For almost thirty years, Dr. Cabot practiced clinical surgery in an academic setting, which included teaching and administrative duties, as well as medical and scientific research. He was a member of the Department of Surgery at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where he also served on the Admissions Committee of Harvard Medical School.

In June of 2000, Dr. Cabot resigned from his clinical practice in order to serve as a managing director of the family's office for financial management and philanthropy, Cabot Wellington, LLC, which he and his siblings founded in 1996.

He has served on a number of non-profit boards, including the Handel and Haydn Society, the Cantata Singers, the Committee on University Resources at Harvard, the Boston Museum of Science, the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, the Trustees of Reservations, the deBeaumont Foundation, Sailors for the Sea, and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. He is the treasurer of the V.W. Cabot Foundation, and the vice chair on the board of the Sea Education Association.

His other interests include skiing, voyaging under sail, raising and riding quarter horses, horse packing and camping, whitewater canoeing, flying, scuba diving, photography, and music. Dr. Cabot is married and has four children.