diff --git a/backend/app/celery_app.py b/backend/app/celery_app.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..574964d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/app/celery_app.py
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+import os
+from celery import Celery
+
+if os.getenv("RABBITMQ_URL"):
+    RABBITMQ_URL = os.getenv("RABBITMQ_URL")  # type: ignore
+else:
+    from urllib.parse import quote
+
+    username = os.getenv("RABBITMQ_USERNAME", "user")
+    password = os.getenv("RABBITMQ_PASSWORD", "bitnami123")
+    host = os.getenv("RABBITMQ_HOST", "localhost")
+    port = os.getenv("RABBITMQ_PORT", "5672")
+    vhost = os.getenv("RABBITMQ_VHOST", "/")
+    use_ssl = os.getenv("RABBITMQ_USE_SSL", "0").lower() in {"1", "true", "yes"}
+    scheme = "amqps" if use_ssl else "amqp"
+
+    # Kombu uses '//' to denote the default '/' vhost. For custom vhosts, URL-encode them.
+    if vhost in ("/", ""):
+        vhost_path = "/"  # will become '//' after concatenation below
+    else:
+        vhost_path = f"/{quote(vhost, safe='')}"
+
+    # Ensure we end up with e.g. amqp://user:pass@host:5672// (for '/')
+    RABBITMQ_URL = f"{scheme}://{username}:{password}@{host}:{port}{vhost_path}"
+    if vhost in ("/", "") and not RABBITMQ_URL.endswith("//"):
+        RABBITMQ_URL += "/"
+
+DEFAULT_QUEUE = os.getenv("MAIL_QUEUE", "mail_queue")
+
+CELERY_BACKEND = os.getenv("CELERY_BACKEND", "rpc://")
+
+celery_app = Celery(
+    "app",
+    broker=RABBITMQ_URL,
+    # backend=CELERY_BACKEND,
+)
+celery_app.autodiscover_tasks(["app.workers"], related_name="celery_tasks")  # discover app.workers.celery_tasks
+
+celery_app.set_default()
+
+celery_app.conf.update(
+    task_default_queue=DEFAULT_QUEUE,
+    task_acks_late=True,
+    worker_prefetch_multiplier=int(os.getenv("CELERY_PREFETCH", "1")),
+    task_serializer="json",
+    result_serializer="json",
+    accept_content=["json"],
+)
+
+__all__ = ["celery_app"]
diff --git a/backend/app/core/queue.py b/backend/app/core/queue.py
index 2aecf9e..1fd564e 100644
--- a/backend/app/core/queue.py
+++ b/backend/app/core/queue.py
@@ -1,35 +1,6 @@
-import json
-import os
-from typing import Any, Dict
-import asyncio
+import app.celery_app  # noqa: F401
+from app.workers.celery_tasks import send_email
 
-RABBITMQ_URL = os.getenv("RABBITMQ_URL") or (
-    f"amqp://{os.getenv('RABBITMQ_USERNAME', 'user')}:"
-    f"{os.getenv('RABBITMQ_PASSWORD', 'bitnami123')}@"
-    f"{os.getenv('RABBITMQ_HOST', 'localhost')}:"
-    f"{os.getenv('RABBITMQ_PORT', '5672')}"
-)
-QUEUE_NAME = os.getenv("MAIL_QUEUE", "mail_queue")
-
-async def _publish_async(message: Dict[str, Any]) -> None:
-    import aio_pika
-    connection = await aio_pika.connect_robust(RABBITMQ_URL)
-    try:
-        channel = await connection.channel()
-        await channel.declare_queue(QUEUE_NAME, durable=True)
-        body = json.dumps(message).encode("utf-8")
-        await channel.default_exchange.publish(
-            aio_pika.Message(body=body, delivery_mode=aio_pika.DeliveryMode.PERSISTENT),
-            routing_key=QUEUE_NAME,
-        )
-    finally:
-        await connection.close()
 
 def enqueue_email(to: str, subject: str, body: str) -> None:
-    message = {"type": "email", "to": to, "subject": subject, "body": body}
-    try:
-        loop = asyncio.get_running_loop()
-        loop.create_task(_publish_async(message))
-    except RuntimeError:
-        asyncio.run(_publish_async(message))
-
+    send_email.delay(to, subject, body)
diff --git a/backend/app/services/user_service.py b/backend/app/services/user_service.py
index e92d9d3..1d3857e 100644
--- a/backend/app/services/user_service.py
+++ b/backend/app/services/user_service.py
@@ -7,8 +7,8 @@ from fastapi_users import BaseUserManager, FastAPIUsers, UUIDIDMixin
 from fastapi_users.authentication import (
     AuthenticationBackend,
     BearerTransport,
-    JWTStrategy,
 )
+from fastapi_users.authentication.strategy.jwt import JWTStrategy
 from fastapi_users.db import SQLAlchemyUserDatabase
 
