Six ways to start here, and only two of them need a science degree
Internships and co-ops, rotational graduate programmes, a two-year paid apprenticeship with no degree requirement, post-doctoral fellowships, and a returnship for people coming back from a career break. Around 360 people joined us through one of these routes last year.
Twelve weeks on a real project, not a photocopier
Every intern owns a defined piece of work with a named manager, a named buddy from the GENESIS ERG, and a presentation at the end that people senior to you actually attend.
- When
- Summer programme runs the first week of June to the last week of August. Applications open 1 September and close 15 November; offers go out on a rolling basis from October, so early applications genuinely help.
- Pay
- $28–$34 an hour for undergraduates by year of study, $38–$42 for graduate students. Paid weekly. Overtime paid where applicable.
- Housing
- A $6,000 stipend for interns relocating more than 50 miles, plus help finding housing near Cambridge, Devens, Bloomington, RTP and Boulder.
- Where
- All six US sites. Roughly 40% of placements are in manufacturing, quality and supply chain — the area students most often overlook and where conversion to full-time is highest.
- Co-ops
- Six-month placements, January–June or July–December, mainly at Devens, Bloomington and Boulder. Structured for Northeastern, Drexel, Purdue, Rochester and Cincinnati co-op calendars, but open to any programme.
- Who can apply
- Any student enrolled in an undergraduate, graduate or associate programme, in any subject where you can make the case. We do not screen on GPA and we do not ask for one.
- Week 1 — induction, site tour, safety and GMP training, meet your buddy, agree your project scope in writing
- Weeks 2–10 — the work, with a weekly one-to-one and a mid-point review that is designed to change the project if it is not going anywhere
- Throughout — a speaker series (our CEO does one, unscripted, and takes any question), plant tours at Devens, a patient story session, and a lot of ice cream
- Week 11 — the intern symposium: eight-minute talks, a real audience, and the Amber Award for best poster, which is a lump of resin on a plinth and is fought over like an Olympic medal
- Week 12 — handover, career conversation, and for penultimate-year students, return offers
Interns are eligible for the wellbeing stipend on a prorated basis, the mental health benefit from day one, and every site facility.
InGen Launch: two years, three rotations, one permanent role at the end
Five tracks, 46 places a year. You rotate through three eight-month placements, then land in a permanent role at grade 6 that you and the programme committee choose together. 88% of Launch graduates are still with us at their four-year mark.
Manufacturing Leadership
Rotations across drug substance, drug product and process engineering, including one full rotation on shift. Ends in supervision, MSAT or engineering. Open to engineering, chemistry, biology and biotechnology graduates.
Quality Rotational
QC analytical, QC microbiology, QA on-the-floor and validation. Includes ASQ certification funded and studied during working hours.
Data Science Fellows
Computational biology, clinical data engineering and commercial analytics. Strong preference for people who can explain a model to someone who does not want one.
Commercial Leadership
Field sales, market access and brand marketing, with a patient services rotation that everyone says changes how they sell.
Finance & Business Operations
FP&A, manufacturing cost accounting and business development. Professional qualification (CIMA, ACCA, CPA) fully funded with study leave.
How to apply
Applications open 1 September and close 30 November for the following September start. Process: application, a 20-minute recorded interview, then a virtual assessment centre in January — a group exercise, a case, and two conversations. Offers by mid-February. No aptitude tests, no gamified assessments.
The Bio-Ops Apprenticeship
Two years, paid from day one, a nationally recognised credential at the end, and a permanent job. No degree, no laboratory experience, no science background required.
Registered with the US Department of Labor, run at Bloomington and Devens, with 24 apprentices taken each year across three specialisms: manufacturing operations, quality control laboratory and maintenance and calibration.
- What you earn
- A full InGen salary from week one, starting at grade 3 with two scheduled increases at month 9 and month 18, reaching grade 5 on completion. Full benefits from day one — the same package as everyone else.
