Research Scientist Visa Sponsorship Jobs in California
California is one of the most active states for research scientist visa sponsorship, driven by major employers across biotech, tech, and academia. Companies like Genentech, Apple, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, plus university systems spanning the Bay Area, San Diego, and Los Angeles, regularly hire international research scientists and file H-1B visa petitions.
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Get Access To All JobsINTRODUCTION
As an organization, Google maintains a portfolio of research projects driven by fundamental research, new product innovation, product contribution and infrastructure goals, while providing individuals and teams the freedom to emphasize specific types of work. As a Research Scientist, you'll setup large-scale tests and deploy promising ideas quickly and broadly, managing deadlines and deliverables while applying the latest theories to develop new and improved products, processes, or technologies. From creating experiments and prototyping implementations to designing new architectures, our research scientists work on real-world problems that span the breadth of computer science, such as machine (and deep) learning, data mining, natural language processing, hardware and software performance analysis, improving compilers for mobile platforms, as well as core search and much more.
As a Research Scientist, you'll also actively contribute to the wider research community by sharing and publishing your findings, with ideas inspired by internal projects as well as from collaborations with research programs at partner universities and technical institutes all over the world.
Our team develops resource-efficient architectures, model training/inference recipes, and model compression techniques to make machine learning models faster, smaller, and better. Our mission is to push the boundaries of model efficiency, enabling Google's flagship models to run efficiently across Google’s massive server-side deployments.
Google Research addresses challenges that define the technology of today and tomorrow. From conducting fundamental research to influencing product development, our research teams have the opportunity to impact technology used by billions of people every day.
Our teams aspire to make discoveries that impact everyone, and core to our approach is sharing our research and tools to fuel progress in the field - we publish regularly in academic journals, release projects as open source, and apply research to Google products.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Propose and drive independent research directions, and manage a strong research agenda, communicating with and participating with the broader research community.
- Refine your ideas in close collaboration with the team and cross-organization partners.
- Translate ideas to experiments swiftly, and be able to reason about model efficiency (latency, parameters, memory, I/O, compute efficiency, etc.).
- Communicate your results to the team regularly and seek feedback.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- PhD degree in Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
- Experience in ML/AI, backed by a publication record in conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, etc.
- Experience in Python and modern ML frameworks, such as JAX and PyTorch.
- Experience writing model training and inference pipelines.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience in model optimization, including knowledge distillation, model architectures, quantization, etc.
- Experience profiling model latency, I/O, and other bottlenecks while proposing relevant optimizations.
- Experience with low-level optimization.
- Understanding of TPU/GPU architectures, memory bandwidth constraints, and compiler-level optimizations (XLA).
- Ability to grow in a fast-paced environment that demands scientific excellence while ensuring ideas can be experimented with and deployed in production.
COMPENSATION
- The US base salary range for this full-time position is $147,000-$211,000 + bonus + equity + benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process.
Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only, and do not include bonus, equity, or benefits. Learn more about benefits at Google.
Google is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are 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. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. See also Google's EEO Policy and EEO is the Law. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing our Accommodations for Applicants form.
INTRODUCTION
As an organization, Google maintains a portfolio of research projects driven by fundamental research, new product innovation, product contribution and infrastructure goals, while providing individuals and teams the freedom to emphasize specific types of work. As a Research Scientist, you'll setup large-scale tests and deploy promising ideas quickly and broadly, managing deadlines and deliverables while applying the latest theories to develop new and improved products, processes, or technologies. From creating experiments and prototyping implementations to designing new architectures, our research scientists work on real-world problems that span the breadth of computer science, such as machine (and deep) learning, data mining, natural language processing, hardware and software performance analysis, improving compilers for mobile platforms, as well as core search and much more.
As a Research Scientist, you'll also actively contribute to the wider research community by sharing and publishing your findings, with ideas inspired by internal projects as well as from collaborations with research programs at partner universities and technical institutes all over the world.
Our team develops resource-efficient architectures, model training/inference recipes, and model compression techniques to make machine learning models faster, smaller, and better. Our mission is to push the boundaries of model efficiency, enabling Google's flagship models to run efficiently across Google’s massive server-side deployments.
