H-1B Visa Automation Engineer Jobs
Automation Engineer roles qualify as H-1B visa specialty occupations under the engineering and systems design category. Employers across manufacturing, automotive, semiconductors, and industrial controls sponsor H-1B petitions for these roles. The 85,000-slot annual cap and April lottery mean timing your job search to align with filing season matters.
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Get Access To All JobsINTRODUCTION
Generate:Biomedicines is seeking an experienced and highly motivated Senior Automation Engineer to join our team at the interface of lab instrumentation, integrated workcells, custom hardware, and protein therapeutics discovery.
This role will be central to sustaining and advancing Generate's wet lab platform, with particular emphasis on automated workflows spanning DNA production, protein production, cell culture, and screening & validation assays. Just as importantly, this senior engineer will extend Generate's capabilities beyond immediate automation support by building and integrating custom instrument capabilities into the wet lab ecosystem and leading adjacent engineering efforts where thoughtful hardware, fluidics, or systems integration can unlock better science.
The role serves as the automation engineering lead both as an individual contributor and the direct manager of automation engineers. The ideal candidate will bring strong expertise in liquid handling, workcell automation, scripting, wet lab agentic deployment, and method development, along with experience building, adapting, or integrating instrumentation in close partnership with scientists and the rest of the engineering team. This role is well-suited for someone who can execute at a high technical level while thinking end-to-end about building scalable support through training, documentation, AI, and handoff practices that increase scientist independence. As a central communicator in the lab, the role will be tasked with consistently identifying areas of the lab that can be enhanced with engineering solutions.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Design, build, and integrate custom instrument capabilities into Generate's wet lab platform, including in-house-built hardware, fluidic systems, or related technologies into scientist-facing workflows.
- Own critical automation and instrumentation problems end-to-end, from method design and system improvement through live troubleshooting on active runs, vendor coordination, documentation, and knowledge transfer.
- Drive reliability, troubleshooting, and method development for DNA/protein production and assay/readout workflows on integrated workcells, while improving throughput, parallelization, and data quality across platform and pipeline programs.
- Partner closely with scientists to provide high-quality in-lab support, unblock experiments quickly, and identify new automation- or engineering-enabled capabilities that reduce timelines for production, scale-up, and future platform workflows.
- Identify and prioritize lab automation projects across the automation engineering team and seek out key stakeholders as collaborators.
- Manage a team of automation engineers in both day-to-day activities and long-term projects providing guidance and proper resourcing to their efforts.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- BS + with 7+ years industry experience in lab automation and analytical & process instrumentation development, MS with 5+ years industry experience, or PhD in engineering, computer science, physics, chemistry, life sciences, or a related field.
- A proven track record of leadership within a wet lab and within an engineering team both via project management and direct reports.
- Strong experience with liquid handlers and integrated workcells, including platforms such as Biomek, Tecan, Lynx, Hamilton, Opentrons, HighRes, Retisoft, and/or similar systems.
- Experience owning workflows end-to-end, from method design and execution through debugging, documentation, and operational support.
- A strong drive to proactively hand-off workflows to scientists in a way that improves adoption, increases autonomy, and effective use of automation tools.
- Exceptional communication skills and proactivity to facilitate interactions between scientists, engineers, lab operations, and other stakeholders that span a range of technical and scientific languages.
- Experience developing and/or deploying wet lab-facing agentic applications, e.g. closed-loop experimental systems.
- Experience building, integrating, or supporting custom instrumentation, fluidic systems, and/or microfluidic devices in an R&D environment.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience supporting DNA production, protein production, protein purification, cell culture, functional & binding assays, and/or related molecular biology workflows at scale.
- Significant experience with HighRes, Retisoft, and/or other advanced scheduling and orchestration systems and integrated hardware environments.
- Experience supporting platform transfer, vendor coordination, user training, or expansion of methods across multiple instruments and lab locations.
- Experience working in a highly collaborative, matrixed research environment where automation, platform engineering, and discovery teams are tightly integrated.
WHO WILL LOVE THIS JOB
- You are motivated working in fast-paced and dynamic research environments, with a drive to frequently move out of your immediate comfort zone and learn new things.
- You like working in the lab and helping scientists succeed not only by solving urgent problems, but by building systems, habits, and training that empowers them.
- You enjoy translating across biology, engineering, software, and instrumentation, and you are energized by working on problems that span automation as well as broader wet lab engineering.
- You take a pragmatic, builder-oriented approach to method development and troubleshooting: moving fast, improving iteratively, and focusing on what will best unblock the science.
- You are a people person who genuinely wants to be a people manager: you enjoy coaching engineers, investing in their growth, and helping them build meaningful careers.
ABOUT GENERATE BIOMEDICINES
We are a clinical-stage generative biology company pioneering the AI revolution in drug design and development. We are advancing a new approach to drug creation—one grounded in the ability to design proteins with defined biological intent. By integrating machine learning with large-scale experimentation, this approach aims to reduce the uncertainty, time, and cost associated with developing protein-based medicines.
