Research Engineer Visa Sponsorship Jobs in Virginia
Virginia is a strong market for research engineer roles, with major employers including Amazon, Leidos, Booz Allen Hamilton, and MITRE concentrated in Northern Virginia and the DC metro corridor. Defense research, cloud infrastructure, and AI-driven government contracting drive consistent demand, and many of these organizations have established visa sponsorship programs for qualified candidates.
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Get Access To All JobsINTRODUCTION
The Health, Education, AI, and Learning (HEAL) Division of the Virginia Modeling Analysis and Simulation (VMASC) and the National Center for Collaboration in Medical Modeling and Simulation (NCCMMS) is seeking a highly motivated and creative Postdoctoral Researcher to conduct foundational and applied research in artificial intelligence, deep learning, and advanced neural network architectures. You will join a multidisciplinary team of computer scientists, engineers, human factors experts, instructional designers, and medical education experts to design novel algorithms, build scalable training pipelines, and apply cutting-edge machine learning models to complex, real-world challenges and in pursuit of commercially viable products.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Algorithm Development: Design, implement, and evaluate novel deep learning architectures, neural surrogate models, or brain-inspired computing algorithms.
- Experimentation & Scaling: Plan rigorous, reproducible training evaluations, ablation studies, and GPU-accelerated experiments across small & large datasets.
- Software Engineering: Develop, test, document, and maintain robust, open-source Python research software using modern version control workflows (e.g., Git).
- Publication & Dissemination: Write and collaborate on high-impact research articles for peer-reviewed journals and present findings at premier international AI/ML conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR).
- Collaboration & Mentorship: Collaborate effectively within interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary research groups and assist in mentoring junior graduate or undergraduate researchers.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
- Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Applied Mathematics, Data Science, Computational Physics, Electrical & Computer Engineering, or a closely related quantitative field (conferred by December 2026 and within the past 5 years).
- Technical Expertise: Demonstrated research experience in human-computer interaction, machine learning, and deep learning. Solid technical foundation in development and evaluation of supervised, unsupervised, and/or reinforcement learning models. Experience with discriminative and generative models.
- Programming Skills: Strong programming proficiency in Python and hands-on experience with modern deep learning frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, or JAX.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience working with multimodal neural network development, including video recordings, audio transcripts, and associated digital human performance scores, is desired.
- Experience with specialized architectures (GPUs, TPUs).
- Background in physics-informed neural networks (PINNs), foundation models, world models, or uncertainty quantification.
- Special experience with high-performance computing (HPC) environments and distributed training workflows.
This position is being filled through the Research Foundation, which is a separate entity from Old Dominion University (ODU). While we work in support of ODU, the Research Foundation operates independently and is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization.
To apply: click Job Browsing; and follow the link for position #26-058. Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.
The organization is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer (AA/EOE/M/F/Disability/VETS/Drug-Free Workplace). We are committed to providing equal employment opportunity to all individuals in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Employment decisions — including recruitment, hiring, training, compensation, and promotion — are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, physical or mental disability, genetic information, age, protected veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. Affirmative action efforts are conducted consistent with applicable laws to promote equal opportunity in employment and advancement.
As part of our commitment to pay transparency and compliance with applicable laws, the Research Foundation includes a good-faith salary range in all job postings. These ranges represent the expected hiring range for the position, not the full compensation band.
Final salary offers may vary depending on factors such as experience, qualifications, skills, internal equity, and budget availability.
Expected Salary Range: $55,000 to $65,000
INTRODUCTION
The Health, Education, AI, and Learning (HEAL) Division of the Virginia Modeling Analysis and Simulation (VMASC) and the National Center for Collaboration in Medical Modeling and Simulation (NCCMMS) is seeking a highly motivated and creative Postdoctoral Researcher to conduct foundational and applied research in artificial intelligence, deep learning, and advanced neural network architectures. You will join a multidisciplinary team of computer scientists, engineers, human factors experts, instructional designers, and medical education experts to design novel algorithms, build scalable training pipelines, and apply cutting-edge machine learning models to complex, real-world challenges and in pursuit of commercially viable products.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Algorithm Development: Design, implement, and evaluate novel deep learning architectures, neural surrogate models, or brain-inspired computing algorithms.
- Experimentation & Scaling: Plan rigorous, reproducible training evaluations, ablation studies, and GPU-accelerated experiments across small & large datasets.
- Software Engineering: Develop, test, document, and maintain robust, open-source Python research software using modern version control workflows (e.g., Git).
