Principal Scientist Jobs in USA with Visa Sponsorship
Principal Scientist positions commonly qualify for H-1B visa, O-1 visa, and EB-2 visa sponsorship due to their advanced degree requirements and specialized research expertise. Companies like Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Genentech regularly sponsor these roles. The position typically requires a PhD in life sciences, chemistry, or related fields, making visa approval rates favorable given the clear specialty occupation criteria.
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Get Access To All JobsAt Expedia Group, we help travelers explore the world, one journey at a time. As a global travel company powered by passionate people, trusted partnerships, and leading technology, we connect travelers, partners, and advertisers through our consumer brands, B2B network, and travel advertising business.
Here, you'll do meaningful work that helps millions of people discover, book, and experience travel with more ease, confidence, and joy. Our five Behaviors - Traveler First, Think Big, Operate with Excellence, Ownership Mindset, and Succeed Together - help foster a supportive environment where people can grow their careers and have the flexibility, benefits, and support to do their best work. Join us and build for travelers everywhere.
Introduction to the Team:
Our Technology Team partners with teams across Expedia Group to create innovative products, services, and tools to deliver high-quality experiences for travelers, partners, and our employees. A singular technology platform powered by data and machine learning provides secure, differentiated, and personalized experiences that drive loyalty and traveler satisfaction.
The Traveler Discovery & Planning team at Expedia is at the forefront of innovation in AI-driven agentic systems. We're dedicated to enhancing customer experiences, increasing engagement, and strengthening traveler relationships through cutting-edge machine learning solutions. Our work directly impacts millions of travelers worldwide, shaping their journey from dreaming to booking and beyond.
Join a team that’s focused on Agentic Experiences revolutionizing traveler experiences through autonomous, intelligent agent systems. From building cutting-edge conversational AI that anticipates traveler needs to developing proactive solutions for personalized trip planning, your work will shape the future of travel assistance and directly impact millions of users worldwide. This is a rare opportunity to build foundational systems in a high-impact domain, backed by Expedia’s AI-first vision.
In this role, you will:
- Design, build, and evaluate multi-step agentic AI systems, including autonomous agents capable of planning, tool use, memory management, and multi-agent collaboration
- Research and implement state-of-the-art techniques in agentic architectures, such as ReAct, reflection loops, chain-of-thought prompting, and tool-augmented reasoning
- Develop and maintain agent orchestration frameworks, defining how agents decompose tasks, delegate to sub-agents, and handle failure and recovery
- Integrate large language models (LLMs) with external tools, APIs, databases, and code execution environments to enable real-world task completion
- Define and own evaluation frameworks for agentic systems, measuring task success, reliability, latency, cost, and safety across diverse benchmarks and production scenarios
- Lead collaboration with product, engineering, and research teams to translate business requirements into agentic system designs and deliver production-grade solutions
- Identify and mitigate risks specific to agentic systems, including prompt injection, unintended actions, hallucination in long-horizon tasks, and unsafe tool use
- Stay current with the rapidly evolving agentic AI landscape, synthesizing academic research and industry developments to inform the team's technical direction
- Mentor senior ML engineers and scientists, providing technical guidance on agentic design patterns, LLM best practices, and experimentation methodology
Minimum Qualifications:
- BS in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Engineering, or a related field; or equivalent professional experience
- 10+ years of related industry experience
- Demonstrated experience designing and deploying agentic or multi-step AI systems (e.g., ReAct, tool-calling agents, multi-agent pipelines) in production or research settings
- Strong proficiency in Python and ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX); experience with LLM APIs and orchestration libraries (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex, or similar)
- Experience integrating LLMs with external tools, APIs, and structured data sources for real-world task completion
- Solid understanding of prompt engineering techniques including chain-of-thought, few-shot prompting, and structured output generation
- Experience defining and running evaluation frameworks for ML systems, including offline benchmarking and production monitoring
- Experience taking models from prototype to production in collaboration with Machine Learning Engineering teams
Preferred Qualifications:
- Advanced degree (PhD or MS) in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Engineering
- Experience in the travel or e-commerce industry
- Publications in top-tier ML conferences or journals
- Patented Inventions, pending and issued
- Contributions to open-source ML projects
The total cash range for this position in Seattle is $224,000.00 to $313,500.00. Employees in this role have the potential to increase their pay up to $358,500.00, which is the top of the range, based on ongoing, demonstrated, and sustained performance in the role. The total cash range for this position in San Jose is $242,000.00 to $338,500.00. Employees in this role have the potential to increase their pay up to $387,000.00, which is the top of the range, based on ongoing, demonstrated, and sustained performance in the role.
Starting pay for this role will vary based on multiple factors, including location, available budget, and an individual’s knowledge, skills, and experience. Pay ranges may be modified in the future.
Benefits and perks
Expedia Group offers benefits and perks designed to support employees and their families, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, paid time off, an Employee Assistance Program, wellness and travel reimbursement, travel discounts, and International Airlines Travel Agent Network (IATAN) membership. Learn more about life at Expedia Group at https://careers.expediagroup.com/life.
