H-1B Visa Research Program Manager Jobs
Research Program Manager jobs at H-1B visa sponsoring employers sit at the intersection of science administration and project leadership, requiring a bachelor's degree in a directly related field. These roles qualify as specialty occupations, and the employers most likely to sponsor are universities, research hospitals, government contractors, and large biopharma companies with established immigration programs.
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Get Access To All JobsOur Mission
Reflection is a research lab making intelligence open and accessible for everyone to use, customize, and build on. We build open models that let anyone control their intelligence and help shape the future of AI. Our mission: make intelligence open and accessible to all.
About the Role
Research Program Managers at Reflection are high-leverage leaders and operators who embed directly with research and infrastructure teams to accelerate the pace of frontier model development. They are not project trackers. They are force multipliers who bring clarity to ambiguity, drive decisions when the path forward is unclear, and ensure that the work happening across multiple teams connects into a coherent whole.
This role focuses on scaling our research infrastructure to continue to support massive, frontier-scale training runs across pre-training, mid-training, and post-training.
As a central mandate, you will help drive the scaling and continued evolution of our training stack. You will help gather and unify requirements, scope, and drive this scale-up rewrite of the trainer with the Research and GPU Infra engineers who build and operate our training frameworks. This role involves weaving requirements across all stages of our training pipeline: pre-training, mid-training workloads that pair the trainer with a high-throughput inference engine for RL, post-training, etc. We are looking for someone who has gone deep with GPU infrastructure teams to build training frameworks and has accumulated the scar tissue to prove it – you know firsthand which abstractions hold at 10K+ GPU scale and which ones don’t, and you can bring that judgment to a multi-quarter program of a training stack rewrite.
You bring a first-responder mentality. When things go sideways, you don't wait to be asked. You jump in, assess the situation, cut through noise, align the people who need to be aligned, and drive resolution.
- Own cross-functional programs spanning training infrastructure across pre-training, mid-training, and post-training workstreams.
- Define and own the roadmap for training frameworks at Reflection.
- Partner with infrastructure and research engineering leads to identify bottlenecks, define priorities, and ensure that infrastructure investments are directly tied to research velocity.
- Build and maintain visibility into training run health so that leadership and teams have the context they need to make fast, informed decisions.
- Create lightweight, durable processes for cross-team handoffs, config management, checkpoint workflows, and other coordination-heavy touchpoints that currently rely on ad hoc communication.
- Translate technical complexity into clear status updates and decision frameworks for engineering leadership and executives.
About You
- 7+ years of experience in technical program management, research operations, or infrastructure coordination, ideally in ML/AI or large-scale distributed systems environments.
- Deep technical knowledge to engage with engineers on topics like distributed training frameworks, GPU cluster architecture, scheduler behavior, networking, and storage systems. You don't need to write the code, but you need to understand the systems to “speak the language”, i.e., to ask the right questions and identify risks early.
- Proven ability to operate effectively in high-ambiguity, fast-moving environments. You create structure where there is none and drive clarity without waiting for permission.
- Track record of managing complex, multi-team programs with competing priorities and hard deadlines. You know how to make tradeoffs and you communicate them clearly.
- Strong stakeholder management skills across both deeply technical ICs and senior leadership. You build trust by being reliable, direct, and well-informed.
- Comfortable operating in crisis mode. You stay calm under pressure, you know how to prioritize when everything is on fire, and you follow through on the other side.
- Excited to build from zero to one. We are a small, fast-moving team and this role will help define how Research Program management works at Reflection.
- Motivated by enabling researchers and engineers to build the world's most capable open-weight AI systems.
What We Offer:
We believe that to make intelligence open and accessible to all, you need to start at the foundation. Joining Reflection means building from the ground up as part of a talent-dense team. You will help define our future as a company, and help define the future of open foundational models.
We want you to do the most impactful work of your career with the confidence that you and the people you care about most are supported.
- Top-tier compensation: Salary and equity structured to recognize and retain our talent globally.
- Stock options: Everyone who joins and contributes to Reflection's success gets to share in the upside through stock options.
- Health & wellness: Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and life, with an annual wellness allowance.
- Meals: Lunch and dinner are provided in the office daily.
- Life & family: 22 weeks paid parental leave for all new birthing and non-birthing parents, including adoptive and surrogate journeys.
- Vacation days: Unlimited paid time off in the U.S. and 30 days in the U.K.
- Sponsorship support: We sponsor visas to help exceptional talent join our team and support long-term immigration pathways where applicable.
- Team building: We have regular off-sites, happy hours, and team celebrations.