- Publication & Dissemination: Write and collaborate on high-impact research articles for peer-reviewed journals and present findings at premier international AI/ML conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR).
- Collaboration & Mentorship: Collaborate effectively within interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary research groups and assist in mentoring junior graduate or undergraduate researchers.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
- Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Applied Mathematics, Data Science, Computational Physics, Electrical & Computer Engineering, or a closely related quantitative field (conferred by December 2026 and within the past 5 years).
- Technical Expertise: Demonstrated research experience in human-computer interaction, machine learning, and deep learning. Solid technical foundation in development and evaluation of supervised, unsupervised, and/or reinforcement learning models. Experience with discriminative and generative models.
- Programming Skills: Strong programming proficiency in Python and hands-on experience with modern deep learning frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, or JAX.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience working with multimodal neural network development, including video recordings, audio transcripts, and associated digital human performance scores, is desired.
- Experience with specialized architectures (GPUs, TPUs).
- Background in physics-informed neural networks (PINNs), foundation models, world models, or uncertainty quantification.
- Special experience with high-performance computing (HPC) environments and distributed training workflows.
This position is being filled through the Research Foundation, which is a separate entity from Old Dominion University (ODU). While we work in support of ODU, the Research Foundation operates independently and is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization.
To apply: click Job Browsing; and follow the link for position #26-058. Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.
The organization is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer (AA/EOE/M/F/Disability/VETS/Drug-Free Workplace). We are committed to providing equal employment opportunity to all individuals in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Employment decisions — including recruitment, hiring, training, compensation, and promotion — are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, physical or mental disability, genetic information, age, protected veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. Affirmative action efforts are conducted consistent with applicable laws to promote equal opportunity in employment and advancement.
As part of our commitment to pay transparency and compliance with applicable laws, the Research Foundation includes a good-faith salary range in all job postings. These ranges represent the expected hiring range for the position, not the full compensation band.
Final salary offers may vary depending on factors such as experience, qualifications, skills, internal equity, and budget availability.
Expected Salary Range: $55,000 to $65,000
Research Engineer Job Roles in Virginia
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Search Research Engineer Jobs in VirginiaResearch Engineer Jobs in Virginia: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies sponsor visas for research engineers in Virginia?
Northern Virginia's defense and technology sector includes several organizations known for sponsoring research engineers. Leidos, Booz Allen Hamilton, MITRE, Amazon Web Services, and Capital One have all filed H-1B visa petitions for research-oriented roles in Virginia. Many federal contractors in the region also sponsor through research divisions, though sponsorship decisions are made case by case and depend on the specific role and candidate qualifications.
Which visa types are most common for research engineer roles in Virginia?
The H-1B is the most common visa category for research engineers in Virginia, as most roles require at least a bachelor's degree in a relevant engineering or scientific field, satisfying the specialty occupation requirement. Candidates with exceptional research records may qualify for the O-1A. Those sponsored for permanent roles often see employers file EB-2 or EB-3 petitions, with EB-2 NIW available to researchers whose work serves the national interest.
How to find research engineer visa sponsorship jobs in Virginia?
Migrate Mate filters job listings specifically by visa sponsorship willingness, making it easier to identify research engineer openings in Virginia without sorting through roles that don't offer sponsorship. You can browse by location and role type to focus on Northern Virginia's defense tech corridor or the Richmond and Charlottesville research clusters. Migrate Mate draws on employer sponsorship history to surface companies with a track record of filing for research engineering positions.
Which cities in Virginia have the most research engineer sponsorship jobs?
Northern Virginia, particularly the Tysons, McLean, Reston, and Arlington areas, concentrates the highest number of research engineer sponsorship roles due to the density of federal contractors and technology firms operating near Washington, DC. Charlottesville supports research positions tied to the University of Virginia. Richmond has a smaller but growing research presence in fintech and life sciences, and Herndon hosts several cloud and cybersecurity research teams.
Are there state-specific factors that affect visa sponsorship for research engineers in Virginia?
Virginia's large federal contracting sector adds a consideration not common in other states: some research engineer roles require a security clearance, and non-citizens sponsorship eligibility for those positions is limited or unavailable depending on the clearance level required. Roles without clearance requirements at commercial technology employers follow standard H-1B sponsorship processes. Virginia's proximity to federal research agencies also means some positions are tied to government contract cycles, which can affect hiring timelines.
What is the prevailing wage for sponsored research engineer jobs in Virginia?
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.