H-1B Visa Research Data Scientist Jobs
Research Data Scientist roles qualify as H-1B visa specialty occupations under the theoretical and practical application standard, requiring at least a bachelor's degree in statistics, computer science, or a closely related field. Most research-focused employers file petitions in the annual cap, so timing your offer around the April lottery window matters.
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About The Team
OpenAI’s People team hires, engages, and retains world-class talent to safely build and deploy AGI that benefits all of humanity. The People Analytics team helps leaders make rigorous, evidence-based talent decisions and ensures that the systems supporting those decisions are valid, reliable, fair, and accountable.
About The Role
As a People Data Scientist focused on AI fairness and bias testing, you will help establish how OpenAI evaluates AI-assisted People systems and high-impact talent processes. You will design and conduct rigorous assessments to identify, measure, and mitigate potential bias across the lifecycle of models, agents, decision-support tools, and automated workflows. Your work will span the entire employee life-cycle, such as hiring, performance, promotion, employee development, workforce planning, etc. You will evaluate both technical systems and the broader human-AI decision processes in which they operate, examining not only model performance but also data quality, measurement validity, differential outcomes, human oversight, and unintended consequences. We’re looking for an experienced data scientist or applied researcher who can translate complex fairness questions into defensible evaluation strategies, scalable testing infrastructure, and clear recommendations for technical teams and senior leaders. This role is preferred to be based in San Francisco, CA.
In This Role, You Will
- Define and lead fairness and bias-testing strategies for AI-assisted People processes, models, agents, and decision-support systems from development through deployment and ongoing monitoring.
- Design rigorous algorithmic audits and validation studies, including adverse-impact analysis, subgroup and intersectional evaluation, error-rate analysis, calibration, measurement invariance, reliability, criterion-related validity, and sensitivity testing.
- Identify the appropriate fairness criteria for each use case, evaluate tradeoffs among competing definitions of fairness, and clearly document the assumptions, limitations, and residual risks of each approach.
- Evaluate end-to-end human-AI decision systems, including model outputs, user behavior, human overrides, escalation pathways, and whether AI assistance changes the quality, consistency, or equity of decisions.
- Develop evaluation approaches for generative and agentic AI, including test-set design, counterfactual testing, behavioral evaluation, human-rating studies, robustness testing, and analysis of disparate performance across populations and contexts.
- Investigate the sources of observed disparities, including data representation, label and measurement bias, proxy variables, model design, decision thresholds, workflow design, and differential adoption or usage.
- Partner with engineering, People Operations, Legal, Privacy, Security, and People Systems teams to recommend and evaluate mitigations such as data improvements, model changes, threshold adjustments, workflow redesign, monitoring controls, and additional human oversight.
- Build scalable fairness-evaluation infrastructure, including reusable datasets, automated validation pipelines, regression tests, monitoring systems, self-service tools, and standardized reporting.
- Establish research and documentation standards for fairness test plans, dataset and model documentation, validation reports, limitations, monitoring plans, and decision records.
- Translate complex findings into concise, decision-ready narratives, helping leaders understand the significance of identified risks, the strength of the evidence, available mitigation options, and remaining uncertainty.
You Might Thrive In This Role If You Have
- Deep expertise in algorithmic fairness, bias measurement, responsible AI, psychometrics, applied statistics, or the evaluation of high-impact decision systems.
- Exceptional strength in research design, measurement, experimentation, causal inference, and statistical modeling.
- Hands-on experience applying methods such as subgroup and intersectional analysis, adverse-impact testing, equalized-odds and equal-opportunity analysis, demographic-parity assessment, calibration analysis, counterfactual testing, measurement invariance, reliability analysis, and validation studies.
- Strong judgment about the limitations of fairness metrics, including the ability to determine which measures are appropriate for a particular decision context rather than applying a single universal definition of fairness.
- Experience evaluating machine-learning models, generative AI systems, agents, or human-AI workflows using quantitative and qualitative evidence.
- High proficiency in Python or R and SQL, with experience working across complex, sensitive, and imperfect datasets.
- Experience building reproducible evaluation pipelines, automated testing frameworks, analytical tools, monitoring systems, or governed research workflows.
- Ability to distinguish statistical disparities from their potential causes and to communicate findings without overstating certainty or making unsupported causal or legal conclusions.
- Ability to work effectively with technical, operational, legal, privacy, and executive stakeholders and influence consequential decisions through evidence and sound judgment.
- Deep curiosity, intellectual humility, strong attention to detail, and a commitment to developing AI systems and organizational processes that work well for people across different backgrounds and circumstances.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience conducting fairness assessments, algorithmic audits, model-risk reviews, adverse-impact analyses, or validation studies in employment or another high-impact domain.
