Hardware Engineer, Drug Delivery

About this role

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are a vibrant and intensely mission-driven team in San Francisco, comprising members from MIT, Harvard Medical School, Roche, ETH, and Dana-Farber. We value speed and rigor, coupled with excitement, drive, and a strong work ethic. In an early-stage environment, we value people who can bring clarity to open-ended problems, take ownership of the next steps, and follow through with energy.

Capable Labs is a place for ambitious, high-integrity people who want to become dramatically better. You will be surrounded by people who care intensely about the work, get close feedback from the people making scientific and company-defining decisions, and have room to own increasingly important problems.

We believe excellent work should be met with meaningful reward, ownership, and trust. Responsibility is earned through contribution, not title alone: anyone who demonstrates the judgment, rigor, and follow-through to move important work forward can earn meaningful scope.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

You do not need to have experience with every item on this list; we value deep expertise in some areas and a willingness to learn in others.

- Build a subcutaneous drug-delivery device that redefines medicine administration with precision, reliability, and low patient impact.

- Engineer the full device architecture, including reservoir, pump, valves, cannula or catheter interface, seals, sensors, pressure control, occlusion detection, leak prevention, dose metering, priming, draining, and safe handling of waste or excess fluids.

- Design the drug-delivery module—reservoir geometry, drug-contacting materials, flow path, actuation mechanisms, infusion interface, insertion mechanics, fixation, tissue contact, and reproducible dose delivery.

- Develop control systems for dose timing, delivery rates, pressure, temperature, sensor input, closed-loop logic, fault detection, and automated recovery from occlusions, leaks, pressure excursions, and failed deliveries.

- Prototype, test, and debug electromechanical systems: miniature pumps, solenoids, microvalves, sensors, heaters, pressure transducers, liquid-level sensors, optical sensors, batteries, wireless modules, and embedded controllers.

- Integrate the device with sensing and monitoring workflows—including wearable biomarker signals, mobile or cloud software, pharmacokinetic data, safety monitoring, sample tracking, and device-level QC.

- Move toward a device that links physiological signals (e.g., Oura Ring, Whoop) to precise subcutaneous drug delivery, enabling medicines to be administered at the right time with less manual intervention than standard injection workflows.

WHO YOU ARE

- You will help start the hardware engineering function at Capable Labs. This is mission-critical work, aiming to build a closed-loop subcutaneous drug-delivery system that doesn’t yet exist.

- You have high agency: when a physiological signal is noisy, a pump stalls, a pressure trace looks wrong, a valve leaks, a catheter occludes, a sensor drifts, or a dose isn’t delivered as expected, you systematically find and solve the root cause.

- You may come from backgrounds such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, bioengineering, robotics, medical devices, wearables, implantables, fluidics, microfluidics, automation, or other nontraditional backgrounds. What matters most is your ability to build great closed-loop systems.

- You have hands-on experience building, testing, or maintaining hardware systems, such as wearable or implantable drug-delivery devices, infusion systems, insulin pumps, closed-loop medical devices, sensor-integrated wearables, fluidic or microfluidic systems, electromechanical hardware, or regulated hardware for biological or clinical workflows.

- You understand—or are excited to learn—how to connect sensing, control logic, and precise subcutaneous delivery into a system that can respond safely and reliably to physiological states.

- You are not expected to have experience across all areas; we are seeking candidates with strengths in some parts who are quick learners in others with our team’s support.

PAY & BENEFITS

- $130,000-$210,000 salary, plus equity options with an implied current value of approximately $50,000-$190,000 before exercise cost, taxes, dilution, and liquidity risk.

- Compensation will depend on the skills, experience, and scope of impact you bring. If your background, experience, or compensation needs fall outside this range, we are still open to a conversation based on the scope and impact you could bring.

- $500+ monthly wellness budget for training, supplements, coaching, recovery, or other tools that help you perform at your best.

- Healthcare: We offer a broad range of medical, dental, and vision coverage options, with Capable covering 100% of the base policy.

- You will also have access to HSA, FSA, and 401K plans.

- Healthy dinners with the team are provided daily.

- We support visa sponsorship where appropriate, including O-1, H-1B, J-1, TN, and other employment-based pathways. Our team is already international, with members from Canada, Pakistan, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, China, India, and the United States.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Our process is fast, transparent, and personal. We care about getting to know the person behind the application.

- Initial application

- First phone screen

- Second phone screen

- In-person work trial in San Francisco: designed to give both sides a realistic sense of working together. Get to know the founding team!

APPLY TODAY

Curious but not sure? Apply anyway. It takes 5 minutes, and you do not need to be actively job searching to start a conversation.

Some of the best people do not map perfectly to a job description. If this sounds like a place where you could do important work, we would like to hear from you.

And if someone exceptional comes to mind, send them…