H-1B Visa Associate Scientist Jobs
Associate Scientist roles qualify as H-1B visa specialty occupations when the position requires at least a bachelor's degree in chemistry, biology, biochemistry, or a directly related field. Pharma, biotech, and CRO employers sponsor H-1B visas for these roles regularly, and the 85,000-slot annual cap means timing your job search around the April lottery window matters.
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Be a part of the legacy: Postdoctoral Research Fellow Program
Our Research Laboratories’ Postdoctoral Research Fellow Program aims to be a best-in-industry program for industrial postdoctoral researchers, designed to provide you with an academic focus in a commercial environment. With the resources, reach, and expertise of a large pharmaceutical company, postdoctoral researchers will be positioned to excel in an institution committed to breakthrough innovation in research and discovery.
Position Overview:
This position is in the vaccine modeling team of the Health Economic and Decision Sciences (HEDS) department within Biostatistics and Research Decision Sciences (BARDS) at our Research Laboratories. BARDS HEDS provides strategic and analytic modeling expertise to measure and quantify the value of our company's products.
As part of an agile team, the fellow will develop and support a seamless mechanism of coordination and collaboration in a dynamic area of interdisciplinary research. Collaboration with modeling scientists, data scientists, IT partners, subject matter experts and strategically leveraging generative AI to automate model extraction and facilitate rapid, intelligent adaptation across diverse settings, this project will profoundly enhance model transparency, dramatically accelerate deployment, and improve consistency in global health decision-making. This innovative approach promises to transform the efficiency and impact of health economic evaluations in infectious disease preparedness and response.
At BARDS, we value diversity and inclusion in our working environment where employees are enabled to develop and contribute.
Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
Reporting under a Senior Director within the Vaccines team within HEDS, the fellow is expected to:
- Build a robust corpus of health economic infectious disease models using AI-assisted systematic review techniques,
- Utilize advanced LLMs to precisely extract infectious disease model type, structure (states, transitions), and parameters (costs, utilities, probabilities),
- Implement an intelligent AI reasoning layer to evaluate consistency, completeness, and scientific validity across extracted models,
- Employ generative AI to propose new model structures, dynamically guided by disease-specific needs and prior evidence,
- Apply the developed pipeline to critical case studies (e.g., RSV vaccine modeling) and rigorously compare AI-generated models with existing approaches,
- Develop excellent working relationships within partner across our Research Laboratories; ensure effective cross-functional collaboration across teams,
- Collaborate externally and solicit input from appropriate stakeholders and adopt latest techniques from relevant published literature, and
- Disseminate key research findings/methodology via scientific presentations at congresses and publications in scientific journals.
Education Minimum Requirement:
Candidates should currently hold a PhD OR will receive a PhD by start of employment in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, or a closely-related quantitative field.
Required Experience and Skills:
- Previous experience with large language models (LLMs), natural language processing (NLP), or machine learning,
- Strong programming skills in Python and/or C++, with experience in model fitting, simulation, and data extraction workflows,
- Previous experience working on interdisciplinary research projects and/or working within interdisciplinary teams,
- Ability to gather, organize, and synthesize complex information in order to draw conclusions and make recommendations,
- Strong creative problem solving skills,
- Strong interpersonal, networking, presentation, and communication skills, and
- Ability to communicate effectively in English in both verbal and written formats.
Preferred Experience and Skills:
- Experience in prompt engineering, fine-tuning, or evaluating large language models, and
- Previous experience of health economic modeling and cost-effectiveness analysis for infectious disease.
Expected salary range:
$75,000.00-$86,000.00
Available benefits include bonus eligibility, health care and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, paid holidays, vacation, and sick days. For Washington State Jobs, a summary of benefits is listed here.
Required Skills:
Adaptability, Analytical Chemistry, Cell Culture Techniques, Computational Biology, Computer Science, Data Analysis, Generative AI, Global Health, Health Economics, Immunoassays, Infectious Disease, Information Technology Consulting, Interdisciplinary Research, In Vivo Mouse Models, Large Language Models (LLMs), Mathematical Biology, Molecular Biology, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Programming Languages, Prompt Engineering, Report Writing, Scientific Presentations, Scientific Writing.
Preferred Skills:
US and Puerto Rico Residents Only:
Our company is committed to inclusion, ensuring that candidates can engage in a hiring process that exhibits their true capabilities. Please click here if you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process.
As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. As a federal contractor, we comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit:
EEOC Know Your Rights
EEOC GINA Supplement
We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing together, talented, and committed people with diverse experiences, perspectives, skills and backgrounds. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when people with diverse ideas, broad experiences, backgrounds, and skills come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively.
