Data Science Lead Jobs in USA with Visa Sponsorship
Data Science Lead roles are among the most consistently sponsored positions in the U.S. tech market. Employers regularly file H-1B visa petitions for this title, and O-1A is a viable path for leads with published research or measurable business impact. For detailed occupation requirements, see the O*NET profile.
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Get Access To All JobsABOUT ABBVIE
AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas including immunology, oncology and neuroscience - and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio.
JOB DESCRIPTION
As Data Science and AI Lead overseeing Platform, Governance, and Delivery for Data Science and AI solutions at AbbVie, you will lead a diverse team of data scientists responsible for designing, executing, and scaling data science solutions across the enterprise. Reporting into Operations Business Insights (OBI), you will establish and execute the vision and roadmap for a robust, agile, and compliant data science platform, ensuring strong governance practices and operational excellence in delivering impactful data science to drive innovation, performance, and agility company wide.
Leading a multifaceted team, you will have end-to-end accountability for platform strategy, stakeholder engagement, project delivery, and talent development. You will be expected to set the standard for technical and consulting excellence, foster a culture of continuous learning, and promote effective collaboration within and outside your group, including functional data scientists, business partners, academic collaborators, and technology leaders.
Key Responsibilities:
-
Provide leadership in developing, maintaining, and governing the data science platform to enable secure, scalable, and compliant analytics throughout AbbVie’s global operations, spanning Supply Chain, Quality, Procurement, Manufacturing, and Science & Technology.
-
Oversee the delivery lifecycle from requirements discovery, solution design, and modeling through deployment and monitoring of productionized data science applications, studies, and proofs of concept by leading teams of diverse data scientists and analysts.
-
Lead and champion best practices in data governance, stewardship, and quality, ensuring compliance with regulatory and organizational standards (e.g., GxP, master data management, data lineage, model validation, etc.).
-
Push forward with semantic engineering and agentic engineering, best practices and capability delivery to support more advanced AI use cases. Oversee architects involved in semantic and agentic engineering and solutioning.
-
Develop and promote advanced analytics capability, including supervised/unsupervised machine learning, deep learning, AI/ML platform services, and the enablement of novel AI applications such as RAG and semantic layering for human-in-the-loop systems.
-
Foster strategic partnerships with senior functional leaders, technology stakeholders, and external collaborators to accelerate the transfer of advanced methods into high-value business solutions.
-
Collaborate on group strategy and roadmap, enable cross-functional GenAI initiatives, and serve as a thought leader for education, awareness, and innovation in enterprise data science.
-
Ensure robust consulting, communication, and change management plans are in place to drive adoption of data science solutions at all organizational levels, including executive leadership.
-
Mentor, coach, and develop a diverse team, building a pipeline of talent that can take on increasingly complex projects and lead education initiatives (journal clubs, technical upskilling, peer review, etc.).
QUALIFICATIONS
Required:
- Bachelor's Degree with 9 years’ experience; Master's Degree with 8 years’ experience; PhD with 4 years’ experience.
- Significant experience leading multi-disciplinary teams delivering enterprise-scale data science platforms and applications, preferably in regulated industries such as pharmaceuticals, life sciences, or healthcare operations.
- Deep expertise in data science methods (ML, AI, statistics), modern data engineering (cloud, big data, pipeline orchestration), and business analytics, with mastery of tools such as Python, R, Dataiku, AWS SageMaker, Spark, Tableau, etc.
- Demonstrated ability to define and execute governance frameworks for data quality, master data, model lifecycle management, and regulatory compliance.
- Extensive consulting and stakeholder management experience, including effective communication of complex technical solutions to executive audiences and cross-functional business partners.
- Proven ability to drive innovation (strategy, whitepapers, roadmaps), develop cross-functional partnerships, and lead technology transfer initiatives to embed analytics into core business processes.
- Experience mentoring and growing diverse teams, with a focus on inclusion, equity, and continuous learning.
- Self-driven, highly adaptable, and able to quickly master new domains and tools in response to emerging business or technology trends.
Preferred:
- Experience delivering data science solutions in industry (non-academic settings strongly preferred), with demonstrated progression in leadership roles.
- Experience with data-driven transformation in Quality, Supply Chain, Procurement, or Central Operations within a large pharmaceutical or life sciences organization, and deep understanding of GxP practices.
