Green Card Research Manager Jobs
Research Manager roles at U.S. universities, pharma companies, and federal contractors regularly qualify for EB-2 or EB-3 green card sponsorship through PERM labor certification. Employers document that no qualified U.S. worker is available before filing your I-140 petition, making your advanced degree and research leadership credentials central to a strong sponsorship case.
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Get Access To All JobsINTRODUCTION
Join the 2025 AIA Firm Award Winner shaping a more sustainable future. LPA is a collective of designers, engineers, and researchers committed to tackling the biggest issues of our time. Our "No Excuses" integrated design approach was recognized by the AIA as “a trailblazer in sustainable, high-performance architecture". At LPA you’ll be part of the team that is changing the way the industry thinks about design and carbon emissions, built around the belief that we only achieve our goals when everybody has a seat at the table and all input is valued. We’re currently seeking a Design Researcher to join our Sustainability + Applied Research team. This role is ideal for someone trained in social science, design research, or another research field related to the built and natural environment who is interested in applying research to real world design challenges.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Working across market sectors, the Junior Design Researcher will help interdisciplinary design teams better understand people, behavior, and the built environment and translate those insights into design. We’re looking for a problem seeker as much as a problem solver. Someone who brings curiosity, initiative, and an innovative mindset to their work by looking beyond the initial question to identify what needs to be better understood, asking thoughtful questions, and finding creative ways to investigate complex challenges. This person should demonstrate sound judgment in interpreting evidence and determining how research can be appropriately applied to design, along with the ability to make complex research understandable and useful to non-expert audiences.
- Conduct literature reviews to gather, evaluate, and synthesize multidisciplinary research in response to project and research questions.
- Develop research briefs, presentations, visuals, and other resources that translate research findings into clear, digestible insights and practical implications that designers and clients can easily understand and apply.
- Look across projects and research findings to identify recurring patterns, opportunities, and questions worth investigating further.
- Help build LPA's internal research knowledge base, making previous studies, findings, and resources easier for teams to access and reuse.
- Help develop and refine research tools and methodologies that can be used consistently across projects.
- Support and facilitate pre-design research and stakeholder engagement, including surveys, interviews, workshops, and other methods for understanding user needs and behaviors.
- Support and coordinate post-occupancy evaluations (POEs), including outreach, data collection, analysis, and reporting.
- Analyze qualitative and quantitative data to identify patterns, themes, and meaningful findings.
- Work with design teams to establish measurable project goals and identify ways to evaluate design outcomes.
- Explore creative approaches to investigating research questions when established methods or data are not readily available.
- Communicate research findings and lessons learned through internal presentations and, as experience grows, external publications, presentations, and thought leadership.
- Perform other duties as applicable.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
What We're Looking For:
- MS or PhD in environmental psychology, applied research, design research, social science, data science, or a related field
- Proficiency in Microsoft Project and Excel.
- Strong written communication and verbal presentation skills
- Experience with mixed-methods research
- Experience with online research tools
- Experience conducting literature searches or literature reviews
- Basic descriptive statistical or data analysis experience
- Data visualization or other graphic skills for communication of data
- Awareness of current research ethics and equity, diversity, and inclusion topics
- Entrepreneurial energy, comfortable with some ambiguity.
- Proactive attitude, prepared to ask questions, and always looking for opportunities to improve.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Additional Research training or certifications
- Human Subjects Research Training (current certification not required)
- LEED, WELL, EDAC, or similar certifications
- Design or engineering training or certifications
- Experience in any of the following: GIS, Power BI, AI for research, research in AR/VR/XR, grant writing, Adobe Creative Suite
- Experience in or excitement to learn how to facilitate meetings and workshops
- Understanding of a typical architectural design process, from concept and schematic design, design development and construction documentation, construction, and post-occupancy.
- Education in or excitement to learn more about sustainability topics such as energy performance, carbon emissions, material impacts, and resiliency, and find ways for human-environment research to better inform sustainable design.
WHAT WE OFFER
At LPA, your growth and contributions matter. We foster a collaborative culture where creative ideas are valued, and voices are heard.
- Mentorship from Managing Directors, Design Directors, and senior team members across disciplines.
- Career development support, including professional development grants and in-house training.
- Ongoing education through LPA+U courses and Tech Talks focused on innovative, sustainable practices.
- 8 paid hours of volunteer time each year.
- Opportunities to propose and lead projects that impact your local community, including more than $1 million since 2015 in Habitat for Humanity builds, scholarships, and other pro bono community projects.
- Access to our Professional Development Grants program, created to encourage professional development and further LPA's collective knowledge as a firm. Over the life of the grant program, we have invested $1,196,890 and impacted 848 LPA employees.
