and for searches where the platform refuses to discuss productivity bonus structure or restrictive covenants up front.

Tenure: Seven to twenty years post-residency or fellowship, with at least three years at the current practice. Earlier-career dermatologists better served by their training network.
Procedural training: Fellowship-trained Mohs, dermatopathology, or pediatric. For cosmetic-heavy moves, depth and breadth of device and injectable experience.
Practice-model preference: Independent partnership, PE-backed platform, academic appointment, or cash-pay cosmetic. The four are not interchangeable. We ask early.
Restrictive covenant posture: Whether you are inside a non-compete, when it expires, and whether you have negotiated geographic limits. This shapes the search list.
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.

Dermatology compensation is shaped less by specialty and more by ownership posture. Inside PE-backed platforms, cash compensation often holds steady while equity, earnouts, and rollover constitute the larger economic story. Independent partners in mature groups continue to clear well above national medians. Mohs surgeons remain the highest-paid dermatology sub-discipline, often by a wide margin.

Mohs surgeon, independent: Senior partners in established Mohs practices routinely clearing well above the dermatology median, with case volume, lab fees, and reconstructive work all contributing.
Medical dermatology, PE-backed: Year-one base often comparable to independent; the negotiation typically sits on rollover equity, earnout milestones, and post-close productivity bonus.
Dermatopathology: Sign-out volume, slide complexity, and laboratory medical director stipend separate the top quartile from the median.
Pediatric & Academic: Compensation typically below the dermatology median; offer construction usually requires academic title, protected research time, or hospital subsidy.
Cosmetic / Aesthetic: Cash-pay practice economics vary widely; senior solo or two-partner aesthetic practices can materially exceed insurance-based dermatology comp.
Restrictive covenants: Non-competes are the dominant negotiated term for any move into or out of a consolidator. We do not pursue an opportunity that does not survive a clean non-compete review.

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

Read the Dermatology notes

The rooms we work in.

The institutions that engage Northgate™ for dermatology 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 Independent Dermatology Groups
iii PE-Backed Dermatology Platforms
iv Children’s Hospitals
v Dermatopathology Laboratories
vi Multi-specialty Groups
vii Cosmetic / Aesthetic Practices
viii Faculty Practice Plans

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

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