Biotech & Pharma Visa Sponsorship Jobs in Wisconsin
Wisconsin's biotech and pharmaceutical sector centers on Madison's research corridor, anchored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and companies like Promega Corporation, Exact Sciences, and PPD. Milwaukee adds manufacturing strength with facilities from Baxter International and Johnson Controls' life sciences division, while smaller hubs in Middleton and Verona host emerging biotech startups and contract research organizations seeking international talent.
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Get Access To All JobsAt Perrigo, we are driven by our mission to Makes Lives Better Through Trusted Health and Wellness Solutions, Accessible to All. We are proud to be a Top 10 player in the European Consumer Self-Care market and the largest U.S. store brand provider of over the counter and infant formula. Dedicated to providing The Best Self-Care for Everyone, we are the people behind the brands you trust. We are Opill®, Compeed®, Solpadeine®, NiQuitin®, and many more. We Are Perrigo. We are committed to enhancing the wellbeing of our colleagues and consumers alike. We pride ourselves on fostering an inclusive, collaborative culture where each person can experience a sense of belonging.
Join us on our One Perrigo journey as we evolve to win in self-care.
Description Overview
The Reliability Engineer is responsible for supporting the site's Reliability Management Process by improving asset performance, reliability, maintainability, and operational effectiveness across the facility. Reporting directly to the Reliability Manager, this role provides technical leadership for reliability engineering, predictive maintenance, asset care strategies, failure elimination, and continuous improvement initiatives.
The Reliability Engineer serves as a hands-on technical support on equipment reliability and maintenance optimization, partnering closely with Operations, Maintenance, Engineering, Quality, and EHS teams to improve equipment uptime, reduce failures, optimize maintenance costs, and ensure full compliance with Perrigo Work Standards (PWS), cGMP, FDA, food safety, and regulatory requirements.
This role will lead reliability initiatives across manufacturing, packaging, utilities, warehouse, and processing assets, supporting the development of a world-class reliability culture within the facility.
Scope of the Role
Safety, Quality & Compliance
- Promote a proactive safety culture and support all site safety initiatives.
- Ensure reliability activities comply with cGMP, FDA, food safety, environmental, and quality requirements.
- Participate in investigations, deviations, CAPAs, equipment failure analyses, and Management of Change (MOC) activities.
- Support asset integrity, process safety, and regulatory compliance programs.
- Maintain inspection readiness and participate in internal and external audits.
Reliability & Asset Performance
- Serve as the site subject matter expert for reliability engineering and asset performance improvement.
- Support the Asset Care Strategy to improve equipment reliability, uptime, maintainability, and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
- Lead equipment criticality assessments, bad actor analyses, and defect elimination initiatives.
- Apply reliability methodologies including RCA, FMEA, RCM, and criticality assessments to identify and eliminate chronic failures.
- Analyze equipment performance data, identify trends and failure modes, and develop engineering solutions that improve reliability, quality, capacity, safety, and cost performance.
- Provide reliability input for capital projects, equipment installations, and process modifications.
Predictive Maintenance & Condition Monitoring
- Lead site Predictive Maintenance (PdM) programs and condition-monitoring technologies.
- Develop and optimize strategies utilizing vibration analysis, thermography, ultrasound inspection, and oil analysis.
- Monitor equipment health, identify risks, and translate findings into actionable maintenance plans.
- Evaluate and implement emerging reliability technologies and digital monitoring tools.
- Partner with Maintenance teams to improve maintenance effectiveness and asset performance.
Maintenance Strategy Optimization
- Develop, implement, and continuously improve preventive and predictive maintenance programs.
- Review maintenance effectiveness and optimize PM intervals based on asset performance and risk.
- Ensure maintenance plans align with equipment criticality and failure modes.
- Support asset hierarchy management, equipment BOMs, spare parts strategies, and maintenance standards.
- Collaborate with planning and scheduling teams to improve work execution, backlog management, and prioritization.
Continuous Improvement & Projects
- Lead reliability-focused continuous improvement initiatives to increase uptime, reduce downtime, improve OEE, optimize maintenance costs, and extend asset life.