LPA is an integrated design firm with offices in California and Texas, focused on creating forward-thinking, sustainable spaces that make a positive impact. We believe great design begins with great people, which is why we foster a supportive, collaborative environment where creativity, curiosity, and professional growth are encouraged. Our culture values diversity, promotes wellness, and supports a healthy work-life balance. At LPA, we offer competitive salaries and a robust benefits package—including health and dental insurance, retirement and financial planning, wellness initiatives, and flexible work/life programs. This position is eligible for an annual bonus. If you are hired at LPA, your base salary is based on factors such as geographic location, skills, education, experience and/or project complexity. We believe in the importance of pay equity and consider the internal equity of our current team members as part of any final offer. LPA uses E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of new hires.
Notice To Recruitment Agencies And Recruiters
Please note that LPA does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters or employment agencies. In the absence of a signed contract, LPA will not agree to pay any recruiter fee. In the situation an agency or recruiter submits a candidate or resume without a previously signed agreement and/or without LPA’s request, LPA explicitly reserves the right to hire those candidate(s) without any financial obligation to the recruiter or agency. Any unsolicited resumes, including those submitted to hiring managers, are deemed to be the property of LPA.
COMPENSATION
- Compensation Range: $70K - $85K
INTRODUCTION
Join the 2025 AIA Firm Award Winner shaping a more sustainable future. LPA is a collective of designers, engineers, and researchers committed to tackling the biggest issues of our time. Our "No Excuses" integrated design approach was recognized by the AIA as “a trailblazer in sustainable, high-performance architecture". At LPA you’ll be part of the team that is changing the way the industry thinks about design and carbon emissions, built around the belief that we only achieve our goals when everybody has a seat at the table and all input is valued. We’re currently seeking a Design Researcher to join our Sustainability + Applied Research team. This role is ideal for someone trained in social science, design research, or another research field related to the built and natural environment who is interested in applying research to real world design challenges.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Working across market sectors, the Junior Design Researcher will help interdisciplinary design teams better understand people, behavior, and the built environment and translate those insights into design. We’re looking for a problem seeker as much as a problem solver. Someone who brings curiosity, initiative, and an innovative mindset to their work by looking beyond the initial question to identify what needs to be better understood, asking thoughtful questions, and finding creative ways to investigate complex challenges. This person should demonstrate sound judgment in interpreting evidence and determining how research can be appropriately applied to design, along with the ability to make complex research understandable and useful to non-expert audiences.
- Conduct literature reviews to gather, evaluate, and synthesize multidisciplinary research in response to project and research questions.
- Develop research briefs, presentations, visuals, and other resources that translate research findings into clear, digestible insights and practical implications that designers and clients can easily understand and apply.
- Look across projects and research findings to identify recurring patterns, opportunities, and questions worth investigating further.
- Help build LPA's internal research knowledge base, making previous studies, findings, and resources easier for teams to access and reuse.
- Help develop and refine research tools and methodologies that can be used consistently across projects.
- Support and facilitate pre-design research and stakeholder engagement, including surveys, interviews, workshops, and other methods for understanding user needs and behaviors.
- Support and coordinate post-occupancy evaluations (POEs), including outreach, data collection, analysis, and reporting.
- Analyze qualitative and quantitative data to identify patterns, themes, and meaningful findings.
- Work with design teams to establish measurable project goals and identify ways to evaluate design outcomes.
- Explore creative approaches to investigating research questions when established methods or data are not readily available.
- Communicate research findings and lessons learned through internal presentations and, as experience grows, external publications, presentations, and thought leadership.
- Perform other duties as applicable.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
What We're Looking For:
- MS or PhD in environmental psychology, applied research, design research, social science, data science, or a related field
- Proficiency in Microsoft Project and Excel.
- Strong written communication and verbal presentation skills
- Experience with mixed-methods research
- Experience with online research tools
- Experience conducting literature searches or literature reviews
- Basic descriptive statistical or data analysis experience
- Data visualization or other graphic skills for communication of data
- Awareness of current research ethics and equity, diversity, and inclusion topics
- Entrepreneurial energy, comfortable with some ambiguity.
- Proactive attitude, prepared to ask questions, and always looking for opportunities to improve.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Additional Research training or certifications
- Human Subjects Research Training (current certification not required)
- LEED, WELL, EDAC, or similar certifications
- Design or engineering training or certifications
- Experience in any of the following: GIS, Power BI, AI for research, research in AR/VR/XR, grant writing, Adobe Creative Suite
- Experience in or excitement to learn how to facilitate meetings and workshops
- Understanding of a typical architectural design process, from concept and schematic design, design development and construction documentation, construction, and post-occupancy.
- Education in or excitement to learn more about sustainability topics such as energy performance, carbon emissions, material impacts, and resiliency, and find ways for human-environment research to better inform sustainable design.
WHAT WE OFFER
At LPA, your growth and contributions matter. We foster a collaborative culture where creative ideas are valued, and voices are heard.
- Mentorship from Managing Directors, Design Directors, and senior team members across disciplines.
- Career development support, including professional development grants and in-house training.
- Ongoing education through LPA+U courses and Tech Talks focused on innovative, sustainable practices.
- 8 paid hours of volunteer time each year.
