diff --git a/.env.dev b/.env.dev
index 7505d9d..7c8dca0 100644
--- a/.env.dev
+++ b/.env.dev
@@ -3,4 +3,6 @@ TRAEFIK_DOMAIN="whisperbox-transcribe.localhost"
 WHISPER_MODEL="tiny"
 ENVIRONMENT="development"
 DATABASE_URI="sqlite:///./whisperbox-transcribe.sqlite"
-BROKER_URL="redis://redis:6379/0"
+
+RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER="rabbitmq"
+RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS="rabbitmq_password"
diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
index d0f0e0f..ebef8d3 100644
--- a/.env.example
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ TRAEFIK_SSLEMAIL=""
 # ---
 # below settings match the default docker-compose configuration.
 
-BROKER_URL="redis://redis:6379/0"
+RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER="rabbitmq"
+RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS="rabbitmq_password"
+
 DATABASE_URI="sqlite:////etc/whisperbox-transcribe/data/whisperbox-transcribe.sqlite"
 ENVIRONMENT="production"
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index cf3b60c..08baa55 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ Builds and starts the docker containers.
 ```
 # Bindings
 http://localhost:5555                        => Celery dashboard
+http://localhost:15672                       => RabbitMQ dashboard
 http://whisperbox-transcribe.localhost       => API
 http://whisperbox-transcribe.localhost/docs  => API docs
 ./whisperbox-transcribe.sqlite               => Database
diff --git a/app/shared/celery.py b/app/shared/celery.py
index 8bd334a..71c1342 100644
--- a/app/shared/celery.py
+++ b/app/shared/celery.py
@@ -9,4 +9,5 @@ def get_celery_binding() -> Celery:
         broker_connection_retry=False,
         broker_connection_retry_on_startup=False,
     )
+
     return celery
diff --git a/app/shared/db/models.py b/app/shared/db/models.py
index e7c3375..b63bcb8 100644
--- a/app/shared/db/models.py
+++ b/app/shared/db/models.py
@@ -52,6 +52,11 @@ class JobConfig(BaseModel):
 class JobMeta(BaseModel):
     """(JSON) Metadata relating to a job's execution."""
 
+    attempts: int | None = Field(
+        default=None,
+        description="Number of processing attempts a job has taken.",
+    )
+
     error: str | None = Field(
         default=None,
         description="Will contain a descriptive error message if processing failed.",
diff --git a/app/web/main.py b/app/web/main.py
index baa7842..5738b9b 100644
--- a/app/web/main.py
+++ b/app/web/main.py
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-from contextlib import asynccontextmanager
 from typing import Annotated, Callable, Generator
 from uuid import UUID
 
@@ -8,7 +7,6 @@
 
 import app.shared.db.models as models
 import app.web.dtos as dtos
-from app.shared.db.base import SessionLocal
 from app.shared.settings import settings
 from app.web.security import authenticate_api_key
 from app.web.task_queue import TaskQueue
@@ -21,17 +19,10 @@ def app_factory(
 
     task_queue = TaskQueue()
 
-    @asynccontextmanager
-    async def lifespan(_: FastAPI):
-        with SessionLocal() as session:
-            task_queue.rehydrate(session)
-        yield
-
     app = FastAPI(
         description=(
             "whisperbox-transcribe is an async HTTP wrapper for openai/whisper."
         ),
-        lifespan=lifespan,
         title="whisperbox-transcribe",
     )
 
diff --git a/app/web/task_queue.py b/app/web/task_queue.py
index 589d465..1d630ab 100644
--- a/app/web/task_queue.py
+++ b/app/web/task_queue.py
@@ -1,8 +1,4 @@
-from asyncio.log import logger
-
 from celery import Celery
-from sqlalchemy import or_
-from sqlalchemy.orm import Session
 
 import app.shared.db.models as models
 from app.shared.celery import get_celery_binding
@@ -22,25 +18,3 @@ def queue_task(self, job: models.Job):
         transcribe = self.celery.signature("app.worker.main.transcribe")
         # TODO: catch delivery errors?
         transcribe.delay(job.id)
-
-    def rehydrate(self, session: Session):
-        # TODO: we could use `acks_late` to handle this scenario within celery itself.
-        # the reason this does not work well in our case is that `visibility_timeout`
-        # needs to be very high since whisper workers can be long running.
-        # doing this app-side bears the risk of poison pilling the worker though,
-        # implement a workaround with an acceptable trade-off. (=> retry only once?)
-        jobs = (
-            session.query(models.Job)
-            .filter(
-                or_(
-                    models.Job.status == models.JobStatus.processing,
-                    models.Job.status == models.JobStatus.create,
-                )
-            )
-            .order_by(models.Job.created_at)
-        ).all()
-
-        logger.info(f"Requeueing {len(jobs)} jobs.")
-
-        for job in jobs:
-            self.queue_task(job)
diff --git a/app/worker/main.py b/app/worker/main.py
index 7957971..0e98169 100644
--- a/app/worker/main.py
+++ b/app/worker/main.py
@@ -39,6 +39,9 @@ def __call__(self, *args: Any, **kwargs: Any) -> Any:
     bind=True,
     soft_time_limit=settings.TASK_SOFT_TIME_LIMIT,
     time_limit=settings.TASK_HARD_TIME_LIMIT,
+    task_acks_late=True,
+    task_acks_on_failure_or_timeout=True,
+    task_reject_on_worker_lost=True,
 )
 def transcribe(self: Task, job_id: UUID) -> None:
     try:
@@ -59,9 +62,20 @@ def transcribe(self: Task, job_id: UUID) -> None:
 
         logger.debug(f"[{job.id}]: start processing {job.type} job.")