Accommodation requests
Expedia Group is committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruiting experience. If you need an accommodation or adjustment due to a disability during the application or recruiting process, please submit a request at https://expedia.service-now.com/askeg?id=job_accommodation.
About Expedia Group
Expedia Group includes three flagship consumer brands - Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo - along with a leading B2B travel business and travel advertising offerings. Across our brands and business, we help travelers explore the world with confidence and ease.
Important notice
Employment opportunities and job offers at Expedia Group will always come from Expedia Group's Talent Acquisition and hiring teams. Never share sensitive personal information unless you are confident of the recipient. Expedia Group does not extend job offers via email or messaging tools to individuals with whom we have not made prior contact. Our email domain is @expediagroup.com. The official place to find and apply for roles is https://careers.expediagroup.com/jobs/.
Equal Opportunity
Expedia is committed to creating an inclusive work environment with a diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. This employer participates in E-Verify. The employer will provide the Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with information from each new employee's I-9 to confirm work authorization.
At Expedia Group, we help travelers explore the world, one journey at a time. As a global travel company powered by passionate people, trusted partnerships, and leading technology, we connect travelers, partners, and advertisers through our consumer brands, B2B network, and travel advertising business.
Here, you'll do meaningful work that helps millions of people discover, book, and experience travel with more ease, confidence, and joy. Our five Behaviors - Traveler First, Think Big, Operate with Excellence, Ownership Mindset, and Succeed Together - help foster a supportive environment where people can grow their careers and have the flexibility, benefits, and support to do their best work. Join us and build for travelers everywhere.
Introduction to the Team:
Our Technology Team partners with teams across Expedia Group to create innovative products, services, and tools to deliver high-quality experiences for travelers, partners, and our employees. A singular technology platform powered by data and machine learning provides secure, differentiated, and personalized experiences that drive loyalty and traveler satisfaction.
The Traveler Discovery & Planning team at Expedia is at the forefront of innovation in AI-driven agentic systems. We're dedicated to enhancing customer experiences, increasing engagement, and strengthening traveler relationships through cutting-edge machine learning solutions. Our work directly impacts millions of travelers worldwide, shaping their journey from dreaming to booking and beyond.
Join a team that’s focused on Agentic Experiences revolutionizing traveler experiences through autonomous, intelligent agent systems. From building cutting-edge conversational AI that anticipates traveler needs to developing proactive solutions for personalized trip planning, your work will shape the future of travel assistance and directly impact millions of users worldwide. This is a rare opportunity to build foundational systems in a high-impact domain, backed by Expedia’s AI-first vision.
In this role, you will:
- Design, build, and evaluate multi-step agentic AI systems, including autonomous agents capable of planning, tool use, memory management, and multi-agent collaboration
- Research and implement state-of-the-art techniques in agentic architectures, such as ReAct, reflection loops, chain-of-thought prompting, and tool-augmented reasoning
- Develop and maintain agent orchestration frameworks, defining how agents decompose tasks, delegate to sub-agents, and handle failure and recovery
- Integrate large language models (LLMs) with external tools, APIs, databases, and code execution environments to enable real-world task completion
- Define and own evaluation frameworks for agentic systems, measuring task success, reliability, latency, cost, and safety across diverse benchmarks and production scenarios
- Lead collaboration with product, engineering, and research teams to translate business requirements into agentic system designs and deliver production-grade solutions
- Identify and mitigate risks specific to agentic systems, including prompt injection, unintended actions, hallucination in long-horizon tasks, and unsafe tool use
- Stay current with the rapidly evolving agentic AI landscape, synthesizing academic research and industry developments to inform the team's technical direction
- Mentor senior ML engineers and scientists, providing technical guidance on agentic design patterns, LLM best practices, and experimentation methodology
Minimum Qualifications:
- BS in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Engineering, or a related field; or equivalent professional experience
- 10+ years of related industry experience
- Demonstrated experience designing and deploying agentic or multi-step AI systems (e.g., ReAct, tool-calling agents, multi-agent pipelines) in production or research settings
- Strong proficiency in Python and ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX); experience with LLM APIs and orchestration libraries (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex, or similar)
- Experience integrating LLMs with external tools, APIs, and structured data sources for real-world task completion
- Solid understanding of prompt engineering techniques including chain-of-thought, few-shot prompting, and structured output generation
- Experience defining and running evaluation frameworks for ML systems, including offline benchmarking and production monitoring
- Experience taking models from prototype to production in collaboration with Machine Learning Engineering teams
Preferred Qualifications:
- Advanced degree (PhD or MS) in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Engineering
- Experience in the travel or e-commerce industry
- Publications in top-tier ML conferences or journals
- Patented Inventions, pending and issued
- Contributions to open-source ML projects
The total cash range for this position in Seattle is $224,000.00 to $313,500.00. Employees in this role have the potential to increase their pay up to $358,500.00, which is the top of the range, based on ongoing, demonstrated, and sustained performance in the role. The total cash range for this position in San Jose is $242,000.00 to $338,500.00. Employees in this role have the potential to increase their pay up to $387,000.00, which is the top of the range, based on ongoing, demonstrated, and sustained performance in the role.