Learn more about your rights, including under California, Colorado and other US State Acts.
San Francisco Residents Only: We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.
Los Angeles Residents Only: We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance.
Search Firm Representatives Please Read Carefully
Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company. No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails.
Employee Status:
Regular
Relocation:
Domestic
VISA Sponsorship:
Yes
Travel Requirements:
10%
Flexible Work Arrangements:
Hybrid
Shift:
Not Indicated
Valid Driving License:
No
Hazardous Material(s):
n/a
Job Posting End Date:
06/27/2026
A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.
Requisition ID: R402279
Job Description
Be a part of the legacy: Postdoctoral Research Fellow Program
Our Research Laboratories’ Postdoctoral Research Fellow Program aims to be a best-in-industry program for industrial postdoctoral researchers, designed to provide you with an academic focus in a commercial environment. With the resources, reach, and expertise of a large pharmaceutical company, postdoctoral researchers will be positioned to excel in an institution committed to breakthrough innovation in research and discovery.
Position Overview:
This position is in the vaccine modeling team of the Health Economic and Decision Sciences (HEDS) department within Biostatistics and Research Decision Sciences (BARDS) at our Research Laboratories. BARDS HEDS provides strategic and analytic modeling expertise to measure and quantify the value of our company's products.
As part of an agile team, the fellow will develop and support a seamless mechanism of coordination and collaboration in a dynamic area of interdisciplinary research. Collaboration with modeling scientists, data scientists, IT partners, subject matter experts and strategically leveraging generative AI to automate model extraction and facilitate rapid, intelligent adaptation across diverse settings, this project will profoundly enhance model transparency, dramatically accelerate deployment, and improve consistency in global health decision-making. This innovative approach promises to transform the efficiency and impact of health economic evaluations in infectious disease preparedness and response.
At BARDS, we value diversity and inclusion in our working environment where employees are enabled to develop and contribute.
Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
Reporting under a Senior Director within the Vaccines team within HEDS, the fellow is expected to:
- Build a robust corpus of health economic infectious disease models using AI-assisted systematic review techniques,
- Utilize advanced LLMs to precisely extract infectious disease model type, structure (states, transitions), and parameters (costs, utilities, probabilities),
- Implement an intelligent AI reasoning layer to evaluate consistency, completeness, and scientific validity across extracted models,
- Employ generative AI to propose new model structures, dynamically guided by disease-specific needs and prior evidence,
- Apply the developed pipeline to critical case studies (e.g., RSV vaccine modeling) and rigorously compare AI-generated models with existing approaches,
- Develop excellent working relationships within partner across our Research Laboratories; ensure effective cross-functional collaboration across teams,
- Collaborate externally and solicit input from appropriate stakeholders and adopt latest techniques from relevant published literature, and
- Disseminate key research findings/methodology via scientific presentations at congresses and publications in scientific journals.
Education Minimum Requirement:
Candidates should currently hold a PhD OR will receive a PhD by start of employment in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, or a closely-related quantitative field.
Required Experience and Skills:
- Previous experience with large language models (LLMs), natural language processing (NLP), or machine learning,
- Strong programming skills in Python and/or C++, with experience in model fitting, simulation, and data extraction workflows,
- Previous experience working on interdisciplinary research projects and/or working within interdisciplinary teams,
- Ability to gather, organize, and synthesize complex information in order to draw conclusions and make recommendations,
- Strong creative problem solving skills,
- Strong interpersonal, networking, presentation, and communication skills, and
- Ability to communicate effectively in English in both verbal and written formats.
Preferred Experience and Skills:
- Experience in prompt engineering, fine-tuning, or evaluating large language models, and
- Previous experience of health economic modeling and cost-effectiveness analysis for infectious disease.
Expected salary range:
$75,000.00-$86,000.00
Available benefits include bonus eligibility, health care and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, paid holidays, vacation, and sick days. For Washington State Jobs, a summary of benefits is listed here.
Required Skills:
Adaptability, Analytical Chemistry, Cell Culture Techniques, Computational Biology, Computer Science, Data Analysis, Generative AI, Global Health, Health Economics, Immunoassays, Infectious Disease, Information Technology Consulting, Interdisciplinary Research, In Vivo Mouse Models, Large Language Models (LLMs), Mathematical Biology, Molecular Biology, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Programming Languages, Prompt Engineering, Report Writing, Scientific Presentations, Scientific Writing.
