Founding Embedded Systems Engineer

Ester Health · Santa Monica (Hybrid, 2 days/week onsite)

Ester Health is building an at-home AI skin-imaging device and companion app — clinic-grade skin analysis in a consumer product. We're incubated inside Austere Moose (the venture studio founded by the GoodRx co-founders), with a working prototype, a small senior team, and founder-level scope across the board.

We're hiring our founding embedded systems engineer.

The role You'll own the embedded layer end-to-end: platform bring-up, capture sequencing, calibration, diagnostics, and the bridge to the app. The product only works if the device produces a clean, repeatable scan every time. That's the job.

What you'll own • Device software architecture and embedded platform bring-up • Camera, lighting, and sensor control, including RGB/UV capture sequencing • Diagnostics, logging, recovery, and calibration hooks that make field failures debuggable • Device-to-app/backend bridge: pairing, provisioning, OTA updates • Reliability work from prototype through alpha to launch

What we're looking for • Embedded Linux on a shipped consumer product • Camera or imaging systems experience where capture consistency was the whole point • Strong C/C and Python; comfortable close to the hardware • High ownership, clear communication

Nice to have • EVT/DVT/PVT experience • Worked directly with overseas CMs and component vendors • Optics, color science, or calibration background

Comp & logistics Base $180K–$215K, founder-level equity, full benefits. Hybrid in Santa Monica, two days onsite.

Process Intro call → technical deep dive → paid work trial (5–10 hours) → references.