Export Control Notice: This position may require access to technology or source code subject to the U.S. Export Administration Regulations. Any offer of employment for this role may be conditioned on the Company's ability to provide the candidate with access to such technology or source code in compliance with applicable U.S. export control laws, which may require the Company to seek government authorization.
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
Reflection AI is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, disability, genetic information, veteran or military status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply.
We provide reasonable accommodations throughout the hiring process for applicants with disabilities, pregnancy-related limitations, or religious needs. If you need an accommodation, contact us at accommodations@reflection.ai.
We will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in accordance with applicable law, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the California Fair Chance Act.
Candidate and Employee Privacy Notice: We collect and process personal data about applicants for the purposes described in our Candidate and Employee Privacy Notice.
Our Mission
Reflection is a research lab making intelligence open and accessible for everyone to use, customize, and build on. We build open models that let anyone control their intelligence and help shape the future of AI. Our mission: make intelligence open and accessible to all.
About the Role
Research Program Managers at Reflection are high-leverage leaders and operators who embed directly with research and infrastructure teams to accelerate the pace of frontier model development. They are not project trackers. They are force multipliers who bring clarity to ambiguity, drive decisions when the path forward is unclear, and ensure that the work happening across multiple teams connects into a coherent whole.
This role focuses on scaling our research infrastructure to continue to support massive, frontier-scale training runs across pre-training, mid-training, and post-training.
As a central mandate, you will help drive the scaling and continued evolution of our training stack. You will help gather and unify requirements, scope, and drive this scale-up rewrite of the trainer with the Research and GPU Infra engineers who build and operate our training frameworks. This role involves weaving requirements across all stages of our training pipeline: pre-training, mid-training workloads that pair the trainer with a high-throughput inference engine for RL, post-training, etc. We are looking for someone who has gone deep with GPU infrastructure teams to build training frameworks and has accumulated the scar tissue to prove it – you know firsthand which abstractions hold at 10K+ GPU scale and which ones don’t, and you can bring that judgment to a multi-quarter program of a training stack rewrite.
You bring a first-responder mentality. When things go sideways, you don't wait to be asked. You jump in, assess the situation, cut through noise, align the people who need to be aligned, and drive resolution.
- Own cross-functional programs spanning training infrastructure across pre-training, mid-training, and post-training workstreams.
- Define and own the roadmap for training frameworks at Reflection.
- Partner with infrastructure and research engineering leads to identify bottlenecks, define priorities, and ensure that infrastructure investments are directly tied to research velocity.
- Build and maintain visibility into training run health so that leadership and teams have the context they need to make fast, informed decisions.
- Create lightweight, durable processes for cross-team handoffs, config management, checkpoint workflows, and other coordination-heavy touchpoints that currently rely on ad hoc communication.
- Translate technical complexity into clear status updates and decision frameworks for engineering leadership and executives.
About You
- 7+ years of experience in technical program management, research operations, or infrastructure coordination, ideally in ML/AI or large-scale distributed systems environments.
- Deep technical knowledge to engage with engineers on topics like distributed training frameworks, GPU cluster architecture, scheduler behavior, networking, and storage systems. You don't need to write the code, but you need to understand the systems to “speak the language”, i.e., to ask the right questions and identify risks early.
- Proven ability to operate effectively in high-ambiguity, fast-moving environments. You create structure where there is none and drive clarity without waiting for permission.
- Track record of managing complex, multi-team programs with competing priorities and hard deadlines. You know how to make tradeoffs and you communicate them clearly.
- Strong stakeholder management skills across both deeply technical ICs and senior leadership. You build trust by being reliable, direct, and well-informed.
- Comfortable operating in crisis mode. You stay calm under pressure, you know how to prioritize when everything is on fire, and you follow through on the other side.
- Excited to build from zero to one. We are a small, fast-moving team and this role will help define how Research Program management works at Reflection.
- Motivated by enabling researchers and engineers to build the world's most capable open-weight AI systems.
What We Offer:
We believe that to make intelligence open and accessible to all, you need to start at the foundation. Joining Reflection means building from the ground up as part of a talent-dense team. You will help define our future as a company, and help define the future of open foundational models.
We want you to do the most impactful work of your career with the confidence that you and the people you care about most are supported.
- Top-tier compensation: Salary and equity structured to recognize and retain our talent globally.
- Stock options: Everyone who joins and contributes to Reflection's success gets to share in the upside through stock options.
- Health & wellness: Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and life, with an annual wellness allowance.
- Meals: Lunch and dinner are provided in the office daily.
