Animal Care Technician Jobs in USA with Visa Sponsorship
Animal care technicians can qualify for H-1B visa sponsorship when the role requires a bachelor's degree in veterinary science, animal science, biology, or related field. Research facilities, pharmaceutical companies, and veterinary hospitals are the most common sponsors. The key qualification hurdle is proving the position requires specialized knowledge beyond basic animal care.
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Get Access To All JobsFor 75 years, Charles River employees have worked together to assist in the discovery, development and safe manufacture of new drug therapies. When you join our family, you will have a significant impact on the health and well-being of people across the globe. Whether your background is in life sciences, finance, IT, sales or another area, your skills will play an important role in the work we perform. In return, we’ll help you build a career that you can feel passionate about.
Job Summary
We are seeking an Animal Care Technician in our GEMS Department in San Diego, CA! The Animal Care Technician will learn how and continue to maintain and monitor the health, production, and physical environment of client or Charles River Laboratories (CRL) animals housed at CRL facilities. These environments may include isolators or individual ventilated cages (IVC).
Essential Duties And Responsibilities
- Perform entry-level husbandry tasks, including supplying food, bedding, water and environmental enrichment.
- Maintain rat and mouse colonies, including setting up matings, weaning and sexing of offspring, genetic sampling of animals.
- Handle rodents (mice and rats), including restraining of animals for collection of fecal pellets, ear/tail sampling as well as tagging animals for identification.
- Observe animals for any abnormalities or common health issues.
- Identify and select specific animals for customer shipments, genotyping, health monitoring, matings, transfers or other various tasks as needed.
- Learn, understand, and comply with all Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) with direct supervision and instruction for most processes/tasks.
- Learn and strictly follow all animal welfare standards and biosecurity procedures necessary to maintain isolator integrity and animal health status, including the proper sterilization and entry of supplies/animals into isolators.
- Be detailed-oriented and enter accurate data entry into Internet Colony Management (ICM).
- Ensure compliance with all local, state and federal laws governing the use of research animals.
- Ability to prioritize and execute daily tasks with guidance from supervisor(s).
- Perform general housekeeping and adhere to EHS, safety, and ergonomic procedures.
- General computer skills and ability to quickly learn required computer programs, databases and other applications (i.e. ICM and Microsoft Office).
- Be able to learn to identify issues and communicate to management and learn the importance of our CRL DNA and core values.
- Perform all other related duties as assigned.
Qualifications
- Entry-level, no previous experience required
- AALAS certification at the ALAT or above preferred
- Sufficient computer knowledge to use a tablet computer and communicate using Microsoft Applications
- The ability to develop knowledge of, respect for, and skills to engage with those of other cultures or backgrounds is required.
Physical Demands
- While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand and occasionally ascend/descend a rolling work platform ladder and/or personnel lift to perform husbandry tasks.
- Frequently stand and walk on hard surfaces, twist, bend, stoop, squat, grasp/grip moderately, use fine manipulation. Occasionally sit, kneel, crawl, reach and work above shoulders.
- Perform tablet and/or desk-based computer task and write by hand.
- Lift, carry, push and pull objects up to 40 pounds.
- Position may require repetitive motion.
- Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.
The pay range for this position is $19.50 - $21.00 / hour. Please note that salaries vary within the range based on factors including, but not limited to, experience, skills, education, certifications, and location.
About Research Models & Services
Fundamental to basic research and discovery is the use of in vivo models to help identify disease targets and determine potential biological pathways that regulate the condition. As the world’s leader in the production and distribution of the highest quality research animal, with 1 out of 2 animal models produced for preclinical research globally, we understand the importance of this step. With seven decades of experience, our expertise is unmatched, allowing us to provide you with the perfect model, including disease-specific and preconditioned options, for basic research and beyond.
About Charles River
Charles River is an early-stage contract research organization (CRO). We have built upon our foundation of laboratory animal medicine and science to develop a diverse portfolio of discovery and safety assessment services, both Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and non-GLP, to support clients from target identification through preclinical development. Charles River also provides a suite of products and services to support our clients’ clinical laboratory testing needs and manufacturing activities. Utilizing this broad portfolio of products and services enables our clients to create a more flexible drug development model, which reduces their costs, enhances their productivity and effectiveness to increase speed to market. With over 20,000 employees within 110 facilities in over 20 countries around the globe, we are strategically positioned to coordinate worldwide resources and apply multidisciplinary perspectives in resolving our client’s unique challenges. Our client base includes global pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, government agencies and hospitals and academic institutions around the world. At Charles River, we are passionate about our role in improving the quality of people’s lives. Our mission, our excellent science and our strong sense of purpose guide us in all that we do, and we approach each day with the knowledge that our work helps to improve the health and well-being of many across the globe. We have proudly worked on 80% of the drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the past five years.