Starting pay for this role will vary based on multiple factors, including location, available budget, and an individual’s knowledge, skills, and experience. Pay ranges may be modified in the future.
Benefits and perks
Expedia Group offers benefits and perks designed to support employees and their families, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, paid time off, an Employee Assistance Program, wellness and travel reimbursement, travel discounts, and International Airlines Travel Agent Network (IATAN) membership. Learn more about life at Expedia Group at https://careers.expediagroup.com/life.
Accommodation requests
Expedia Group is committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruiting experience. If you need an accommodation or adjustment due to a disability during the application or recruiting process, please submit a request at https://expedia.service-now.com/askeg?id=job_accommodation.
About Expedia Group
Expedia Group includes three flagship consumer brands - Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo - along with a leading B2B travel business and travel advertising offerings. Across our brands and business, we help travelers explore the world with confidence and ease.
Important notice
Employment opportunities and job offers at Expedia Group will always come from Expedia Group's Talent Acquisition and hiring teams. Never share sensitive personal information unless you are confident of the recipient. Expedia Group does not extend job offers via email or messaging tools to individuals with whom we have not made prior contact. Our email domain is @expediagroup.com. The official place to find and apply for roles is https://careers.expediagroup.com/jobs/.
Equal Opportunity
Expedia is committed to creating an inclusive work environment with a diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. This employer participates in E-Verify. The employer will provide the Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with information from each new employee's I-9 to confirm work authorization.
See all 1,152+ Principal Scientist Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new Principal Scientist roles.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding Visa Sponsorship as a Principal Scientist
Target pharmaceutical and biotech companies with established visa programs
Large pharma companies like Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Moderna have dedicated immigration teams and regularly sponsor Principal Scientists for H-1B and other work visas.
Highlight your PhD and specialized research expertise in applications
Principal Scientist roles require advanced scientific training that clearly meets specialty occupation requirements, making visa approval more straightforward than generalist positions.
Consider O-1 if you have publications, patents, or peer review experience
Principal Scientists with significant research publications, patent filings, or peer review work may qualify for O-1 extraordinary ability visas with faster processing.
Research companies' pipeline and therapeutic areas before applying
Demonstrating knowledge of a company's specific drug development programs or therapeutic focus areas shows genuine interest and increases sponsorship likelihood.
Leverage industry conferences and professional networks for connections
Scientific conferences like AACR or BIO provide networking opportunities with hiring managers who understand visa sponsorship processes in pharmaceutical research.
Consider contract-to-hire positions as visa sponsorship pathways
Many biotech companies start Principal Scientists as contractors through agencies, then sponsor for permanent positions once they prove their research value.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Principal Scientist positions qualify for H-1B sponsorship?
Yes, Principal Scientist roles consistently qualify for H-1B visa sponsorship because they require specialized knowledge in life sciences, chemistry, or related fields that directly corresponds to advanced degree requirements. The PhD requirement makes specialty occupation criteria straightforward to demonstrate.
What degree do I need for visa sponsorship as a Principal Scientist?
Most employers require a PhD in life sciences, chemistry, biology, biochemistry, or related scientific field for Principal Scientist positions. Some companies accept a Master's degree with 8+ years of relevant research experience, but PhD holders have stronger visa cases.
Can Principal Scientists get O-1 visas instead of H-1B?
Principal Scientists with significant research achievements may qualify for O-1 extraordinary ability visas. Strong indicators include first-author publications in high-impact journals, patent filings, peer review experience, or recognition through scientific awards or speaking engagements at major conferences.
Which companies commonly sponsor Principal Scientists for work visas?
Large pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Bristol Myers Squibb regularly sponsor Principal Scientists. Major biotech firms including Genentech, Gilead, Moderna, and Biogen also have established visa sponsorship programs for senior research roles.
How to find Principal Scientist jobs with visa sponsorship?
Use Migrate Mate to find Principal Scientist positions with visa sponsorship at biotech companies, pharmaceutical firms, and research institutions. These roles typically qualify for H-1B, O-1, or EB-2 visas given their specialized nature. Focus your search on companies with established R&D departments that regularly sponsor international talent for senior scientific positions requiring advanced degrees and extensive research experience.
How does research experience abroad help with visa applications?
International research experience demonstrates specialized knowledge and can strengthen visa applications, especially if it involved unique methodologies or collaborations. Postdoc positions at prestigious international institutions or experience with region-specific diseases or populations can differentiate candidates in competitive sponsorship processes.
What is the prevailing wage requirement for sponsored Principal Scientist 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.