 from app.models.user import User
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ class UserManager(UUIDIDMixin, BaseUserManager[User, uuid.UUID]):
         )
         try:
             enqueue_email(to=user.email, subject=subject, body=body)
-        except Exception:
+        except Exception as e:
             print("[Email Fallback] To:", user.email)
             print("[Email Fallback] Subject:", subject)
             print("[Email Fallback] Body:\n", body)
diff --git a/backend/app/workers/celery_tasks.py b/backend/app/workers/celery_tasks.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..861004c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/app/workers/celery_tasks.py
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+import logging
+
+from celery import shared_task
+
+logger = logging.getLogger("celery_tasks")
+if not logger.handlers:
+    _h = logging.StreamHandler()
+    logger.addHandler(_h)
+logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)
+
+
+@shared_task(name="workers.send_email")
+def send_email(to: str, subject: str, body: str) -> None:
+    if not (to and subject and body):
+        logger.error("Email task missing fields. to=%r subject=%r body_len=%r", to, subject, len(body) if body else 0)
+        return
+
+    # Placeholder for real email sending logic
+    logger.info("[Celery] Email sent | to=%s | subject=%s | body_len=%d", to, subject, len(body))
diff --git a/backend/requirements.txt b/backend/requirements.txt
index 045371e..1f8e9bf 100644
--- a/backend/requirements.txt
+++ b/backend/requirements.txt
@@ -2,14 +2,20 @@ aio-pika==9.5.6
 aiormq==6.8.1
 aiosqlite==0.21.0
 alembic==1.16.5
+amqp==5.3.1
 annotated-types==0.7.0
 anyio==4.11.0
 argon2-cffi==23.1.0
 argon2-cffi-bindings==25.1.0
 asyncmy==0.2.9
 bcrypt==4.3.0
+billiard==4.2.2
+celery==5.5.3
 cffi==2.0.0
 click==8.1.8
+click-didyoumean==0.3.1
+click-plugins==1.1.1.2
+click-repl==0.3.0
 cryptography==46.0.1
 dnspython==2.7.0
 email_validator==2.2.0
@@ -21,11 +27,14 @@ greenlet==3.2.4
 h11==0.16.0
 httptools==0.6.4
 idna==3.10
+kombu==5.5.4
 makefun==1.16.0
 Mako==1.3.10
 MarkupSafe==3.0.2
 multidict==6.6.4
+packaging==25.0
 pamqp==3.3.0
+prompt_toolkit==3.0.52
 propcache==0.3.2
 pwdlib==0.2.1
 pycparser==2.23
@@ -33,17 +42,22 @@ pydantic==2.11.9
 pydantic_core==2.33.2
 PyJWT==2.10.1
 PyMySQL==1.1.2
+python-dateutil==2.9.0.post0
 python-dotenv==1.1.1
 python-multipart==0.0.20
 PyYAML==6.0.2
+six==1.17.0
 sniffio==1.3.1
 SQLAlchemy==2.0.43
 starlette==0.48.0
 tomli==2.2.1
 typing-inspection==0.4.1
 typing_extensions==4.15.0
+tzdata==2025.2
 uvicorn==0.37.0
 uvloop==0.21.0
+vine==5.1.0
 watchfiles==1.1.0
+wcwidth==0.2.14
 websockets==15.0.1
 yarl==1.20.1
diff --git a/backend/worker/__init__.py b/backend/worker/__init__.py
deleted file mode 100644
index e69de29..0000000
diff --git a/backend/worker/email_worker.py b/backend/worker/email_worker.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 5f927b6..0000000
--- a/backend/worker/email_worker.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,56 +0,0 @@
-import asyncio
-import json
-import os
-from typing import Any, Dict
-
-RABBITMQ_URL = os.getenv("RABBITMQ_URL") or (
-    f"amqp://{os.getenv('RABBITMQ_USERNAME', 'user')}:"
-    f"{os.getenv('RABBITMQ_PASSWORD', 'bitnami123')}@"
-    f"{os.getenv('RABBITMQ_HOST', 'localhost')}:"
-    f"{os.getenv('RABBITMQ_PORT', '5672')}"
-)
-QUEUE_NAME = os.getenv("MAIL_QUEUE", "mail_queue")
-
-
-async def handle_message(message_body: bytes) -> None:
-    try:
-        data: Dict[str, Any] = json.loads(message_body.decode("utf-8"))
-    except Exception as e:
-        print(f"[email_worker] Failed to decode message: {e}")
-        return
-
-    if data.get("type") != "email":
-        print(f"[email_worker] Unknown message type: {data}")
-        return
-
-    to = data.get("to")
-    subject = data.get("subject")
-    body = data.get("body")
-    if not (to and subject and body):
-        print(f"[email_worker] Incomplete email message: {data}")
-        return
-
-    try:
-        await send_email(to=to, subject=subject, body=body)
-        print(f"[email_worker] Sent email to {to}")
-    except Exception as e:
-        print(f"[email_worker] Error sending email to {to}: {e}")
-
-
-async def main() -> None:
-    import aio_pika
-
-    print(f"[email_worker] Connecting to RabbitMQ at {RABBITMQ_URL}")
-    connection = await aio_pika.connect_robust(RABBITMQ_URL)
-    channel = await connection.channel()
-    queue = await channel.declare_queue(QUEUE_NAME, durable=True)
-    print(f"[email_worker] Waiting for messages in queue '{QUEUE_NAME}' ...")
-
-    async with queue.iterator() as queue_iter:
-        async for message in queue_iter:
-            async with message.process(requeue=False):
-                await handle_message(message.body)
-
-
-if __name__ == "__main__":
-    asyncio.run(main())
diff --git a/deployment/app-demo-worker-deployment.yaml b/deployment/app-demo-worker-deployment.yaml
index b6a709f..233d095 100644
--- a/deployment/app-demo-worker-deployment.yaml
+++ b/deployment/app-demo-worker-deployment.yaml
@@ -17,8 +17,14 @@ spec:
         - image: lukastrkan/cc-app-demo@sha256:75634b4d97282b6b8424fe17767c81adf44af5f7359c1d25883073b5629b3e05
           name: app-demo-worker
           command:
-            - python3
-            - worker/email_worker.py
+            - celery
+            - -A
+            - app.celery_app
+            - worker
+            - -Q
+            - $(MAIL_QUEUE)
+            - --loglevel
+            - INFO
           env:
             - name: RABBITMQ_USERNAME
               value: demo-app