About Overlay

Overlay is building the world's first intelligent makeup robot — reimagining beauty application through robotics, perception, and design. We're a venture-backed, pre-launch startup defining a new category of personal robotics at the intersection of self-expression and engineering. Our system works directly on the human face, which demands an unusual level of precision, safety, and real-world robustness. We're a small, highly technical team building in person in Oakland.

The Role

Our robot gets better only when a knowledgeable human consistently judges its output and defines, precisely, what "good" looks like and where it falls short. That judgment becomes the ground truth our system learns from.You'll own that loop. You'll design and run the testing that moves our products forward — evaluating how formulas perform, how the robot applies them, and what separates an acceptable result from an excellent one — then turn those judgments into structured, repeatable feedback that improves both our formulations and our robotic system.
This is hands-on, detail-driven, repetition-heavy work. The value is in applying the same exacting standard the same way, session after session, and writing it down so a machine can learn from it. If precision and consistency energize you, you'll thrive here.

What You'll Do

• Evaluate cosmetic formulations. Assess texture, payoff, layering, wear, dry-down, finish, and skin compatibility — and how each formula behaves machine-applied versus hand-applied. Recommend formulation adjustments based on what you observe.
• Evaluate robot applications. Run sessions and score results against professional standards: coverage, blending, symmetry, edge quality, finish, wear, and skin compatibility.
• Score and document, consistently. Rate each application against our rubric and write clear, repeatable feedback the team and the system can act on. Capture findings in a structured, data-friendly form and surface patterns across rounds.
• Set the quality bar. Demonstrate target results by hand so engineering has a concrete reference for what the robot is aiming at.
• Close the loop with engineering. Translate "this looks off" into specific, actionable observations and partner on improvements, iteration over iteration.

Required

• 4+ years of hands-on makeup artistry — professional experience across a range of skin tones, types, and face shapes, with a trained eye for what separates a good application from a great one.
• Structured-evaluation discipline. Comfort scoring work against a rubric and writing clear, repeatable QA-style documentation.
• Precision and consistency. Detail-oriented, with the discipline to apply the same standard the same way, day after day.
• Direct, low-ego collaboration. Comfortable giving and receiving direct feedback, and dependable in an early-stage, in-office environment.
• Strong communication skills. Our system applies makeup directly on real faces, so this role involves working hands-on with test subjects.

Strongly Preferred

• Product / formulation literacy — experience evaluating or developing cosmetic products (formulation, product development, lab, or sensory/quality evaluation), enough to describe how a formula performs in specific, technical terms.
• Cosmetic chemistry coursework or formal product-development training.
• Consistent visual documentation — photography and lighting sense for capturing results the same way every time. (Reproducible imaging is central to how we generate comparable data.)

Benefits

• Highly competitive salary & generous early-stage equity
• Best-in-class medical, dental & vision insurance
• 401(k) matching program
• Flexible Time Off with 10 paid holidays
• Commuter benefits
• Office in downtown Oakland near 19th Street BART station

The Team

• Small, fast-moving team with high ownership and low process
• Strong bias toward shipping, learning, and iterating quickly
• In-person collaboration in our Oakland office

Culture & Values

1. Move Fast, Move Smart: act quickly, with good judgment.
2. Ownership: see things through, from idea to result.
3. Disagree, Then Commit: talk it out openly, then row in the same direction.
4. Intellectual Honesty: be candid, stay curious, follow the evidence.
5. Show, Don't Tell: real, working results over talk.

Compensation: The annual salary range for this position is $80,000–$120,000 annually based on level in addition to equity & benefits.
Overlay is an equal opportunity employer and we welcome applicants from all backgrounds.