{"id":1939053,"url":"https://alion.io/job/overlay-head-of-engineering","title":"Head of Engineering","company":{"id":3806176,"name":"Overlay","domain":"overlay.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/overlay-5","size_band":"11-50","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Gem","truth_index":null},"role":"Leadership","role_family":"Leadership","seniority":"head","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Oakland, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":250000,"max":300000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":300000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":12,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Computer Vision","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-03T16:14:25Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-06","last_verified_at":"2026-10-13T23:28:22Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":10,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":10},"description":"About Overlay\nOverlay is building the world's first intelligent makeup robot, reimagining beauty application through robotics, perception, and design. As a venture-backed, pre-launch startup, we're defining a new category of personal robotics at the intersection of self-expression and engineering. We're a small team inventing what doesn't yet exist and turning it into something beautiful.\nAbout the Role\nWe're hiring a Head of Engineering to lead the team that takes Overlay's robot from working prototype to a manufactured consumer product. You will own the engineering organization, the technical roadmap for the hardware, and the relationship with our contract manufacturer in China as we move through EVT, DVT and PVT toward first customer shipments.\nThis is a player-coach role, split roughly 50/50 between engineering leadership and hands-on individual-contributor work. You will lead a team of experienced mechanical, robotics, and computer-vision engineers, and you will personally carry meaningful technical work in the hardware domain you know best, whether that's mechanical, electrical or mechatronics.\nYou will report directly to the CEO and work closely with cross-functional partners plus external vendors and our overseas manufacturing partners. You should expect regular travel to China over the next 12 months to ensure the first production run goes smoothly.\nWhat You'll Own\nLead, coach and grow Overlay's engineering team, setting priorities, unblocking work and holding a high bar for quality and pace.\nOwn the engineering roadmap and work closely with our software and mechanical leads to go from current prototypes through EVT, DVT, PVT and production ramp.\nServe as a key engineering counterpart to our contract manufacturer and suppliers in China, including on-site build support, DFM reviews, issue resolution and supplier qualification.\nCarry hands-on technical ownership of a core hardware domain (mechanical, electrical or mechatronics): architecture, design reviews, test plans and failure analysis.\nEstablish the engineering practices a consumer hardware company needs at this stage: requirements, design reviews, BOM and revision management, test and validation, and documentation.\nDrive reliability, safety and regulatory readiness for a device that operates close to the face, working with outside experts as needed.\nBuild the engineering culture: how we make decisions, give feedback, run reviews and support each other, with the same care for the people as for the hardware.\nRecruit, interview and onboard the next wave of engineers as the team grows, and shape roles and levels as the org scales.\nPartner with the CEO on technical strategy, budget, hiring plans and board-level updates on engineering progress.\nWhat We're Looking For\n12+ years of hardware engineering experience, with a degree in mechanical, electrical or mechatronics engineering or equivalent depth.\nYou have brought at least one consumer electronics product from concept through mass production and into customers' hands.\nDeep working knowledge of manufacturing: DFM, tooling, EVT/DVT/PVT, yield and quality systems, and what it takes to ramp with a contract manufacturer.\nExperience working directly with manufacturers and suppliers in China, and willingness to travel there regularly for builds and supplier visits.\n3+ years leading engineers, with a track record of building teams that people want to stay on and that ship.\nStill hands-on: you want to spend half your time designing, reviewing and debugging hardware, not only managing.\nComfortable making decisions with incomplete information and explaining the reasoning clearly to engineers, executives and partners.\nExperience with electromechanical systems that combine motors, sensors, embedded control and firmware, and enough fluency across disciplines to lead a cross-functional team.\nThrive in a small, resource-conscious startup where the job is to invent, build and ship.\nWhat Success Looks Like\nThe robot enters tooling and then ships to first customers as a reliable, scalable product.\nBuilds run smoothly because the team and the contract manufacturer share clear specs, owners and decisions.\nEngineers on the team describe the culture as demanding, supportive and clear about what matters. People know why their work matters, how it connects to what ships, and what great looks like.\nThe team trusts your judgment because you listen first, explain your reasoning, give credit generously and own mistakes openly, including your own.\nEngineers are energized by the work: they bring ideas forward without being asked, celebrate each other's wins and stay through the hard stretches because they believe in the product and in each other.\nThe team grows without losing quality, speed or cohesion, and new hires ramp quickly.\nBonus Points\nExperience with robotics, wearables or other products that operate close to the body.\nExperience with fluid handling, dispensing or consumable cartridge systems.\nFamiliarity with safety and regulatory paths for consumer devices.\nExperience taking a team from prototype builds to a first production ramp at a startup.\nWorking proficiency in Mandarin.\nWhy Join Overlay\nLead the engineering team that brings a category-defining consumer robot to market.\nWork across robotics, beauty, manufacturing and advanced product development.\nShape how a hardware engineering organization operates from its earliest days, and grow with it.\nStay hands-on: this is a role for a leader who still wants to build.\nJoin a small, ambitious, experienced team with high creative and technical ownership.\nReceive competitive compensation, early-stage equity and comprehensive benefits.\nCompensation and Benefits\nThe base salary range for this role is $250K - $300K, depending on experience and level. The package also includes early-stage equity, medical, dental and vision coverage, a 401(k) match, flexible time off and commuter benefits.","description_format":"text","description_chars":5928,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":12,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Flexible time off"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"China","iso":"CN","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Industrial Robotics","Machine Vision & 3D Cameras"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-06T01:39:16Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":78,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.781,"p_room":1,"age_days":9,"expected_fill_days":29,"reasons":["conf:1","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-13T05:45:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":300000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/overlay-head-of-engineering","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/overlay-head-of-engineering.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-14T00:11:13Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":349,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-15T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":3806176},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=3806176"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Foverlay-head-of-engineering"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Foverlay-head-of-engineering"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Foverlay-head-of-engineering"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/overlay-head-of-engineering\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Foverlay-head-of-engineering"}]}