About the role
About Us
We're Queue, the world's first fully autonomous robotic pharmacy. We go from sealed wholesale bottles to filled, verified prescription vials with zero human involvement.
We built Queue because no one should ever have to wait in line for the medicines they need. One in three US pharmacies has shut down. Pharmacists are overworked to a breaking point. And patients are paying the price. Queue fixes that. Pharmacists get to practice pharmacy again — counseling patients, catching interactions, doing the work only they can do. And patients get their prescriptions in 60 seconds or less, any time, anywhere.
We’re backed by over $18 million from Alleycorp, Riot Ventures, Ubiquity Ventures, House Capital, and others who believe the pharmacy system is broken and that robotics can fix it. Queue was founded by Nick Desai (6x founder, previously CEO of Heal) and Joshua Liu (previously Tesla, Waymo, and Zipline).
About the Role
As Senior/Staff Engineer, you'll architect and lead the mechanical design and manufacturing strategy of critical system(s). This isn't just another mechanical engineering role, you'll be building complex electromechanical systems that handle medications with pharmaceutical-grade precision, designing for both high and low volume production, and scaling a patent-pending robotics platform from prototype to nationwide deployment in the tens of thousands of units.
What makes this role extraordinary
Direct impact on millions of patients through breakthrough pharmacy automation with the opportunity to design complex mechanisms from the ground up and scale to production while working at the intersection of precision robotics, computer vision, and healthcare automation.
Complex Electromechanical Systems:
- Design sophisticated mechanisms for high-speed, high-accuracy medication dispensing
- Develop systems capable of managing hundreds of different medications
- Create pharmaceutical-grade precision systems that operate reliably 24/7
- Engineer solutions that enable prescriptions to fill as fast as using an ATM
Design for Scale and Production:
- Lead Design for X (DFx) strategy for low- and high-volume production methods
- Drive the transition from prototypes to production-ready systems, scaling to over 4,000 units annually
- Establish supplier and manufacturing partnerships for complex components and assemblies
- Implement cost-reduction initiatives and create comprehensive build-to-print documentation for repeatable, cost-effective production at scale
Ground-Up Product Development
- Own mechanical architecture from initial concept through production release while balancing innovation with practical manufacturability
- Design systems for serviceability, reliability, and maintainability in field deployment
- Integrate mechanical systems seamlessly with robotics, computer vision, AI, and compute
- Ensure compliance with healthcare regulations and pharmaceutical handling requirements
Test, Validation & Quality
- Lead design verification and validation (DVT) activities; establishing comprehensive test and validation protocols for mission-critical healthcare systems
- Implement reliability testing programs to ensure 99.99%+ uptime in pharmacy environments
- Create failure mode analysis (FMEA) and risk mitigation strategies
- Drive continuous improvement through field data analysis and iterative design refinement
Required Qualifications and Experiences
We don’t care about your degrees. We care about what you can show us! Send us your resume and portfolio (showing examples of work and projects).
- Ground-Up Builder experience, owning products from concept through production, design, test, and deployment
- 8+ Years of hands-on mechanical/mechatronic engineering experience
- Production Expertise: Deep expertise in DFM, high/low volume manufacturing, and scaling products from prototype to production
- Complex Mechanisms: Demonstrated expertise designing sophisticated mechanical systems with tight tolerances and high reliability
- Electromechanical Integration: Experience integrating mechanical, electrical, and control systems
- Manufacturing & Documentation: Deep knowledge of diverse manufacturing methods (machining, molding, casting) and proven ability to create comprehensive build-to-print documentation for contract manufacturers
- CAD Expertise: Advanced proficiency in 3D CAD platforms (OnShape, SolidWorks, Creo) with mastery of master modeling techniques
How We Hire
- Recruiter Screen: (30 min)
- Manager + Portfolio Interview (60 min)
- Technical Interview: (60 min)
- Leadership Interview: (60 min)
What We Offer
- Early-stage equity in automated pharmacy dispensing at scale
- Direct impact — your work helps put medication safely in patients’ hands
- Small team, zero bureaucracy, high trust
- Hard problems: distributed systems, safety-critical software, regulatory compliance, real-time hardware integration
Compensation & Benefits
- Competitive salary
- Meaningful early-stage equity
- Health, 401(k), unlimited PTO
Why Join Us Now?
- Impact & Growth
- Direct Patient Impact: Your work will improve healthcare outcomes for millions of patients
- Market Leadership: Ground-floor opportunity to define an entirely new category of healthcare technology
- Technical Innovation: Work on genuinely novel problems at the intersection of AI, robotics, and healthcare
- Career Acceleration: High-visibility role with significant growth potential as the company scales
- Team and Culture
- World-Class Team: Work alongside exceptional engineers, AI researchers, and healthcare experts
- Reports to the Head of Mechanical Engineering with significant autonomy and influence
- Innovation Focus: Culture that prioritizes breakthrough thinking and rapid experimentation
- Mission-Driven: Team united around the goal of transforming healthcare through technology
Our Values
- Servant Leadership: Make those around you better. We serve our teams the way Queue serves communities: 4,000 pharmacies close each year and deserts are spreading - we’re here to reverse that.
- Do the Hard Things: Healthcare, hardware, and company-building are all hard. We do them anyway. Convenience for us is life-changing for those we serve.
- Own Your Work: Be accountable; take pride in what you ship. Queue lives and dies by what you do - own it fully.
- Default is Now: There’s never a better time than today. Default to action: what can we prove, learn, or simplify right now?