Founded in 2018, we are advancing a growing pipeline of clinical and preclinical programs across multiple disease areas and protein modalities. By unifying computational design and clinical development within a single operating model, we translate this approach into clinical-stage programs and are leading a shift from traditional drug discovery toward systematic drug generation.
At Generate:Biomedicines, we collaborate across disciplines in new ways to invent and innovate. We bring diverse perspectives to a shared goal of delivering better medicines to patients in need, faster, guided by our values and leadership behaviors.
Generate:Biomedicines is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.
Recruitment & Staffing Agencies: Generate:Biomedicines does not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to Generate:Biomedicines or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by the Company's internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of Generate:Biomedicines and the Company will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.
INTRODUCTION
Generate:Biomedicines is seeking an experienced and highly motivated Senior Automation Engineer to join our team at the interface of lab instrumentation, integrated workcells, custom hardware, and protein therapeutics discovery.
This role will be central to sustaining and advancing Generate's wet lab platform, with particular emphasis on automated workflows spanning DNA production, protein production, cell culture, and screening & validation assays. Just as importantly, this senior engineer will extend Generate's capabilities beyond immediate automation support by building and integrating custom instrument capabilities into the wet lab ecosystem and leading adjacent engineering efforts where thoughtful hardware, fluidics, or systems integration can unlock better science.
The role serves as the automation engineering lead both as an individual contributor and the direct manager of automation engineers. The ideal candidate will bring strong expertise in liquid handling, workcell automation, scripting, wet lab agentic deployment, and method development, along with experience building, adapting, or integrating instrumentation in close partnership with scientists and the rest of the engineering team. This role is well-suited for someone who can execute at a high technical level while thinking end-to-end about building scalable support through training, documentation, AI, and handoff practices that increase scientist independence. As a central communicator in the lab, the role will be tasked with consistently identifying areas of the lab that can be enhanced with engineering solutions.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Design, build, and integrate custom instrument capabilities into Generate's wet lab platform, including in-house-built hardware, fluidic systems, or related technologies into scientist-facing workflows.
- Own critical automation and instrumentation problems end-to-end, from method design and system improvement through live troubleshooting on active runs, vendor coordination, documentation, and knowledge transfer.
- Drive reliability, troubleshooting, and method development for DNA/protein production and assay/readout workflows on integrated workcells, while improving throughput, parallelization, and data quality across platform and pipeline programs.
- Partner closely with scientists to provide high-quality in-lab support, unblock experiments quickly, and identify new automation- or engineering-enabled capabilities that reduce timelines for production, scale-up, and future platform workflows.
- Identify and prioritize lab automation projects across the automation engineering team and seek out key stakeholders as collaborators.
- Manage a team of automation engineers in both day-to-day activities and long-term projects providing guidance and proper resourcing to their efforts.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- BS + with 7+ years industry experience in lab automation and analytical & process instrumentation development, MS with 5+ years industry experience, or PhD in engineering, computer science, physics, chemistry, life sciences, or a related field.
- A proven track record of leadership within a wet lab and within an engineering team both via project management and direct reports.
- Strong experience with liquid handlers and integrated workcells, including platforms such as Biomek, Tecan, Lynx, Hamilton, Opentrons, HighRes, Retisoft, and/or similar systems.
- Experience owning workflows end-to-end, from method design and execution through debugging, documentation, and operational support.
- A strong drive to proactively hand-off workflows to scientists in a way that improves adoption, increases autonomy, and effective use of automation tools.
- Exceptional communication skills and proactivity to facilitate interactions between scientists, engineers, lab operations, and other stakeholders that span a range of technical and scientific languages.
- Experience developing and/or deploying wet lab-facing agentic applications, e.g. closed-loop experimental systems.
- Experience building, integrating, or supporting custom instrumentation, fluidic systems, and/or microfluidic devices in an R&D environment.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience supporting DNA production, protein production, protein purification, cell culture, functional & binding assays, and/or related molecular biology workflows at scale.
- Significant experience with HighRes, Retisoft, and/or other advanced scheduling and orchestration systems and integrated hardware environments.
- Experience supporting platform transfer, vendor coordination, user training, or expansion of methods across multiple instruments and lab locations.
- Experience working in a highly collaborative, matrixed research environment where automation, platform engineering, and discovery teams are tightly integrated.
WHO WILL LOVE THIS JOB
- You are motivated working in fast-paced and dynamic research environments, with a drive to frequently move out of your immediate comfort zone and learn new things.
- You like working in the lab and helping scientists succeed not only by solving urgent problems, but by building systems, habits, and training that empowers them.
- You enjoy translating across biology, engineering, software, and instrumentation, and you are energized by working on problems that span automation as well as broader wet lab engineering.
- You take a pragmatic, builder-oriented approach to method development and troubleshooting: moving fast, improving iteratively, and focusing on what will best unblock the science.