Preferred Skills:
US and Puerto Rico Residents Only:
Our company is committed to inclusion, ensuring that candidates can engage in a hiring process that exhibits their true capabilities. Please click here if you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process.
As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. As a federal contractor, we comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit:
EEOC Know Your Rights
EEOC GINA Supplement
We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing together, talented, and committed people with diverse experiences, perspectives, skills and backgrounds. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when people with diverse ideas, broad experiences, backgrounds, and skills come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively.
Learn more about your rights, including under California, Colorado and other US State Acts.
San Francisco Residents Only: We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.
Los Angeles Residents Only: We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance.
Search Firm Representatives Please Read Carefully
Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company. No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails.
Employee Status:
Regular
Relocation:
Domestic
VISA Sponsorship:
Yes
Travel Requirements:
10%
Flexible Work Arrangements:
Hybrid
Shift:
Not Indicated
Valid Driving License:
No
Hazardous Material(s):
n/a
Job Posting End Date:
06/27/2026
A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.
Requisition ID: R402279
See all 762+ H-1B Visa Associate Scientist Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new H-1B Visa Associate Scientist Jobs.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding H-1B Visa Sponsorship as an Associate Scientist
Verify your degree maps to the role
USCIS scrutinizes whether your degree field directly relates to the Associate Scientist position. A biochemistry or molecular biology degree supports most lab-based roles; a general science degree may trigger a Request for Evidence. Pull the O*NET profile for your exact SOC code before applying.
Target employers with active LCA filings
Use Migrate Mate to filter Associate Scientist roles by employers with verified H-1B Labor Condition Application history. A company that has filed LCAs for your SOC code recently is far more likely to move through sponsorship without delays than one sponsoring for the first time.
Check prevailing wage before negotiating your offer
Your employer must pay at least the DOL prevailing wage for your job title, location, and experience level. Run your offer through the OFLC Wage Search before accepting so you know whether the salary satisfies Level I or Level II requirements for your specific metro area.
Confirm the role is classified as specialty occupation
Associate Scientist postings sometimes list a bachelor's degree as preferred rather than required. USCIS will deny an H-1B petition for any role where the degree requirement isn't mandatory. Ask the recruiter directly whether the job description on the I-129 specifies degree as a minimum requirement.
Plan your application timeline around the lottery window
H-1B cap-subject petitions must be filed by April 1 for an October 1 start date. If you're finishing OPT or CPT, map your program end date against that window. Employers filing after the lottery cycle closes can't start a cap-subject hire until the following fiscal year.
Ask about premium processing during offer negotiation
USCIS premium processing upgrades your I-129 adjudication to 15 business days. For Associate Scientist roles with a defined project start date or clinical trial timeline, ask whether your employer will elect premium processing before signing the offer letter, not after.
H-1B Visa Associate Scientist: Frequently Asked Questions
Does an Associate Scientist role qualify as an H-1B specialty occupation?
Yes, provided the position requires at least a bachelor's degree in a specific field such as chemistry, biology, biochemistry, or a related discipline. USCIS evaluates the job duties, not just the title. If the role accepts any bachelor's degree regardless of field, it may not meet the specialty occupation standard and the petition could face denial or a Request for Evidence.
Which industries sponsor H-1B visas for Associate Scientist positions?
Pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology firms, contract research organizations, and medical device manufacturers are the most consistent H-1B sponsors for Associate Scientist roles. Academic research institutions and government contractors also file regularly. To find employers with verified H-1B filing history for this specific title and location, search for Associate Scientist roles on Migrate Mate.
What happens to my H-1B status if my Associate Scientist contract ends early?
If your employer terminates your H-1B before the approved end date, you have a 60-day grace period to find a new employer willing to file an H-1B transfer, change your status, or depart the U.S. The new employer's attorney files an H-1B transfer petition, and you can begin working as soon as USCIS receives it, not when it's approved.
Can I switch from a postdoctoral fellowship to an H-1B Associate Scientist role?
Yes. If you're on J-1 visa status, check whether you're subject to the two-year home residency requirement before pursuing H-1B sponsorship. J-1 holders with that requirement need a waiver before changing status. F-1 OPT holders can transfer directly into H-1B status if their employer files before OPT expires and the lottery selects their registration.
How do I find out what prevailing wage my employer must pay for this role?
The DOL prevailing wage for an Associate Scientist position depends on the specific SOC code, the work location, and the experience level assigned to the role. You can look up wage levels using the OFLC Wage Search. Your employer must certify on the LCA that your salary meets at least the Level I or Level II prevailing wage for that location before USCIS will approve the petition.