- What you learn
- Roughly 20% classroom, 80% on the job. Coursework is delivered with Ivy Tech (Bloomington) and Mount Wachusett (Devens), on work time, with tuition paid. You finish with an associate degree if you want one, and a DOL certificate either way.
- Who it is for
- Anyone 18 or over with a high school diploma or equivalent and the right to work. We hire career changers, parents returning to work, transitioning service members and people straight out of school. The average age of our apprentices is 31.
- GI Bill
- As a registered apprenticeship, GI Bill on-the-job training benefits may apply on top of your InGen wage. Our people team handles the certifying paperwork.
- Where it leads
- 96% of apprentices who complete are offered a permanent role, and 97% of those accept. Four graduates of the first cohort are now shift supervisors.
- Applying
- Two intakes a year, February and September. Applications open ten weeks before. Selection is a conversation, a practical aptitude session and a site visit — there is no written test.
I did 14 years in retail pharmacy before the Bio-Ops Apprenticeship. Two years of paid training, no degree required, and I came out a qualified QC analyst. My kid watched me do homework at the kitchen table for two years, which I think was the real point.
Marcus O.QC Analyst II, Microbiology · Bloomington, IN · apprentice cohort 2023
Transitioning from the military?
You may be better served by a 12-week SkillBridge fellowship while still on active duty, which converts to a full-time offer 78% of the time, or by applying directly to a technician role using our skill translation table.
Industry post-docs that publish
Eight fellows a year, three-year fellowships, at Cambridge, San Diego and Boulder.
The deal: you work on a question that matters to our pipeline and is publishable, with a joint InGen and academic supervisor. You are expected to publish — our fellows have averaged 2.4 first-author papers per fellowship — and to present at two external conferences a year, funded.
- Full employee salary and benefits, not a stipend — typically $95,000–$110,000
- Dedicated research budget of $40,000 a year, controlled by you
- Access to our screening, structural and single-cell platforms
- Formal mentoring, plus a career committee that meets twice a year
- Around 60% of fellows convert to a Scientist role; we help place the rest, including in academia, and we say so upfront
Applications are reviewed twice a year, in March and September.
Coming back after a break
A 16-week paid returnship for people who have been out of the workforce for two years or more — caregiving, health, relocation, military service, redundancy, or a straightforwardly different life.
- 20 places a year, twice yearly intakes in March and September
- Paid at the full rate for the role, at grades 6–10
- Available in clinical, quality, data, finance, regulatory and commercial functions
- Structured refresher training, a mentor, and a peer cohort that stays in touch long after
- Flexible or part-time schedules available for the whole 16 weeks
- 81% converted to permanent roles across the last three cohorts
We do not care how long the gap is and we do not ask you to explain it in your application.
Coming from another industry
Food and beverage, semiconductor, aerospace, nuclear, water treatment and defence manufacturing all transfer unusually well into GMP operations. So do teaching, nursing and retail pharmacy into quality and clinical roles. If your background is on that list, apply directly to the role and say so in the first line.
The learning does not stop at the programme's end
$12,000 a year tuition
Undergraduate or graduate, paid up front where possible, no repayment clause after 12 months. Details.
Certifications funded
ASQ, APICS, PMP, Six Sigma, SOCRA, ACRP and state EHS licences — fees and study time.
40 hours protected
Learning time written into everyone's annual objectives, not squeezed around them.
Mentoring at scale
1,900 active mentoring pairs, plus reverse mentoring run by the GENESIS early-career ERG.
Applying to more than one programme? That is fine and it is common. Tell your recruiter and they will coordinate rather than letting two processes run into each other. Email earlycareers@ingenbiotech.example with any question, including "is this programme actually for someone like me" — we get that one a lot and we always answer it honestly.
Start where you are
Internships open 1 September. Apprenticeship intakes are February and September. ReLaunch runs in March and September. SkillBridge cohorts start in January, April, July and October.