Queue
Fully autonomous robotic pharmacy — sealed wholesale bottles in, verified prescription vials out
Last verified August 17, 2026 · Updated daily
What Queue is building
Queue built a self-contained machine that runs a pharmacy without a pharmacist on site. Sealed wholesale medication bottles go in one end; filled, verified prescription vials come out the other. Each storage cell holds thousands of pills loaded from sealed manufacturer bottles; a patient walks up to the kiosk, shows a QR code to verify their prescription, and the machine runs the fill sequence — filling a 60-pill vial roughly every 30 seconds, using computer vision to identify every pill down to its National Drug Code. A predictive AI layer monitors inventory and alerts a technician to reload before a medication runs out — the one human touchpoint in the workflow. It currently supports the 250 most-prescribed medications in the US and claims up to 96% lower fulfillment cost than traditional pharmacy operations (a figure without a published methodology). The context making this viable: nearly one in three US pharmacies has closed since 2010 (USC/UC Berkeley research in Health Affairs), 15.8 million Americans live in pharmacy deserts, pharmacy schools are graduating 3,000-4,000 fewer pharmacists than needed, and technician vacancy rates run 40%+.
Why this matters
An oversubscribed seed led by AlleyCorp less than a year after a Riot Ventures pre-seed, with a major national pharmacy chain already signed, is unusually fast commercial validation for healthcare hardware. AlleyCorp GP Abe Murray: 'What the Queue team has accomplished is rare in the development of hardware for healthcare.' Riot's Will Coffield frames the contrarian bet: rather than working around labor shortages and broken unit economics, Queue is 'automating the physical fulfillment layer itself.' The founder pedigree de-risks execution — Nick Desai previously built Heal (home healthcare, $200M+ raised, acquired by Humana) and CTO Josh Liu comes from Tesla and Zipline, the exact talent pipeline feeding the current robotics wave. The open question every serious candidate should understand: most states legally require a licensed pharmacist for final dispensing verification, so regulatory strategy is as existential as the engineering — a point Queue's own site acknowledges, positioning the machine as freeing pharmacists to 'practice pharmacy again.'
Open roles at Queue
5 positions we're tracking. Roles are re-checked daily and removed when filled.
Robotics Engineer
First seen last month
Mechanical/Hardware Engineer
First seen last month
Software Engineer (Computer Vision)
First seen last month
Embedded Systems Engineer
First seen last month
Pharmacy Operations / Regulatory Lead
First seen last month
Know when Queue is hiring before anyone else
A role stays uncontested for about four days. Here's the window — and where we put you in it.
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Watching Queue
0 applicantsRole spotted & verified
1You get the alert
1You've applied
~8Hits the job boards
250+Hiring outlook
This is the rare announcement that explicitly says they are 'actively hiring across robotics, hardware, software, and pharmacy operations.' A 20-person team with a signed national pharmacy chain customer and a working prototype has to scale manufacturing and deployment fast, which means engineering headcount is the bottleneck. Oversubscribed round plus explicit hiring language equals immediate openings.
Working at Queue
Queue: Fully autonomous robotic pharmacy — sealed wholesale bottles in, verified prescription vials out. Founded , currently employees. At this stage, expect opportunity to shape your role based on the company stage.
Most Queue jobs are based in Palo Alto.
How to actually get hired at Queue
Why applying the normal way doesn't work
Queue uses an ATS, but referrals still come first. Cold applications aren't ignored — they're just behind referrals, sourced candidates, and recruiter picks.
Who to contact at Queue
What to show them
Shipped physical automation that handles high-stakes verification: pick-and-place with vision-based QC, medical device automation, or dispensing/sorting systems where a wrong output has real consequences. Experience taking a robotic system from prototype to multi-site deployment matters more than research papers here — they have one prototype and a national chain waiting.