We’re committed to providing benefits that elevate your quality of life. Based on your position these may include: bonus/incentives based on performance, 401K, paid time off, stock purchase program, Health and wellness coverage, employee and family wellbeing support programs, and work life balance flexibility.
Equal Employment Opportunity
Charles River is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all qualified applicants and employees without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, mental or physical disability, family status, pregnancy, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. It is unlawful in some states (including Massachusetts) to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability. If you are interested in applying to Charles River Laboratories and need special assistance or an accommodation due to a disability to complete any forms or to otherwise participate in the resume submission process, please contact a member of our Human Resources team by sending an e-mail message to crrecruitment_US@crl.com. This contact is for accommodation requests for individuals with disabilities only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications. For more information, please visit www.criver.com.
For 75 years, Charles River employees have worked together to assist in the discovery, development and safe manufacture of new drug therapies. When you join our family, you will have a significant impact on the health and well-being of people across the globe. Whether your background is in life sciences, finance, IT, sales or another area, your skills will play an important role in the work we perform. In return, we’ll help you build a career that you can feel passionate about.
Job Summary
We are seeking an Animal Care Technician in our GEMS Department in San Diego, CA! The Animal Care Technician will learn how and continue to maintain and monitor the health, production, and physical environment of client or Charles River Laboratories (CRL) animals housed at CRL facilities. These environments may include isolators or individual ventilated cages (IVC).
Essential Duties And Responsibilities
- Perform entry-level husbandry tasks, including supplying food, bedding, water and environmental enrichment.
- Maintain rat and mouse colonies, including setting up matings, weaning and sexing of offspring, genetic sampling of animals.
- Handle rodents (mice and rats), including restraining of animals for collection of fecal pellets, ear/tail sampling as well as tagging animals for identification.
- Observe animals for any abnormalities or common health issues.
- Identify and select specific animals for customer shipments, genotyping, health monitoring, matings, transfers or other various tasks as needed.
- Learn, understand, and comply with all Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) with direct supervision and instruction for most processes/tasks.
- Learn and strictly follow all animal welfare standards and biosecurity procedures necessary to maintain isolator integrity and animal health status, including the proper sterilization and entry of supplies/animals into isolators.
- Be detailed-oriented and enter accurate data entry into Internet Colony Management (ICM).
- Ensure compliance with all local, state and federal laws governing the use of research animals.
- Ability to prioritize and execute daily tasks with guidance from supervisor(s).
- Perform general housekeeping and adhere to EHS, safety, and ergonomic procedures.
- General computer skills and ability to quickly learn required computer programs, databases and other applications (i.e. ICM and Microsoft Office).
- Be able to learn to identify issues and communicate to management and learn the importance of our CRL DNA and core values.
- Perform all other related duties as assigned.
Qualifications
- Entry-level, no previous experience required
- AALAS certification at the ALAT or above preferred
- Sufficient computer knowledge to use a tablet computer and communicate using Microsoft Applications
- The ability to develop knowledge of, respect for, and skills to engage with those of other cultures or backgrounds is required.
Physical Demands
- While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand and occasionally ascend/descend a rolling work platform ladder and/or personnel lift to perform husbandry tasks.
- Frequently stand and walk on hard surfaces, twist, bend, stoop, squat, grasp/grip moderately, use fine manipulation. Occasionally sit, kneel, crawl, reach and work above shoulders.
- Perform tablet and/or desk-based computer task and write by hand.
- Lift, carry, push and pull objects up to 40 pounds.
- Position may require repetitive motion.
- Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.
The pay range for this position is $19.50 - $21.00 / hour. Please note that salaries vary within the range based on factors including, but not limited to, experience, skills, education, certifications, and location.
About Research Models & Services
Fundamental to basic research and discovery is the use of in vivo models to help identify disease targets and determine potential biological pathways that regulate the condition. As the world’s leader in the production and distribution of the highest quality research animal, with 1 out of 2 animal models produced for preclinical research globally, we understand the importance of this step. With seven decades of experience, our expertise is unmatched, allowing us to provide you with the perfect model, including disease-specific and preconditioned options, for basic research and beyond.