- You are a people person who genuinely wants to be a people manager: you enjoy coaching engineers, investing in their growth, and helping them build meaningful careers.
ABOUT GENERATE BIOMEDICINES
We are a clinical-stage generative biology company pioneering the AI revolution in drug design and development. We are advancing a new approach to drug creation—one grounded in the ability to design proteins with defined biological intent. By integrating machine learning with large-scale experimentation, this approach aims to reduce the uncertainty, time, and cost associated with developing protein-based medicines.
Founded in 2018, we are advancing a growing pipeline of clinical and preclinical programs across multiple disease areas and protein modalities. By unifying computational design and clinical development within a single operating model, we translate this approach into clinical-stage programs and are leading a shift from traditional drug discovery toward systematic drug generation.
At Generate:Biomedicines, we collaborate across disciplines in new ways to invent and innovate. We bring diverse perspectives to a shared goal of delivering better medicines to patients in need, faster, guided by our values and leadership behaviors.
Generate:Biomedicines is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.
Recruitment & Staffing Agencies: Generate:Biomedicines does not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to Generate:Biomedicines or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by the Company's internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of Generate:Biomedicines and the Company will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.
See all 1,806+ H-1B Visa Automation Engineer Jobs
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Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding H-1B Visa Sponsorship as an Automation Engineer
Document your degree field precisely
USCIS scrutinizes whether your bachelor's degree field directly relates to automation engineering. A degree in electrical, mechanical, or systems engineering ties cleanly to the role. A computer science or physics degree may require a credential evaluation letter explaining the direct relationship.
Target LCA-active employers in your subsector
Search the OFLC Wage Search for Labor Condition Applications filed under SOC code 17-2199 or 17-3023. Employers who filed in the past two fiscal years have active sponsorship infrastructure and HR teams familiar with H-1B timelines for engineering roles.
Use Migrate Mate to filter by H-1B filing history
Search Automation Engineer jobs on Migrate Mate, which surfaces DOL Labor Condition Application data by employer and role. You'll see which companies have filed for automation and controls engineering positions, so you're not cold-applying to employers with no sponsorship track record.
Align your offer letter start date with cap season
H-1B cap petitions are filed in April for an October 1 start date. If you receive an offer in July, negotiate a start date of October 1 or later. Starting earlier isn't possible unless your employer qualifies as cap-exempt or you hold a different valid status.
Verify the prevailing wage level matches your offer
DOL assigns prevailing wages at four levels based on experience and supervision. Automation engineers placed at Level I or II may face RFEs if the role actually requires independent project ownership. Cross-check your job description against the OFLC Wage Search before accepting an offer.
Clarify project-site work arrangements before filing
Automation engineers frequently work on-site at client facilities. USCIS requires an itinerary and end-client letters for third-party placements. Confirm whether your employer can provide these documents before you sign, since missing client letters are a leading RFE trigger for field-based engineering roles.
H-1B Visa Automation Engineer: Frequently Asked Questions
Does an Automation Engineer role qualify as a specialty occupation for H-1B purposes?
Yes. Automation engineering roles typically require at least a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, systems engineering, or a directly related field, which meets USCIS's specialty occupation definition. Roles focused on PLC programming, SCADA systems, or robotics integration have strong supporting documentation in O*NET under engineering occupation codes, which employers use when preparing the H-1B petition.
Which industries sponsor H-1B visas most often for Automation Engineers?
Manufacturing, automotive, semiconductor fabrication, aerospace, and industrial controls companies file the most LCAs for automation engineering roles. These industries rely on specialized controls and systems expertise that justifies H-1B sponsorship. You can verify which companies have filed for these roles by searching DOL LCA disclosure data on Migrate Mate, which filters results by occupation and employer.
Can I switch to a new Automation Engineer employer while on H-1B?
Yes, through H-1B portability under AC21. Once your H-1B has been approved and you've worked for your petitioning employer for at least one year, you can start working for a new employer as soon as they file an H-1B transfer petition on your behalf. You don't need to wait for the new petition to be approved, but the role must remain in a specialty occupation category consistent with your approved petition.
What documents does an employer need to file an H-1B for an Automation Engineer?
The employer files a certified Labor Condition Application with DOL, then submits Form I-129 to USCIS with supporting evidence that the role requires a specialized degree. For automation roles involving third-party client sites, USCIS also requires an itinerary of worksites and, in many cases, an end-client support letter. Your employer's HR or immigration counsel handles this process, but you contribute educational credentials and transcripts.
How does the H-1B lottery affect my timeline as an Automation Engineer?
Cap-subject H-1B petitions are filed in April each year for an October 1 start date. USCIS runs a random lottery when registrations exceed the 85,000-slot cap, which has occurred every recent fiscal year. If your employer is cap-exempt (a university, nonprofit research org, or government entity) or you're changing from a cap-exempt employer's H-1B, the lottery doesn't apply and your petition can be filed any time.