Google Research addresses challenges that define the technology of today and tomorrow. From conducting fundamental research to influencing product development, our research teams have the opportunity to impact technology used by billions of people every day.
Our teams aspire to make discoveries that impact everyone, and core to our approach is sharing our research and tools to fuel progress in the field - we publish regularly in academic journals, release projects as open source, and apply research to Google products.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Propose and drive independent research directions, and manage a strong research agenda, communicating with and participating with the broader research community.
- Refine your ideas in close collaboration with the team and cross-organization partners.
- Translate ideas to experiments swiftly, and be able to reason about model efficiency (latency, parameters, memory, I/O, compute efficiency, etc.).
- Communicate your results to the team regularly and seek feedback.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- PhD degree in Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
- Experience in ML/AI, backed by a publication record in conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, etc.
- Experience in Python and modern ML frameworks, such as JAX and PyTorch.
- Experience writing model training and inference pipelines.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience in model optimization, including knowledge distillation, model architectures, quantization, etc.
- Experience profiling model latency, I/O, and other bottlenecks while proposing relevant optimizations.
- Experience with low-level optimization.
- Understanding of TPU/GPU architectures, memory bandwidth constraints, and compiler-level optimizations (XLA).
- Ability to grow in a fast-paced environment that demands scientific excellence while ensuring ideas can be experimented with and deployed in production.
COMPENSATION
- The US base salary range for this full-time position is $147,000-$211,000 + bonus + equity + benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process.
Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only, and do not include bonus, equity, or benefits. Learn more about benefits at Google.
Google is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are 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. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. See also Google's EEO Policy and EEO is the Law. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing our Accommodations for Applicants form.
Research Scientist Job Roles in California
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Search Research Scientist Jobs in CaliforniaResearch Scientist Jobs in California: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies sponsor visas for research scientists in California?
California's biotech and tech sectors produce some of the highest volumes of research scientist H-1B sponsorships in the country. Frequent sponsors include Genentech, Gilead Sciences, Amgen, Apple, Google, Meta, and national laboratories like Lawrence Berkeley and SLAC. University of California campuses across Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco also sponsor research scientists through academic and postdoctoral appointments.
Which visa types are most common for research scientist roles in California?
The H-1B is the most common visa for research scientists in California, as most roles require at least a bachelor's degree in a specialized scientific field, satisfying the specialty occupation requirement. Candidates with exceptional records may qualify for the O-1A. Those pursuing permanent residence often enter the EB-1B (outstanding researcher) or EB-2 NIW pathways, which are well-suited to research-focused careers.
Which cities in California have the most research scientist sponsorship jobs?
The San Francisco Bay Area, including South San Francisco and San Jose, leads in biotech and tech research scientist hiring. San Diego is a major life sciences hub anchored by companies like Illumina and Sorrento Therapeutics. Los Angeles has a growing presence through UCLA, USC, and biotechnology firms. Sacramento hosts state-funded research institutions that also sponsor international scientists.
How to find research scientist visa sponsorship jobs in California?
Migrate Mate filters job listings specifically by visa sponsorship availability, making it straightforward to browse research scientist roles in California without sifting through positions that don't sponsor. You can search by location, role type, and industry to find openings at biotech firms, national labs, and university research departments across the Bay Area, San Diego, and Los Angeles.
Are there any California-specific considerations for research scientists seeking visa sponsorship?
California's high concentration of H-1B-dependent employers in tech and biotech means some companies must meet additional attestation requirements under Department of Labor rules. Research scientists at UC campuses may access cap-exempt H-1B filings, which are not subject to the annual lottery, making those positions particularly accessible for international candidates outside the regular cap season.
What is the prevailing wage for sponsored research scientist jobs in California?
U.S. employers sponsoring a visa must pay at least the prevailing wage, which is what workers in the same role, area, and experience level typically earn. The Department of Labor sets this rate to make sure companies aren't hiring foreign workers simply because they'd accept lower pay than a U.S. worker. It varies by job title, location, and experience. You can look up current prevailing wage rates for any occupation and location using the OFLC Wage Search page.