- Background in technology innovation, MLOps, platform architecture, or boutique/strategy consulting with measurable stakeholder impact.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Applicable only to applicants applying to a position in any location with pay disclosure requirements under state or local law:
-
The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Company believes in good faith it will pay for this role at the time of this posting based on the job grade for this position. Individual compensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location, and we may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future.
-
We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick), medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.
-
This job is eligible to participate in our short-term incentive programs.
Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole and absolute discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole and absolute discretion, consistent with applicable law.
AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives and serving our community. Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled.
US & Puerto Rico only - to learn more, visit
US & Puerto Rico applicants seeking a reasonable accommodation, click here to learn more:
ABOUT ABBVIE
AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas including immunology, oncology and neuroscience - and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio.
JOB DESCRIPTION
As Data Science and AI Lead overseeing Platform, Governance, and Delivery for Data Science and AI solutions at AbbVie, you will lead a diverse team of data scientists responsible for designing, executing, and scaling data science solutions across the enterprise. Reporting into Operations Business Insights (OBI), you will establish and execute the vision and roadmap for a robust, agile, and compliant data science platform, ensuring strong governance practices and operational excellence in delivering impactful data science to drive innovation, performance, and agility company wide.
Leading a multifaceted team, you will have end-to-end accountability for platform strategy, stakeholder engagement, project delivery, and talent development. You will be expected to set the standard for technical and consulting excellence, foster a culture of continuous learning, and promote effective collaboration within and outside your group, including functional data scientists, business partners, academic collaborators, and technology leaders.
Key Responsibilities:
-
Provide leadership in developing, maintaining, and governing the data science platform to enable secure, scalable, and compliant analytics throughout AbbVie’s global operations, spanning Supply Chain, Quality, Procurement, Manufacturing, and Science & Technology.
-
Oversee the delivery lifecycle from requirements discovery, solution design, and modeling through deployment and monitoring of productionized data science applications, studies, and proofs of concept by leading teams of diverse data scientists and analysts.
-
Lead and champion best practices in data governance, stewardship, and quality, ensuring compliance with regulatory and organizational standards (e.g., GxP, master data management, data lineage, model validation, etc.).
-
Push forward with semantic engineering and agentic engineering, best practices and capability delivery to support more advanced AI use cases. Oversee architects involved in semantic and agentic engineering and solutioning.
-
Develop and promote advanced analytics capability, including supervised/unsupervised machine learning, deep learning, AI/ML platform services, and the enablement of novel AI applications such as RAG and semantic layering for human-in-the-loop systems.
-
Foster strategic partnerships with senior functional leaders, technology stakeholders, and external collaborators to accelerate the transfer of advanced methods into high-value business solutions.
-
Collaborate on group strategy and roadmap, enable cross-functional GenAI initiatives, and serve as a thought leader for education, awareness, and innovation in enterprise data science.
-
Ensure robust consulting, communication, and change management plans are in place to drive adoption of data science solutions at all organizational levels, including executive leadership.
-
Mentor, coach, and develop a diverse team, building a pipeline of talent that can take on increasingly complex projects and lead education initiatives (journal clubs, technical upskilling, peer review, etc.).
QUALIFICATIONS
Required:
- Bachelor's Degree with 9 years’ experience; Master's Degree with 8 years’ experience; PhD with 4 years’ experience.
- Significant experience leading multi-disciplinary teams delivering enterprise-scale data science platforms and applications, preferably in regulated industries such as pharmaceuticals, life sciences, or healthcare operations.
- Deep expertise in data science methods (ML, AI, statistics), modern data engineering (cloud, big data, pipeline orchestration), and business analytics, with mastery of tools such as Python, R, Dataiku, AWS SageMaker, Spark, Tableau, etc.
- Demonstrated ability to define and execute governance frameworks for data quality, master data, model lifecycle management, and regulatory compliance.
- Extensive consulting and stakeholder management experience, including effective communication of complex technical solutions to executive audiences and cross-functional business partners.
- Proven ability to drive innovation (strategy, whitepapers, roadmaps), develop cross-functional partnerships, and lead technology transfer initiatives to embed analytics into core business processes.
- Experience mentoring and growing diverse teams, with a focus on inclusion, equity, and continuous learning.
- Self-driven, highly adaptable, and able to quickly master new domains and tools in response to emerging business or technology trends.
Preferred:
- Experience delivering data science solutions in industry (non-academic settings strongly preferred), with demonstrated progression in leadership roles.
- Experience with data-driven transformation in Quality, Supply Chain, Procurement, or Central Operations within a large pharmaceutical or life sciences organization, and deep understanding of GxP practices.
