By Ragoo Raghunathan

Living in the suburbs of Boston, we may not realize that there are plenty of organizations right here near our India Society of Worcester – in the biotech, pharma, IT, medical and digital healthcare industries. One such Global company – Charles River Labs (CRL) – is situated very close to our India Center in Shrewsbury. I recently talked to Spencer Streeter, one of their HR Business Partners who alerted us to the fact that they are actively hiring during these COVID times. Being in the biotech service industry myself, I realized that CRL has been an invaluable partner to many pharmaceutical companies around the world with their pre-clinical study support during the process of drug development.

Here is an excerpt of our conversation. Feel free to reach out directly to Spencer at spencer.streeter@crl.com, or apply through their website (www.criver.com) if you find any position interesting.

1. What are some of the achievements of CRL, either overall or during COVID times? 

At Charles River, we are passionate about our role in improving the quality of people’s lives. This year we are currently working with approximately 60 different companies on a Covid Vaccine or different Immunotherapies. We approach each day with the knowledge that our work helps to improve the health and well-being of many across the globe. In 2019, we supported ~85% of drugs approved by the FDA, a significant accomplishment that makes us all proud to be part of this remarkable team. Every role at Charles River matters to the thousands of clients and millions of patients around the globe. We strive to be the difference for our clients, colleagues, animals, and partners.

2. What are some of the fields/areas of expertise you are hiring in? 

We are looking to hire in a variety of areas including Biology, Bioanalytical Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Immunology, Immunochemistry, Pathology, Histology, and Clinical Pathology.

3. Apart from full time jobs, are there opportunities for summer internships and volunteer positions for high school students, and for young professionals seeking to change their field of expertise?

We do offer summer internships.  Due to Covid-19, there is uncertainty right now around how many and what sites will have them.  When Internships become available, they will be posted on our career page at www.criver.com.   Our internships are structured, and the students are given a project to work on during their time with CRL.  At the end of the internship, they are asked to give a presentation to the scientific staff they worked with, to discuss what went right, what didn’t work, and what they learned from the experience.  Our internships are paid, and the individual must be actively enrolled in college courses.  Unfortunately, because of the nature of our work, and legal requirements, we do not offer volunteer positions for high school students.  

4. Are you open to sponsoring work permit visas (J1, H1, O1) for immigrant students/candidates?

For PhD level positions, we are open to sponsoring employees.  We are also fine to hire interns that are on student visas through their universities.

5. What are some of your involvements (if any) in the local community or town? 

Each site has different activities they perform in the community.  Last year, each site worked with Feed America to pack meals for the hungry.  As a company, we packed over 1 million meals.  Due to Covid-19, we were not able to pack the meals this year, but plan to do so again in the future.  In 2020, we also, as a company donated 2 million dollars to our local communities.  Each site was given a portion of those funds, and a committee at the local level was formed to determine which non-profits in the community would be awarded those funds.