Lead Systems Engineer

About Us

Were Queue the worlds 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.

Were 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 Queues second systems engineer youll be a technical leader and a true partner to the Head of Systems Engineering. Youll hold real authority over the architecture safety and regulatory direction of a fully autonomous system that dispenses medication to patients with no human in the loop to catch a mistake.

This is a staff / principal level role. Together well build Queues systems engineering culture: how we make decisions how we define safe enough and how we prove it to ourselves our partners and the regulators who oversee pharmacy. Youll set the bar others work to and your judgment will shape the company as we scale from pilot sites to nationwide deployment.

What Youll Own

Technical Leadership & Culture

• Partner with the Head of Systems Engineering to define SE processes standards tooling and review practices across the company

• Own critical architectural decisions end to end with authority to set direction and hold the line on margins safety and quality

• Act as the technical integrator across hardware software autonomy operations and pharmacy teams

• Mentor engineers across disciplines and grow systems thinking throughout the organization

• Influence roadmap and product strategy alongside executive leadership

Autonomy Safety & SOTIF

• Define and own the system safety strategy for a fully autonomous pharmacy from hazard analysis through a defensible safety case

• Apply Safety of the Intended Function (SOTIF) methods to identify and reduce risk from performance limitations edge cases and unknown-unsafe scenarios not just component failures

• Lead hazard analyses (e.g. STPA FMEA FTA) spanning perception dispensing verification software and human interaction

• Set safety metrics acceptance criteria and residual-risk arguments; build the evidence (simulation testing field data) that supports them

• Establish safety monitoring and incident-learning loops as the fleet grows

Regulatory Strategy

• Own the regulatory strategy for autonomous dispensing across state Boards of Pharmacy and relevant federal authorities

• Translate regulator objectives (patient safety accuracy traceability accountability) into system requirements and verifiable evidence

• Represent Queues engineering case directly with regulators pharmacy partners and standards bodies

• Help shape emerging regulatory frameworks for pharmacy automation working with legal pharmacy and business leadership

Architecture & Model-Driven Tradeoffs

• Own system requirements interfaces and performance reliability and safety budgets

• Build and maintain system-level models for throughput reliability safety and cost; use them to drive quantitative trade studies

• Resolve ambiguity through first-principles analysis and clear well-documented decisions

• Architect for scale serviceability and field reliability updating assumptions as manufacturing and field data arrive

Qualifications / Experiences

Must Have:

• 8-12 years of engineering experience on complex safety-critical products including senior technical leadership of system architecture or system safety

• Track record of shipping systems with real safety operational and economic consequences. Direct robotics experience isnt required; we welcome candidates from autonomous vehicles aerospace medical devices and industrial automation

• Deep expertise in system safety for autonomous or software-intensive systems including SOTIF (ISO 21448) and hazard analysis methods (STPA FMEA FTA)

• Experience building and defending safety cases or equivalent risk arguments with external stakeholders

• Deep expertise in system architecture requirements definition interface design and design trades

• Fluency across hardware software and operations with depth in at least one of: autonomy/perception embedded or distributed software electronics or mechatronics

• Demonstrated ability to set technical direction and influence without formal authority across teams and leadership

• First-principles thinker who is data-driven decisive under uncertainty and operates with high ownership and low ego

Nice to Have:

• Experience with autonomy and functional safety standards such as UL 4600 ISO 26262 IEC 61508 or ISO 10218

• Experience with medical device or aerospace safety frameworks (e.g. ISO 14971 IEC 62304 ARP4754A/ARP4761)

• Direct experience engaging regulators (e.g. state agencies NHTSA FAA FDA DEA Boards of Pharmacy) on novel technology

• Experience shaping standards policy or regulatory frameworks for emerging technology

• Experience building an engineering function or processes at an early-stage company

• Experience scaling autonomous systems from pilot to fleet deployment

How We Hire

1. Recruiter Screen: (30 min)

2. Manager Interview/Technical (90 min)

3. Technical Interview: (60 min)

4. 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 Systems 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: 4000 pharmacies close each year and deserts are spreading - were 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: Theres never a better time than today. Default to action: what can we prove learn or simplify right now

Contact: If you have any questions please contact us at

Required Experience:

IC