 
+        if job.meta:
+            attempts = 1 + (job.meta.get("attempts") or 0)
+        else:
+            attempts = 1
+
+        # SAFEGUARD: celery's retry policies do not handle lost workers, retry once.
+        # @see https://github.com/celery/celery/pull/6103
+        if attempts > 2:
+            raise Exception("Maximum number of retries exceeded for killed worker.")
+
         # unit of work: set task status to processing.
 
-        job.meta = {"task_id": self.request.id}
+        job.meta = {"task_id": self.request.id, "attempts": attempts}
+
         job.status = models.JobStatus.processing
         db.commit()
 
@@ -83,7 +97,11 @@ def transcribe(self: Task, job_id: UUID) -> None:
         if job and db:
             if db.in_transaction():
                 db.rollback()
-            job.meta = {**job.meta, "error": str(e)}  # type: ignore
+            if job.meta:
+                job.meta = {**job.meta, "error": str(e)}  # type: ignore
+            else:
+                job.meta = {"error": str(e)}
+
             job.status = models.JobStatus.error
             db.commit()
         raise
diff --git a/conf/rabbitmq.conf b/conf/rabbitmq.conf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fad073a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/conf/rabbitmq.conf
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+vm_memory_high_watermark.absolute = 192MB
diff --git a/docker-compose.base.yml b/docker-compose.base.yml
index d4dfe81..2148512 100644
--- a/docker-compose.base.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.base.yml
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+x-broker-environment: &broker-environment
+  BROKER_URL: "amqp://${RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER}:${RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS}@rabbitmq:5672"
+
 version: "3.8"
 name: whisperbox-transcribe
 
@@ -12,46 +15,59 @@ services:
     networks:
       - traefik
 
-  redis:
-    image: redis:7-alpine
+  rabbitmq:
+    env_file: .env
+    image: rabbitmq:3-alpine
     networks:
       - app
     deploy:
       resources:
         limits:
-          memory: 128M
+          memory: 256M
+    healthcheck:
+      test: rabbitmq-diagnostics check_port_connectivity
+      interval: 3s
+      timeout: 3s
+      retries: 10
+
+    volumes:
+      - ./conf/rabbitmq.conf:/etc/rabbitmq/rabbitmq.conf
+      - rabbitmq-data:/var/lib/rabbitmq/mnesia/
 
   worker:
     env_file: .env
+    environment:
+      <<: *broker-environment
     build:
       context: .
       dockerfile: worker.Dockerfile
       args:
         WHISPER_MODEL: ${WHISPER_MODEL}
+    depends_on:
+      rabbitmq:
+        condition: service_healthy
     networks:
       - app
-    depends_on:
-      - redis
-    healthcheck:
-      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "celery -b ${BROKER_URL} inspect ping -d celery@$$HOSTNAME"]
-      interval: 5s
-      timeout: 5s
-      retries: 5
 
   web:
     env_file: .env
+    environment:
+      <<: *broker-environment
     build:
       context: .
       dockerfile: web.Dockerfile
+    depends_on:
+      rabbitmq:
+        condition: service_healthy
     networks:
       - app
       - traefik
-    depends_on:
-      worker:
-        condition: service_healthy
 
 networks:
   app:
     driver: bridge
   traefik:
     driver: bridge
+
+volumes:
+  rabbitmq-data:
diff --git a/docker-compose.dev.yml b/docker-compose.dev.yml
index e6bc559..41d6c28 100644
--- a/docker-compose.dev.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.dev.yml
@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@ services:
 
   web:
     command: bash -c "alembic upgrade head && uvicorn app.web:app --reload --host ${HOST:-0.0.0.0} --port ${PORT:-8000} --log-level info"
+    # NOTE: the docker on mac mount adapter (virtioFS) does not support flock.
+    # this can cause the sqlite database to corrupt when written from worker <> api simultaneously.
     volumes:
       - ./:/etc/whisperbox-transcribe/
     labels:
@@ -26,13 +28,18 @@ services:
     volumes:
       - ./:/etc/whisperbox-transcribe/
 
+  rabbitmq:
+    image: rabbitmq:3-management-alpine
+    ports:
+      - 15672:15672
+
   flower:
     image: mher/flower
-    command: celery --broker redis://redis:6379/0 flower --port=5555
+    command: celery --broker amqp://${RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER}:${RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS}@rabbitmq:5672 flower --port=5555
     ports:
       - 5555:5555
     depends_on:
-      worker:
-        condition: service_healthy
+      - worker
+      - rabbitmq
     networks:
       - app
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 3d82800..a2c4233 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ description = ""
 version = "1.0.0"
 
 dependencies=[
-  "celery[redis] ==5.3.1",
+  "celery ==5.3.1",
   "sqlalchemy[mypy] ==2.0.20",
   "pydantic ==2.1.1",
   "pydantic-settings ==2.0.3"