- Life & family: 22 weeks paid parental leave for all new birthing and non-birthing parents, including adoptive and surrogate journeys.
- Vacation days: Unlimited paid time off in the U.S. and 30 days in the U.K.
- Sponsorship support: We sponsor visas to help exceptional talent join our team and support long-term immigration pathways where applicable.
- Team building: We have regular off-sites, happy hours, and team celebrations.
Export Control Notice: This position may require access to technology or source code subject to the U.S. Export Administration Regulations. Any offer of employment for this role may be conditioned on the Company's ability to provide the candidate with access to such technology or source code in compliance with applicable U.S. export control laws, which may require the Company to seek government authorization.
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
Reflection AI is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, disability, genetic information, veteran or military status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply.
We provide reasonable accommodations throughout the hiring process for applicants with disabilities, pregnancy-related limitations, or religious needs. If you need an accommodation, contact us at accommodations@reflection.ai.
We will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in accordance with applicable law, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the California Fair Chance Act.
Candidate and Employee Privacy Notice: We collect and process personal data about applicants for the purposes described in our Candidate and Employee Privacy Notice.
See all 217+ H-1B Visa Research Program Manager Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new H-1B Visa Research Program Manager Jobs.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding H-1B Visa Sponsorship as a Research Program Manager
Align your degree to program management
Your H-1B petition must show a direct relationship between your degree field and the Research Program Manager role. A degree in public health, biological sciences, or a relevant social science strengthens the specialty occupation argument far more than a general management credential.
Look up prevailing wages before negotiating
Use the OFLC Wage Search to find the Level I through Level IV wage for your specific SOC code and work location. Your employer's LCA must certify wages at or above the applicable prevailing wage, so knowing the floor before salary discussions protects both parties.
Target cap-exempt employers strategically
Universities, affiliated research institutes, and nonprofit research organizations are cap-exempt, meaning they can file your H-1B petition at any time of year without entering the annual selection process. This matters because selection rules have changed recently and timelines are less predictable for cap-subject employers.
Search verified H-1B sponsors on Migrate Mate
Filter your job search to employers with documented H-1B LCA filing history for Research Program Manager or adjacent program management roles. Migrate Mate surfaces this DOL data so you can prioritize outreach to organizations that have sponsored the role before.
Confirm each worksite before your start date
If your Research Program Manager role involves multiple campuses, field sites, or affiliated institutions, each worksite requires its own certified LCA. Raise this with your employer's HR or immigration counsel early so filings aren't delayed after you've already accepted the offer.
Use O*NET to document specialty occupation duties
The O*NET profile for your occupation lists specific knowledge domains and analytical tasks that support a specialty occupation argument. Including O*NET-consistent duty descriptions in your offer letter and I-129 support letter reduces the risk of a Request for Evidence from USCIS.
H-1B Visa Research Program Manager: Frequently Asked Questions
Does a Research Program Manager role qualify as an H-1B specialty occupation?
Yes, Research Program Manager positions typically qualify as specialty occupations when the role requires a bachelor's degree or higher in a directly related field such as public health, life sciences, social sciences, or a relevant technical discipline. The employer's offer letter and job description must reflect degree-level duties in that specific field, not general administrative oversight.
Which types of employers sponsor H-1B visas for Research Program Managers?
Universities, academic medical centers, national laboratories, biopharma and biotech companies, government contractors, and large nonprofit research organizations are the most consistent H-1B sponsors for this role. Many of these are cap-exempt institutions, which allows them to file petitions outside the annual selection window. You can find employers with verified filing history for this role on Migrate Mate.
How long does H-1B status last for a Research Program Manager?
H-1B status is initially granted for up to three years and can be extended to a maximum of six years. Extensions beyond six years are possible only if a PERM labor certification or I-140 immigrant petition has been filed and meets specific age-of-filing criteria. Your employer must file a new I-129 petition with USCIS for each extension period.
What happens if my Research Program Manager role requires work at multiple sites?
Each distinct worksite location must have its own certified LCA on file with DOL before you begin working there. If your role involves rotating between campuses, field sites, or partner institutions, your employer needs to file separate LCAs covering each location. Failing to have a certified LCA for a worksite is a compliance violation that can affect both you and your employer.
What degree fields best support an H-1B petition for this role?
Degrees in public health, epidemiology, biological or biomedical sciences, psychology, social work, clinical research administration, or a related technical field provide the strongest specialty occupation foundation for a Research Program Manager petition. A general business or management degree alone is less defensible unless paired with substantial coursework directly tied to the specific research domain the employer works in.