A cold email that works at Queue
What Queue screens for
The credibility marker is knowing the numbers behind the thesis: one in three pharmacies closed since 2010, 15.8 million Americans in pharmacy deserts, a $670.6 billion retail pharmacy market with negative reimbursement on a growing share of prescriptions, and a fill rate of one 60-pill vial per 30 seconds versus roughly 30 prescriptions per eight-hour shift at a traditional counter. Liu's stated philosophy is also distinctive: 'robotics and AI should be applied in a way that actually enables greater human flourishing' — this team sees pharmacy as a systemic access problem, not a cost-cutting play. His engineering bar, quoted in The Robot Report: 'The accuracy of the drugs we dispense has to be 100% end to end.'
Don't send a generic CV to Queue. Mirror the job posting's language to get past automated screening.
Don't make these mistakes
Don't call it a pill-counting machine or a pickup locker — the founders explicitly distinguish Queue as a closed-loop system from bulk wholesale inventory to verified patient vial, and conflating it with existing pharmacy automation (which still depends on manual workflows) signals you didn't look closely. Also don't ignore the regulatory elephant; pretending state pharmacist-verification laws don't exist will read as naive.
Mistakes that kill Queue applications
At people, a copy-paste CV is immediately obvious. It's an instant no.
Lead with their problem, not your ambition. Queue is focused on An oversubscribed seed led by AlleyCorp less than a year after a Riot Ventures pre-seed, with a major national pharmacy chain already signed, is unusually fast commercial validation for healthcare hardware — show you understand that.
Don't apply and wait. The median Tech application gets no response ever. One follow-up at day five roughly doubles reply rates.
Applying to Queue? Get the contact, not the form.
The Queue interview process
4 stages · 14 days typical · take-home: no · modelled from similar companies
We don't yet have verified candidate reports for Queue. What follows is the typical process for a -person Tech company — treat it as a model, not confirmed detail.
Interview stages
Recruiter Screen
Phone or video · 30 min
Basic qualification and logistics
Recruiter or HR
Hiring Manager Interview
Video call · 45 min
Role fit and experience deep-dive
Hiring manager
Technical/Functional Round
Video call · 60 min
Skills assessment and problem-solving
Team members
Final Round
In-person or video · 60 min
Culture fit and cross-functional alignment
Senior leadership
Queue interview timeline
At days, Queue's process is about average than typical for Tech (14 days at this size).
Interviewed at Queue?
Tell us how it went — stages, questions, timeline. Takes 90 seconds and it's how this page stays accurate for the next person.
Submit your Queue interview experience →Queue jobs, frequently asked questions
How many jobs does Queue have open?
Queue currently has 5 open roles, last verified June 2026.
Does Queue hire remotely?
All current Queue roles are based in Palo Alto.
What roles is Queue hiring for?
Queue is hiring across Engineering, Operations. The most recent opening is Robotics Engineer.
How do I apply for a job at Queue?
Apply directly through the links above, or read our guide on how to actually get hired at Queue.
Does Queue respond to cold emails?
We're still collecting cold email data for Queue.
Who is the hiring manager at Queue?
At this size, hiring is usually run by the hiring manager.
How competitive is it to get hired at Queue?
-person Tech companies see ~100-250 applicants per role in two weeks. The 72-hour window is your advantage.
How many rounds is the Queue interview?
4 stages: Recruiter Screen, Hiring Manager Interview, Technical/Functional Round, Final Round.
Is the Queue interview hard?
It concentrates on relevant experience and culture fit rather than abstract puzzles. The stage candidates find hardest is Final Round.
Does Queue give a take-home task?
No, Queue does not include a take-home stage.
How long does Queue take to get back to you?
Around 14 days across the full process.
What should I prepare for the Queue interview?
Prepare for relevant experience and culture fit. A -person startup wants proof you can ship, not that you can whiteboard.
Where is Queue based?
Queue is headquartered in Palo Alto, US.
Get Queue roles before they're posted
A role stays uncontested for about four days. Here's the window — and where we put you in it.
From $9/month, cancel any time.
Watching Queue
0 applicantsRole spotted & verified
1You get the alert
1You've applied
~8Hits the job boards
250+