- Familiarity with fairness and model-evaluation tools such as Fairlearn, AI Fairness 360, responsible-AI evaluation frameworks, explainability methods, or comparable internal tooling.
- Experience evaluating large language models, generative AI systems, safety classifiers, or agentic workflows, including behavioral testing and human evaluation.
- Experience with employment selection, talent assessment, psychometrics, organizational research, or the validation of hiring, performance, promotion, or workforce decisions.
- Familiarity with responsible-AI frameworks and emerging requirements related to automated employment decision systems, algorithmic auditing, data privacy, and AI governance.
- Experience creating model cards, dataset documentation, fairness scorecards, audit reports, monitoring plans, or other review artifacts for high-impact systems.
- Advanced degree in Quantitative Psychology, Computer Science, Statistics, Economics, Data Science, Behavioral Science, or a related quantitative field; PhD preferred but not required.
About OpenAI
OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.
Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, for US-based candidates. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.
To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form. No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link.
OpenAI Global Applicant Privacy Policy
At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.
Compensation Range: $198K - $220K
See all 588+ H-1B Visa Research Data Scientist Jobs
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Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding H-1B Visa Sponsorship as a Research Data Scientist
Verify your degree maps directly
USCIS scrutinizes Research Data Scientist petitions when the degree field doesn't align with the role's core methods. Pull the O*NET profile for your SOC code and confirm your transcript covers statistics, machine learning, or quantitative research explicitly.
Target employers with R&D classifications
Universities, national labs, and federally funded research centers can file cap-exempt H-1B petitions year-round. If you're open to these settings, you bypass the lottery entirely and can start work immediately after USCIS approval.
Search verified H-1B sponsors on Migrate Mate
Filter by research data scientist roles on Migrate Mate to see which employers have active LCA filing history with DOL. This tells you which companies have actually sponsored the role before, not just listed it.
Check prevailing wage before negotiating
Your employer must certify your salary meets the DOL prevailing wage for your job zone and location. Run your title and metro area through the OFLC Wage Search before you enter salary discussions so you know the floor.
Confirm LCA job duties match your offer letter
DOL auditors compare the Labor Condition Application against your actual work assignment. Make sure your offer letter's described responsibilities align with what's filed, especially if your role spans multiple research domains or involves client-facing work.
Plan around the 60-day grace period strategically
If your current H-1B employer downsizes a research unit, you have 60 days to secure a new sponsor and file a transfer. Prioritize employers who can submit a concurrent petition quickly rather than waiting until the final weeks.
H-1B Visa Research Data Scientist: Frequently Asked Questions
Does a Research Data Scientist role qualify as an H-1B specialty occupation?
Yes. USCIS consistently classifies Research Data Scientist positions as specialty occupations because the work requires theoretical and applied knowledge in a specific field such as statistics, computer science, or applied mathematics. Your employer's petition needs to document that a bachelor's degree or higher in a directly related field is a standard industry requirement for the role, not just preferred.
Which employers sponsor H-1B visas for Research Data Scientist positions?
Technology companies, pharmaceutical firms, financial institutions, and research universities are the most consistent sponsors for this role. Cap-exempt sponsors like universities and nonprofit research organizations can file outside the lottery window. Migrate Mate surfaces employers by verified LCA filing history for research data scientist roles, so you can focus on companies that have actually sponsored the position before.
How does the H-1B lottery affect Research Data Scientist job seekers?
Most private-sector employers are cap-subject, meaning your petition enters the annual lottery capped at 85,000 slots. USCIS accepts registrations in March for an October 1 start date. If you hold a U.S. master's degree or higher, your registration gets two chances at selection. Employers at qualifying universities or nonprofit research institutions can file cap-exempt petitions at any time, bypassing the lottery entirely.
Can I switch employers mid-H-1B if my research team is restructured?
Yes. H-1B portability under AC21 allows you to transfer your status to a new sponsoring employer once you've been in valid H-1B status for at least six months and the new employer files a transfer petition before your current status expires. You can start work with the new employer as soon as the transfer petition is filed, not when it's approved. The 60-day grace period after termination applies if you need time to find that next sponsor.
What documentation strengthens an H-1B petition for a Research Data Scientist?
Your employer's petition is stronger when it includes a detailed job description tying each core duty to a specific degree field, your academic transcripts or credential evaluation confirming degree equivalency, and evidence that similar roles in the industry require the same educational background. If your job involves proprietary research methodologies, a letter from a senior researcher or technical lead explaining the complexity of the work helps establish the specialty occupation standard with USCIS.