"It really started with playing softball,” recounts Miranda Griffith, when asked how she joined Omnicell.
While finishing her senior year of high school and preparing to study Mechanical Engineering at Grove City College, just north of her hometown in Pittsburgh, PA, a teammate's parent, who worked at Omnicell, suggested she apply for an internship.
It was a casual conversation, but it ended up changing the course of her career.
When Miranda interviewed at Omnicell, she got an early glimpse of technology that would shape the next eight years of her life.
“Sometime in the spring, I came [down from] school and saw... all the robotics there at the time. XR2 was still in beta [testing], I want to say, about to go to [general availability]. This was 2018.”
Miranda Griffith - April 2018
She accepted the internship and returned each summer throughout college, working on different aspects of XR2 as both the product and her own skills evolved.
Her projects ranged from reliability testing and CAD modeling to manufacturing support. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she continued working remotely and helped build what is now known as XR2 telemetry alongside systems engineers and technical support teams.
For many students, internships provide exposure to a profession. For Miranda, it provided something else: a chance to contribute to technology she could point to and say, I helped build that.
When Plans Change
Like many graduates, Miranda entered a job market that looked very different from the one she expected.
She had imagined her career beginning in engineering. Instead, the opportunities available led her in a different direction.
“At the time, there weren't really any opportunities or openings in engineering, and I remember being really bummed... [but] there was another opportunity in quality. So that's where I ended up in the quality realm, and I'm very, very grateful that that's where I started my career.”
She joined Omnicell full-time as a Field Quality Engineer in 2021. What initially felt like a setback quickly became one of the most valuable experiences of her career.
Working directly with customers gave her firsthand insight into how XR2 performs in real healthcare environments.
“I went at least once a quarter... to customer sites for installations to see how it worked... I’ve probably been to 15 or 20 customer sites in the four years I was in Quality.”
Miranda at her first site visit in July 2021
Even as her responsibilities expanded, one thing stayed the same.
“I always stayed with XR2. I never left that product...I ventured into cabinets. I ventured into IV. But I never left XR2 and Central Pharmacy.”
Growing Beyond the Job Description
As she became more involved in software releases, planning efforts, documentation, and cross-functional engineering work, her leaders encouraged her to continue growing beyond the traditional boundaries of her role.
“I joined so young, and I'm still here and I've been allowed to grow from really great leaders and really great managers...They let me go outside of my bounds a little bit because they knew that I had such care and passion and previous knowledge of the product."
That support ultimately helped her transition into Engineering in 2026 as a Device Technical Lead, supporting the same Central Pharmacy products she'd first encountered as an intern – a full-circle moment.
“Part of the reason I got the opportunity I have now in engineering is because I was so involved in the aspects of their actual role... versus just being the quality oversight. And [my leaders] didn't have to let me do that.”
“XR2 is like...honestly, is a part of my frontal lobe development. The first job I had and the first product that I worked on. I care a lot about it and my career here.”
Why the Work Matters
Ask Miranda what keeps her here, and her answer is simple.
“Omnicell is really cool... Our technology is cool, the mission we're supporting is cool. I have so many friends - I have a friend who's a nurse. I have a friend who's a pharmacist. I have a friend who's a doctor, right? They all use our equipment. We talk about it over drinks... It's a topic of conversation. That's really neat.”
Her handprints are all over a product that's now used in hospitals every day, and her career has grown alongside it.
She remembers participating in a hardware update at Allegheny General Hospital, where she was born.
"I remember making the joke... 'the last time I was here, I was born.' ... and I remember the staff there liking that joke. And then six months later, my grandmother had surgery there at AGH. And so, like, I had fixed [their machines]... That matters. That gets me up every day."
Looking back, she’d tell herself to trust the journey:
“I think a lot of your career is good luck in timing... when I thought I wasn't going to get a role in engineering, I thought it was like the end of the world... When in reality, it was probably the best thing that could have ever happened in my career. Something that I thought was going to be so horrible ended up being such a great thing and I ended up back where I was going to be anyway. So, like it all works out. It's good luck in timing.”
As for where she’d like to see herself in the future:?
“I'd like to be doing something that helps people, which I do today. That's number one. Ultimately, yeah, I'd like to be in a position where I can help other people to understand where their individual career path is.”
Her own path wasn't the one she planned. But thanks to the people who encouraged her to keep growing, and the opportunities they gave her along the way, it became exactly the one she needed. Someday, she hopes to do the same for someone else.