- Utilize Lean, Six Sigma, and reliability principles to drive sustainable operational improvements.
- Support capital projects through design reviews, maintainability assessments, commissioning, startup, and performance validation.
- Collaborate with OEMs, contractors, suppliers, Operations, Engineering, Maintenance, Quality, and EHS teams to improve equipment reliability and maintainability.
- Drive adoption of predictive technologies, digital reliability tools, and Perrigo Work Standards (PWS).
Additional Responsibilities
- Provide technical leadership and troubleshooting support for complex equipment issues.
- Support critical maintenance events, plant outages, and reliability improvement projects.
- Coordinate with vendors and contractors and assist in the procurement and qualification of critical spare parts.
- Partner cross-functionally to maximize asset performance, reliability, and operational efficiency.
Experience Required
Education and Experience
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Reliability Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Technology, or related technical discipline required.
- Minimum 5 years of reliability engineering, maintenance engineering, or asset management experience in a manufacturing environment.
- Experience within Union, FDA-regulated pharmaceutical, food, infant formula, consumer healthcare, or GMP manufacturing environments preferred.
- Experience applying reliability methodologies including RCA, FMEA, RCM, and defect elimination programs.
- Experience with predictive maintenance technologies and condition monitoring systems.
- Experience supporting planning and scheduling processes.
- Experience supporting capital project implementation and equipment commissioning.
- Experience with asset management systems, CMMS, and SAP PM preferred.
Skills and Competencies
- Strong understanding of reliability engineering principles and asset lifecycle management.
- Advanced troubleshooting and root cause analysis capabilities.
- Expertise in predictive maintenance technologies and condition monitoring techniques.
- Strong analytical and data interpretation skills.
- Ability to influence cross-functional teams and drive organizational change.
- Proficiency with SAP PM, Microsoft Office, and manufacturing systems.
- Strong communication, coaching, and technical leadership skills.
- Understanding of pumps, motors, conveyors, dryers, powder handling systems, instrumentation, controls, utilities, and process equipment.
Preferred Certifications
- Certified Maintenance & Reliability Professional (CMRP)
- ISO Category I or II Vibration Analyst Certification
- Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Certification
- Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or higher
- Ultrasound, Thermography, or Oil Analysis Certifications
Work Schedule:
- Salaried position.
- Monday–Friday
- Availability to support plant operations, emergencies, shutdowns, and critical maintenance activities.
- Occasional off-shift and weekend support may be required.
Benefits
We believe our people are our greatest asset. Alongside competitive compensation, we offer benefits tailored to supporting you and your family, as well as career development opportunities to ensure you feel valued and supported, both professionally and personally.
Find out more about Total Rewards at Perrigo.
We are proud to be included in the Forbes list of "America's Best Employers by State 2024". Find out more here.
Applicants please note: To apply to this position please click the APPLY button at the bottom of the application. (The SAVE button will only save your profile information but not submit an application for this open position.) Thank you.
We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or other characteristics protected by law. #weareperrigo
At Perrigo, we are driven by our mission to Makes Lives Better Through Trusted Health and Wellness Solutions, Accessible to All. We are proud to be a Top 10 player in the European Consumer Self-Care market and the largest U.S. store brand provider of over the counter and infant formula. Dedicated to providing The Best Self-Care for Everyone, we are the people behind the brands you trust. We are Opill®, Compeed®, Solpadeine®, NiQuitin®, and many more. We Are Perrigo. We are committed to enhancing the wellbeing of our colleagues and consumers alike. We pride ourselves on fostering an inclusive, collaborative culture where each person can experience a sense of belonging.
Join us on our One Perrigo journey as we evolve to win in self-care.
Description Overview
The Reliability Engineer is responsible for supporting the site's Reliability Management Process by improving asset performance, reliability, maintainability, and operational effectiveness across the facility. Reporting directly to the Reliability Manager, this role provides technical leadership for reliability engineering, predictive maintenance, asset care strategies, failure elimination, and continuous improvement initiatives.
