Lead Systems Engineer

Queue; Newark (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Early-stage equity

Health insurance

401(k)

Unlimited PTO

Job summary

Queue is building a fully autonomous robotic pharmacy and is seeking a staff/principal System Engineer to lead the architecture, safety, and regulatory direction of the autonomous dispensing system.

You'll shape safety cases, define how we prove safe operation, and align engineering with regulators and pharmacy partners as we scale from pilot sites to nationwide deployment.

Qualifications

• Must have 8-12+ years engineering experience on complex, safety-critical products.
• Deep expertise in system safety for autonomous/software-intensive systems (SOTIF, hazard analysis).
• Experience building/defending safety cases with external stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Define SE processes, standards, tooling, and review practices.
• Oversee architecture decisions end to end with safety and quality focus.
• Act as technical integrator across hardware, software, autonomy, operations, and pharmacy teams.
• Mentor engineers and grow systems thinking across the company.
• Influence roadmap and product strategy with executive leadership.
• Own the regulatory strategy for autonomous dispensing across boards and regulators.

Skills

System safety

SOTIF ISO21448

Hazard analysis

Architecture leadership

Regulatory strategy

Cross-functional leadership

Stakeholder management

Job description

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.

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 Queue's second systems engineer, you'll be a technical leader and a true partner to the Head of Systems Engineering. You'll 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 we'll build Queue's 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. You'll set the bar others work to, and your judgment will shape the company as we scale from pilot sites to nationwide deployment.

What You'll 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 Queue's 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 isn't 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

• Recruiter Screen: (30 min)
• Manager Interview/Technical: (90 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 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: 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?

Contact: If you have any questions, please contact us at [e-mail]