Lead Animator II

Join Axon and be a Force for Good.

At Axon, we’re on a mission to Protect Life. We’re explorers, pursuing society’s most critical safety and justice issues with our ecosystem of devices and cloud software. Like our products, we work better together. We connect with candor and care, seeking out diverse perspectives from our customers, communities and each other.

Life at Axon is fast-paced, challenging and meaningful. Here, you’ll take ownership and drive real change. Constantly grow as you work hard for a mission that matters at a company where you matter.

Police primarily go though 40-hours of in-service training outside of the academy a year, where most of that time is spent on topics like firearm recertification, CPR recertification, and other various topics. There is not enough time to train on all the things police need to be aware of. Additionally, if they do learn it at their in-service, they practice it once or twice and then are expected to remember what they learned 8 months down the road when they encounter that situation, under stress. Our goal is to make training that can be more accessible, more memorable, and done more frequently. We call this “Roll Call” training and it is training that can be done before and after a shift to keep skills sharp. 

The problem we are trying to solve is simple: public-safety training is broken. When we think about the ways police train today, there are several key challenges: ineffective training, training that is not scalable, and cost. 

Axon’s VR team strives to create engaging and effective training that provides scenario feedback. Our mission is to help make Community Engagement Training and less-lethal weapon training (like TASER) so that officers are prepared to use these alternatives to Use of Force. Given that majority police interactions involve verbal and non-verbal interactions, we are putting an emphasis on hand gestures and natural language processing to factor in the trainee’s body language, as well as what they say and how they say it. The vision is that co-operatively will impact how the trainee interacts with the NPC (Non-Playable Characters) in the training scenario. During training, a trainer can observe and later provide feedback to the trainee. These tools connect back to the Axon Ecosystem, which consists of Axon Academy, Axon Evidence, Axon Performance, and Axon Standards.

Your Impact

We are working with cutting edge technology and need your help to make it all come together. You'll join a varied team focused on important public safety training topics. Your work will involve using virtual reality (VR) to enhance officers' empathy, coping, and de-escalation training to help officers engage with greater awareness and safety within their communities. 

We believe that happy teams make the best products, so we foster a welcoming, open, introspective team culture that encourages everyone to speak their mind, collaborate together, and have fun. The team conducts daily check-ins, open format meetings, as well as a weekly VR Happy Hour in headset! 

We believe we can only succeed if we deeply understand our customers and get to know them. We spend a lot of time with law enforcement officers to learn about their needs, watch their experience and understand the real impact of our work. We also work closely with our Axon Community Impact team, along with other community subject experts to create our content and curriculum to reflect the needs of both law enforcement + community.

What You’ll Do

Location: Work from home as much as you want, live nearby any of our awesome US R&D Hubs (Seattle, San Francisco, Scottsdale, Denver, Atlanta, or Boston) so you can easily collab in-person when it’s helpful and be an active part of our vibrant Axon culture. 
Reports to: Art Director, AR/VR 
Direct Reports: None

What about the day-to-day?

We are seeking a skilled and innovative Lead Animator with a well-developed focus on training and virtual reality (VR) to join our dynamic team. The ideal candidate will have a deep knowledge of Animation principles, narrative design, a passion for VR technologies, and experience animating realistic characters and with motion capture. You will work closely with Artists, Designers, Product Managers, Developers, and Subject Matter Experts to create natural animations for our VR training experiences that are both immersive and educational.

• Cross-functional leader, leading the development of Animation for Axon VR simulator
• Lead our Animation Team to build natural, believable character animation
• Work with Tech Artists and Tech Animators to define and advance the Animation Pipeline
• Create 2D storyboards and pre-visualizations of scenarios to support preproduction development
• Direct motion capture shoots at motion capture stages and at home.
• Collaborate with multiple disciplines across the VR Team (Art, Design, Content, Product, Engineering)

Additionally, we view training as the beginning of the possibilities for VR in public safety. We are looking for someone who sees the potential of other applications, as well as consider how Augmented Reality (AR) can also play a role in the right applications at the right time. This role is for virtual reality right now, but our team has the potential to push (with the the help of this role) further exploration into other immersive technologies and products.

What You'll Do

You will be responsible for writing rulesets and helping architect System Design for our Simulator product . You will help increase immersion, engagement, and scaling within our experiences through gameplay design and storytelling. 