The Reliability Engineer serves as a hands-on technical support on equipment reliability and maintenance optimization, partnering closely with Operations, Maintenance, Engineering, Quality, and EHS teams to improve equipment uptime, reduce failures, optimize maintenance costs, and ensure full compliance with Perrigo Work Standards (PWS), cGMP, FDA, food safety, and regulatory requirements.
This role will lead reliability initiatives across manufacturing, packaging, utilities, warehouse, and processing assets, supporting the development of a world-class reliability culture within the facility.
Scope of the Role
Safety, Quality & Compliance
- Promote a proactive safety culture and support all site safety initiatives.
- Ensure reliability activities comply with cGMP, FDA, food safety, environmental, and quality requirements.
- Participate in investigations, deviations, CAPAs, equipment failure analyses, and Management of Change (MOC) activities.
- Support asset integrity, process safety, and regulatory compliance programs.
- Maintain inspection readiness and participate in internal and external audits.
Reliability & Asset Performance
- Serve as the site subject matter expert for reliability engineering and asset performance improvement.
- Support the Asset Care Strategy to improve equipment reliability, uptime, maintainability, and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
- Lead equipment criticality assessments, bad actor analyses, and defect elimination initiatives.
- Apply reliability methodologies including RCA, FMEA, RCM, and criticality assessments to identify and eliminate chronic failures.
- Analyze equipment performance data, identify trends and failure modes, and develop engineering solutions that improve reliability, quality, capacity, safety, and cost performance.
- Provide reliability input for capital projects, equipment installations, and process modifications.
Predictive Maintenance & Condition Monitoring
- Lead site Predictive Maintenance (PdM) programs and condition-monitoring technologies.
- Develop and optimize strategies utilizing vibration analysis, thermography, ultrasound inspection, and oil analysis.
- Monitor equipment health, identify risks, and translate findings into actionable maintenance plans.
- Evaluate and implement emerging reliability technologies and digital monitoring tools.
- Partner with Maintenance teams to improve maintenance effectiveness and asset performance.
Maintenance Strategy Optimization
- Develop, implement, and continuously improve preventive and predictive maintenance programs.
- Review maintenance effectiveness and optimize PM intervals based on asset performance and risk.
- Ensure maintenance plans align with equipment criticality and failure modes.
- Support asset hierarchy management, equipment BOMs, spare parts strategies, and maintenance standards.
- Collaborate with planning and scheduling teams to improve work execution, backlog management, and prioritization.
Continuous Improvement & Projects
- Lead reliability-focused continuous improvement initiatives to increase uptime, reduce downtime, improve OEE, optimize maintenance costs, and extend asset life.
- Utilize Lean, Six Sigma, and reliability principles to drive sustainable operational improvements.
- Support capital projects through design reviews, maintainability assessments, commissioning, startup, and performance validation.
- Collaborate with OEMs, contractors, suppliers, Operations, Engineering, Maintenance, Quality, and EHS teams to improve equipment reliability and maintainability.
- Drive adoption of predictive technologies, digital reliability tools, and Perrigo Work Standards (PWS).
Additional Responsibilities
- Provide technical leadership and troubleshooting support for complex equipment issues.
- Support critical maintenance events, plant outages, and reliability improvement projects.
- Coordinate with vendors and contractors and assist in the procurement and qualification of critical spare parts.
- Partner cross-functionally to maximize asset performance, reliability, and operational efficiency.
Experience Required
Education and Experience
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Reliability Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Technology, or related technical discipline required.
- Minimum 5 years of reliability engineering, maintenance engineering, or asset management experience in a manufacturing environment.
- Experience within Union, FDA-regulated pharmaceutical, food, infant formula, consumer healthcare, or GMP manufacturing environments preferred.
- Experience applying reliability methodologies including RCA, FMEA, RCM, and defect elimination programs.
- Experience with predictive maintenance technologies and condition monitoring systems.
- Experience supporting planning and scheduling processes.
- Experience supporting capital project implementation and equipment commissioning.
- Experience with asset management systems, CMMS, and SAP PM preferred.