About Charles River
Charles River is an early-stage contract research organization (CRO). We have built upon our foundation of laboratory animal medicine and science to develop a diverse portfolio of discovery and safety assessment services, both Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and non-GLP, to support clients from target identification through preclinical development. Charles River also provides a suite of products and services to support our clients’ clinical laboratory testing needs and manufacturing activities. Utilizing this broad portfolio of products and services enables our clients to create a more flexible drug development model, which reduces their costs, enhances their productivity and effectiveness to increase speed to market. With over 20,000 employees within 110 facilities in over 20 countries around the globe, we are strategically positioned to coordinate worldwide resources and apply multidisciplinary perspectives in resolving our client’s unique challenges. Our client base includes global pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, government agencies and hospitals and academic institutions around the world. At Charles River, we are passionate about our role in improving the quality of people’s lives. Our mission, our excellent science and our strong sense of purpose guide us in all that we do, and we approach each day with the knowledge that our work helps to improve the health and well-being of many across the globe. We have proudly worked on 80% of the drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the past five years.
We’re committed to providing benefits that elevate your quality of life. Based on your position these may include: bonus/incentives based on performance, 401K, paid time off, stock purchase program, Health and wellness coverage, employee and family wellbeing support programs, and work life balance flexibility.
Equal Employment Opportunity
Charles River is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all qualified applicants and employees without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, mental or physical disability, family status, pregnancy, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. It is unlawful in some states (including Massachusetts) to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability. If you are interested in applying to Charles River Laboratories and need special assistance or an accommodation due to a disability to complete any forms or to otherwise participate in the resume submission process, please contact a member of our Human Resources team by sending an e-mail message to crrecruitment_US@crl.com. This contact is for accommodation requests for individuals with disabilities only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications. For more information, please visit www.criver.com.
How to Get Visa Sponsorship as an Animal Care Technician
Target research-focused employers
Pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms, and university research facilities are more likely to sponsor because they need specialized animal care protocols and regulatory compliance expertise that qualifies as specialty occupation work.
Emphasize your scientific background
Highlight coursework in animal physiology, laboratory procedures, research methodology, and regulatory compliance. These technical skills differentiate you from general animal caretakers and strengthen the specialty occupation argument.
Focus on laboratory animal care
Positions involving laboratory animals for research purposes have stronger sponsorship prospects than general veterinary assistant roles because they require knowledge of research protocols, IACUC compliance, and specialized handling techniques.
Document your degree relevance
Your bachelor's degree must directly relate to the role. Animal science, biology, veterinary technology, or zoology degrees work best. Unrelated degrees may require additional certifications or significant relevant experience.
Consider veterinary school pathways
Some employers sponsor animal care technicians who are completing or planning veterinary school. This demonstrates career progression and justifies the specialized nature of the role to USCIS adjudicators.
Look for compliance-heavy environments
Facilities subject to USDA, FDA, or NIH oversight need technicians who understand regulatory requirements. These compliance responsibilities help justify the specialty occupation classification for visa purposes.
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Get Access To All JobsFrequently Asked Questions
Do animal care technicians qualify for H-1B sponsorship?
Yes, but only when the role requires a bachelor's degree in a specialized field like veterinary science, animal science, or biology. The position must involve technical duties beyond basic animal care, such as research protocols, laboratory procedures, or regulatory compliance. General animal caretaker roles typically don't qualify.
What degree do I need for visa sponsorship as an animal care technician?
You need a bachelor's degree in animal science, veterinary science, biology, zoology, or a closely related field. The degree must directly relate to the job duties. Some employers may accept veterinary technology degrees or biology degrees with relevant laboratory experience and additional certifications.
Which employers sponsor animal care technicians for work visas?
Research institutions, pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms, and university laboratories are the primary sponsors. These employers need technicians with specialized knowledge of research protocols, animal husbandry science, and regulatory compliance. Veterinary clinics and pet care facilities rarely sponsor unless they conduct research.
What makes an animal care technician role qualify as a specialty occupation?
The role must require specialized knowledge in areas like research methodology, laboratory animal medicine, regulatory compliance, or advanced animal husbandry techniques. Duties should include protocol development, data collection, equipment operation, or ensuring compliance with IACUC, USDA, or FDA regulations rather than just feeding and cleaning.
Can I get sponsored without veterinary school experience?
Yes, a relevant bachelor's degree with laboratory or research experience can be sufficient. However, employers often prefer candidates with some veterinary coursework, research experience, or certifications like AALAS. Demonstrating knowledge of laboratory animal care standards and regulatory requirements strengthens your sponsorship case significantly.
What is the prevailing wage requirement for sponsored Animal Care Technician jobs?
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.
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