Responsibilities include:

• Work with the Art Director to elevate the overall quality and believability of our characters. 
• Create realistic-natural character animations in Maya / MotionBuilder and ensure proper tech integration into Unity.
• Lead the Animation team and help drive the roadmap for improving our animations and animation systems.
• Direct and act in project motion capture shoots (in studio on-set and at home)
• Work with Game Designers and Developers
• Help grow the animation discipline and educate the VR team on the complexities of delivering high quality animation for real time
• Work with our subject matter experts to identify new animations that need to be created and added to our library
• Conduct user research, play-tests, and gather feedback to iterate and improve training simulations.
• Create detailed documents of our real-time animation workflow, for junior artists and vendors to reference.
• Stay up-to-date with the latest VR technologies, trends, and best practices to continuously enhance the quality and efficiency of our training solutions.

What You Bring

• Experience with leading teams of animators and artists. 
• Keen eye for motion and AAA bar for animation quality.
• Storytelling skills with experience developing engaging characters and narratives that support believable, immersive interactions
• Proficient in industry-standard game engines, including Unity and Unreal Engine.
• Ability to communicate ideas quickly through storyboard, sketches and rapid prototypes.
• Strong foundation in character design and a deep understanding of human anatomy.
• Technical expertise in building and optimizing real-time, dynamic animation pipelines in production environments.
• Experience designing and integrating AI-driven systems to enhance gameplay and character behavior.

Requirements:

• 8+ years of experience as an Animator, Bachelor's degree in Art, Computer Science, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• Proven leadership skills, including experience mentoring junior artists, presenting to stakeholders, and leading cross-functional projects.
• Proven experience animating for highly engaging VR, games, and or interactive training simulators.
• Technical expertise in implementing animations into game engines for validation and review.
• Proficiency in using game development tools and software such as Unity or Unreal Engine.
• Ability to animate and build prototypes in 3D and VR to test out ideas and concepts with the team.
• Deep knowledge of animation technologies, including hardware and AI software solutions.
• Great problem-solving skills and the ability to think critically and creatively.
• Solid communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work with and across multi-discipline team environments.
• Passion for creating impactful and compelling training experiences in VR.

Benefits that Benefit You

• Competitive salary and 401k with employer match
• Discretionary paid time off
• Paid parental leave for all
• Medical, Dental, Vision plans
• Fitness Programs
• Emotional & Mental Wellness support
• Learning & Development programs
• And yes, we have snacks in our offices

Benefits listed herein may vary depending on the nature of your employment and the location where you work.

The Pay: Axon is a total compensation company, meaning compensation is made up of base pay, bonus, and stock awards. The starting base pay for this role is between USD 118,500 in the lowest geographic market and USD 189,600 in the highest geographic market. The actual base pay is dependent upon many factors, such as: level, function, training, transferable skills, work experience, business needs, geographic market, and often a combination of all these factors. Our benefits offer an array of options to help support you physically, financially and emotionally through the big milestones and in your everyday life. To see more details on our benefits offerings please visit www.axon.com/careers/benefits.

Don’t meet every single requirement? That's ok. At Axon, we Aim Far. We think big with a long-term view because we want to reinvent the world to be a safer, better place. We are also committed to building diverse teams that reflect the communities we serve.

Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they check every box in the job description. If you’re excited about this role and our mission to Protect Life but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification listed here, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Important Notes

The above job description is not intended as, nor should it be construed as, exhaustive of all duties, responsibilities, skills, efforts, or working conditions associated with this job. The job description may change or be supplemented at any time in accordance with business needs and conditions.

Some roles may also require legal eligibility to work in a firearms environment.

Axon’s mission is to Protect Life and is committed to the well-being and safety of its employees as well as Axon’s impact on the environment. All Axon employees must be aware of and committed to the appropriate environmental, health, and safety regulations, policies, and procedures. Axon employees are empowered to report safety concerns as they arise and activities potentially impacting the environment.

We are an equal opportunity employer that promotes justice, advances equity, values diversity and fosters inclusion. We’re committed to hiring the best talent — regardless of race, creed, color, ancestry, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status, marital status, disability, gender identity, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances — and empowering all of our employees so they can do their best work. If you have a disability or special need that requires assistance or accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please email recruitingops@axon.com. Please note that this email address is for accommodation purposes only. Axon will not respond to inquiries for other purposes.