- Opportunities to propose and lead projects that impact your local community, including more than $1 million since 2015 in Habitat for Humanity builds, scholarships, and other pro bono community projects.
- Access to our Professional Development Grants program, created to encourage professional development and further LPA's collective knowledge as a firm. Over the life of the grant program, we have invested $1,196,890 and impacted 848 LPA employees.
LPA is an integrated design firm with offices in California and Texas, focused on creating forward-thinking, sustainable spaces that make a positive impact. We believe great design begins with great people, which is why we foster a supportive, collaborative environment where creativity, curiosity, and professional growth are encouraged. Our culture values diversity, promotes wellness, and supports a healthy work-life balance. At LPA, we offer competitive salaries and a robust benefits package—including health and dental insurance, retirement and financial planning, wellness initiatives, and flexible work/life programs. This position is eligible for an annual bonus. If you are hired at LPA, your base salary is based on factors such as geographic location, skills, education, experience and/or project complexity. We believe in the importance of pay equity and consider the internal equity of our current team members as part of any final offer. LPA uses E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of new hires.
Notice To Recruitment Agencies And Recruiters
Please note that LPA does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters or employment agencies. In the absence of a signed contract, LPA will not agree to pay any recruiter fee. In the situation an agency or recruiter submits a candidate or resume without a previously signed agreement and/or without LPA’s request, LPA explicitly reserves the right to hire those candidate(s) without any financial obligation to the recruiter or agency. Any unsolicited resumes, including those submitted to hiring managers, are deemed to be the property of LPA.
COMPENSATION
- Compensation Range: $70K - $85K
See all 21,432+ Green Card Research Manager Jobs
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Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding Green Card Sponsorship as a Research Manager
Frame your research credentials for PERM
PERM labor certification requires your employer to define the minimum job requirements. If your role genuinely needs a master's degree or specialized research methodology expertise, document that clearly before recruitment begins so the job description supports an EB-2 filing.
Target employers with federal research contracts
Universities, national laboratories, and pharmaceutical companies with NIH or NSF funding sponsor green cards far more consistently than private-sector firms. Federal contract requirements often make PERM sponsorship a standard part of hiring for senior research positions.
Use Migrate Mate to filter sponsoring employers
Search Migrate Mate to identify Research Manager roles at employers with active green card filing history. Filtering by sponsorship status upfront saves months of negotiating with employers who have never run a PERM case.
Negotiate sponsorship timing before accepting an offer
Ask your prospective employer when they will initiate PERM after your start date. Many research institutions have a one-year minimum tenure requirement before filing. Confirming this timeline in your offer letter protects you if leadership or HR priorities shift later.
Verify the prevailing wage before PERM recruitment starts
Your employer must submit a prevailing wage determination to DOL before advertising the position. Use the OFLC Wage Search to check the expected wage level for your SOC code and location so you can flag a mismatch before the process locks in.
Understand how EB-2 NIW applies to research leadership
If your research has national importance, USCIS allows a National Interest Waiver (NIW) under EB-2, bypassing PERM entirely. This self-petition path suits Research Managers with published work, grant funding, or policy impact that extends beyond their direct employer.
Green Card Research Manager: Frequently Asked Questions
Does a Research Manager role typically qualify for EB-2 or EB-3 sponsorship?
Most Research Manager positions qualify for EB-2 because the role normally requires a master's degree or its equivalent in a specific research discipline. If your employer defines the minimum requirement as a bachelor's degree with experience, the role may fall under EB-3 instead. The PERM job description your employer files determines which category applies, so that wording matters before recruitment begins.
How does green card sponsorship differ from H-1B for a Research Manager?
H-1B visa is a temporary work visa subject to an annual lottery, while EB-2 and EB-3 green card sponsorship through PERM leads to permanent residency with no cap concerns at the petition level. The PERM process typically takes one to three years from labor certification through I-140 approval, but once your priority date is current, you can adjust status without leaving the U.S. and without re-entering a lottery.
Where can I find Research Manager jobs with green card sponsorship?
Use Migrate Mate to search Research Manager roles filtered by employers with documented green card filing history. Most general job boards don't surface sponsorship status, so you can spend months applying to roles where the employer has never initiated a PERM case. Filtering by sponsorship upfront focuses your search on employers already familiar with the EB-2 and EB-3 process.
Can a Research Manager self-petition for a green card without employer sponsorship?
Yes, under the EB-2 National Interest Waiver (NIW), a Research Manager can self-petition if their work has substantial merit and national importance. USCIS evaluates your research record, citations, grants, and policy impact. This path bypasses PERM labor certification entirely, which is valuable if your employer is unwilling to sponsor or if you want to change employers without restarting the process.
What happens to my green card case if I change employers during the PERM process?
If you change employers before your I-140 is approved, your PERM labor certification is generally not transferable and your employer will need to start over with a new filing. Once your I-140 is approved and you have accumulated 180 days of I-485 pendency, portability rules under AC21 let you move to a same or similar role without restarting from the beginning.