Skills and Competencies
- Strong understanding of reliability engineering principles and asset lifecycle management.
- Advanced troubleshooting and root cause analysis capabilities.
- Expertise in predictive maintenance technologies and condition monitoring techniques.
- Strong analytical and data interpretation skills.
- Ability to influence cross-functional teams and drive organizational change.
- Proficiency with SAP PM, Microsoft Office, and manufacturing systems.
- Strong communication, coaching, and technical leadership skills.
- Understanding of pumps, motors, conveyors, dryers, powder handling systems, instrumentation, controls, utilities, and process equipment.
Preferred Certifications
- Certified Maintenance & Reliability Professional (CMRP)
- ISO Category I or II Vibration Analyst Certification
- Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Certification
- Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or higher
- Ultrasound, Thermography, or Oil Analysis Certifications
Work Schedule:
- Salaried position.
- Monday–Friday
- Availability to support plant operations, emergencies, shutdowns, and critical maintenance activities.
- Occasional off-shift and weekend support may be required.
Benefits
We believe our people are our greatest asset. Alongside competitive compensation, we offer benefits tailored to supporting you and your family, as well as career development opportunities to ensure you feel valued and supported, both professionally and personally.
Find out more about Total Rewards at Perrigo.
We are proud to be included in the Forbes list of "America's Best Employers by State 2024". Find out more here.
Applicants please note: To apply to this position please click the APPLY button at the bottom of the application. (The SAVE button will only save your profile information but not submit an application for this open position.) Thank you.
We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or other characteristics protected by law. #weareperrigo
Biotech & Pharma Job Roles in Wisconsin
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Search Biotech & Pharma Jobs in WisconsinBiotech & Pharma Jobs in Wisconsin: Frequently Asked Questions
Which biotech & pharma companies in Wisconsin sponsor H-1B and other work visas?
Major sponsors include Promega Corporation in Madison, Exact Sciences for oncology diagnostics, PPD for clinical research, and Baxter International in Milwaukee. University of Wisconsin-Madison also sponsors researchers and postdocs. Smaller companies like Cellular Dynamics International, NorthShore Care Supply, and Madison-based startups increasingly sponsor international talent for specialized roles in drug development, clinical trials, and regulatory affairs.
What visa types are most common for biotech & pharma jobs in Wisconsin?
H-1B visas dominate for research scientists, biostatisticians, and regulatory affairs specialists. O-1 visas are common for distinguished researchers at UW-Madison and established biotech firms. J-1 visas serve postdoctoral researchers, while TN visas work for Canadian and Mexican nationals in qualifying roles. F-1 OPT and STEM OPT extensions are popular entry paths for recent graduates from Wisconsin's universities.
How to find biotech & pharma visa sponsorship jobs in Wisconsin?
Use Migrate Mate to search specifically for Wisconsin biotech and pharmaceutical positions that sponsor work visas. Focus on Madison's University Research Park area where Promega, Exact Sciences, and other major employers cluster. Target Milwaukee for manufacturing and clinical operations roles. Many Wisconsin biotech companies actively recruit international talent due to the specialized skills gap in drug development and clinical research.
Which Wisconsin cities have the most biotech & pharma visa sponsorship opportunities?
Madison leads with the highest concentration, hosting Promega Corporation, Exact Sciences, and numerous University of Wisconsin spin-offs in the Research Park. Milwaukee follows with manufacturing facilities from major pharmaceutical companies. Middleton and Verona, part of Madison's metro area, house growing biotech clusters. Green Bay and Appleton have smaller but emerging life sciences sectors with occasional sponsorship opportunities.
Are prevailing wages competitive for international biotech workers in Wisconsin?
Wisconsin's prevailing wages for biotech roles are generally competitive, especially in Madison where research positions command strong compensation to compete with coastal markets. The state's lower cost of living compared to California or Massachusetts makes these packages attractive. Companies often need to meet or exceed prevailing wage requirements for H-1B sponsorship, which helps ensure competitive compensation for international hires in specialized biotech roles.
What is the prevailing wage for sponsored biotech & pharma jobs in Wisconsin?
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.