- Background in technology innovation, MLOps, platform architecture, or boutique/strategy consulting with measurable stakeholder impact.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Applicable only to applicants applying to a position in any location with pay disclosure requirements under state or local law:
-
The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Company believes in good faith it will pay for this role at the time of this posting based on the job grade for this position. Individual compensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location, and we may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future.
-
We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick), medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.
-
This job is eligible to participate in our short-term incentive programs.
Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole and absolute discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole and absolute discretion, consistent with applicable law.
AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives and serving our community. Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled.
US & Puerto Rico only - to learn more, visit
US & Puerto Rico applicants seeking a reasonable accommodation, click here to learn more:
See all 1,147+ Data Science Lead jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new Data Science Lead roles.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding Data Science Lead Jobs
Position your degree field carefully on applications
H-1B approval for Data Science Lead requires a degree in a directly related field, statistics, computer science, mathematics, or data science. A business or economics degree alone is unlikely to satisfy the specialty occupation standard for this role.
Document the leadership scope of your role
USCIS scrutinizes Lead-level titles. Your job description should clearly distinguish your responsibilities from individual contributors, team oversight, roadmap ownership, and cross-functional decision-making all support the specialty occupation argument for your petition.
Target employers with a history of H-1B approvals
Not all companies file with equal success. Larger tech employers and established data-driven firms have higher H-1B approval rates for data science roles. Search Migrate Mate to filter for companies actively sponsoring Data Science Lead positions right now.
Consider the O-1A if you have measurable impact
Published research, conference presentations, patents, or documented business outcomes, revenue lifted, models deployed at scale, can support an O-1A petition. This path bypasses the H-1B lottery entirely and suits experienced data science leads well.
Get the LCA job zone right before applying
Data Science Lead sits in O*NET Job Zone 4 or 5, requiring specialized preparation. Employers filing an LCA must certify the prevailing wage tier accurately. Misclassification at the LCA stage is a common early error that can derail the entire petition.
Start employer conversations about sponsorship early
H-1B cap-subject petitions can only be filed in April for an October start. Raising sponsorship late in a hiring process often kills the offer. Bring it up after initial interviews confirm fit, before reaching the offer negotiation stage.
Data Science Lead jobs are hiring across the US. Find yours.
Find Data Science Lead JobsFrequently Asked Questions
Is Data Science Lead a specialty occupation for H-1B purposes?
Yes, when the role requires a bachelor's degree or higher in a specific technical field such as statistics, computer science, or data science. The challenge comes when job postings list degree requirements loosely or accept any quantitative field. USCIS will review the actual duties, the employer's degree requirement history, and industry norms. Roles with vague degree language are more likely to receive a Request for Evidence.
Do employers actually sponsor H-1B visas for Data Science Lead roles?
Yes, data science is one of the most actively sponsored occupation groups in the U.S. technology sector. Lead-level roles with team management components are sponsored regularly by large tech companies, financial institutions, and healthcare analytics firms. Sponsorship is less common at early-stage startups without dedicated HR or legal infrastructure. Browse Migrate Mate to find Data Science Lead positions from employers currently open to visa sponsorship.
What visa options exist for a Data Science Lead beyond the H-1B?
The O-1A is the strongest alternative if you have evidence of extraordinary ability, published papers, speaking engagements, high-impact model deployments, or recognition from peers in the field. The L-1A applies if you're being transferred from an overseas office in a managerial or executive capacity. EB-1C and EB-2 NIW are immigrant visa paths worth discussing with an attorney if you're thinking longer term.
Does my three-year bachelor's degree qualify for H-1B sponsorship as a Data Science Lead?
It can, but it depends on how the employer and USCIS evaluate equivalency. Many H-1B petitions for candidates with three-year degrees, common in India, Australia, and the UK, are approved when the degree is in a directly relevant field and the employer provides an equivalency evaluation. A credential evaluation from a recognized agency strengthens the petition. Combination of degree plus relevant work experience can also satisfy the bachelor's equivalent standard.
How does the H-1B lottery affect Data Science Lead hiring timelines?
Cap-subject H-1B petitions are registered in March, with selection results in late March or early April and filing windows opening April 1 for an October 1 start date. If you're not selected, you cannot start in that cap year. Cap-exempt employers, universities, nonprofit research organizations, and certain affiliated entities, can file year-round, which some data science leads pursue specifically to avoid the lottery.
What is the prevailing wage requirement for sponsored Data Science Lead 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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