Open role

About the role

Ester is looking for an exceptional computer vision & ML engineer to own the intelligence layer behind our skin analysis, recommendations, and long-term personalization. This is fundamentally a CV/ML and measurement-rigor role: you'll define what we measure, how we validate it, how we turn scans into useful insights, and how Ester gets smarter as users track their skin over time.

You won't need to be a dermatology or medical expert — we have a world-class advisory bench (leading dermatologists and Stanford Medical faculty) to supply clinical ground truth. What matters most is elite CV/ML judgment, rigor in defining and validating metrics, and high ownership in ambiguous systems.

A core near-term opportunity: our device captures more than standard photos, and you'll build proprietary models on novel capture modalities to make Ester's skin intelligence uniquely accurate — signal competitors relying on standard imaging can't match.

What you'll do

• Own the technical foundation for Ester's skin analysis, scoring, and recommendation systems, and build first-party models that progressively replace off-the-shelf analysis with our own validated metrics.

• Define metric semantics, quality bars, validation methods, and failure modes for consumer-facing skin insights.

• Build data and evaluation workflows that learn from longitudinal scans, routines, product usage, and outcomes.

• Make practical method choices across CV/ML, recommender systems, longitudinal models, and custom models.

• Build the foundation for product and routine recommendations based on skin analysis, user goals, and observed response.

• Partner with product, engineering, and our clinical advisors on safe claims, user-facing explanations, and validation.

What we're looking for

• Elite applied ML/CV and engineering execution, especially in real-world image systems. Depth here matters more than domain background — strong candidates from any rigorous imaging domain (consumer, autonomy, remote sensing, AR/beauty tech, scientific imaging) are encouraged.

• Strong data and evaluation instincts; comfort defining metrics, benchmarks, and failure modes from first principles, including where no established ground truth exists.

• Comfort collaborating with clinical advisors to translate expert guidance into models and validation.

• Product judgment around confidence, calibration, explainability, and recommendation quality.

• Interest or experience in recommendation systems, longitudinal modeling, personalization, or treatment-effect style measurement.

• Comfort owning ambiguous end-to-end systems with high accountability.

• Clear communication and rigor around validation and quality.

Bonus points

• Experience with dermatology/skin imaging, consumer health, beauty tech, or measurement products (a plus, not a requirement).

• Experience with recommendation systems, personalization, experimentation, or longitudinal user data.

• Experience with data labeling, benchmark workflows, model monitoring, image-quality gates, segmentation, or confidence semantics.

What success looks like

Success is making Ester's skin intelligence useful, trustworthy, and compounding.

Early success looks like:

• Clear standards for which skin insights are ready to show users.

• A practical validation process for accuracy, repeatability, explainability, and failure modes.

• A foundation for personalized product and routine recommendations.

• A thoughtful approach to learning from longitudinal data without overclaiming.

• A roadmap for where first-party CV/ML, recommendations, and longitudinal models create durable advantage.

Why this role is important

Ester's long-term advantage depends on building best-in-class skin intelligence internally.

Controlled scans, routines, product usage, and real skin outcomes create a rare opportunity to understand what is changing in a user's skin and personalize guidance over time. This role owns the systems that turn that signal into trustworthy skin metrics, smarter recommendations, and a proprietary learning loop.

What we offer

• Competitive salary and benefits.

• A high-energy and fast-moving environment with lots of growth potential.

• The chance to take a high-end consumer product from concept through launch and into users' homes.

• Direct access to a world-class advisory bench — leading dermatologists and Stanford Medical faculty — so you get clinical guidance without needing to be a domain expert yourself.

How to apply

Drop us an email at hello@ester.health!