Sr. Technical Character Artist I

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. Job Description: Senior Technical Character Artist, VR Join Axon and Be a Force for Good At Axon, we're committed to our mission of Protecting Life. We stand at the forefront of tackling society's most pressing safety and justice challenges. Our approach combines innovative devices and cloud software into a comprehensive ecosystem, all driven by collaboration, empathy, and diverse perspectives from those we serve and work with. At Axon, you're not just a team member; you're a key player in a global mission to make a significant difference. We connect with candor and care, seeking out diverse perspectives from our customers, communities and each other. We are on a moonshot mission to reduce police-related gun violence by 50% over the course of 10 years. Build VR Solutions for Social Good Police primarily go through 40 hours of in-service training a year outside of the academy, and most of that time goes to topics like firearms and CPR recertification. There is not enough time to train on everything police need to be aware of. Officers who do learn a skill at in-service practice it once or twice, then are expected to remember it eight months later, under stress. Our goal is training that is more accessible, more memorable, and done more frequently. We call this "Roll Call" training: training that can be done before and after a shift to keep skills sharp. Public-safety training is broken. Today's training is ineffective, not scalable, and expensive. Axon's VR team creates engaging, effective training with scenario feedback, including Community Engagement Training and less-lethal weapon training (like TASER), so officers are prepared to use alternatives to Use of Force. Most police interactions are verbal and non-verbal, so we emphasize hand gestures and natural language processing. The trainee's body language, what they say, and how they say it all shape how they interact with NPCs (Non-Playable Characters) in the scenario. A trainer observes these interactions and gives feedback in a post-training debrief, and every product ties back into the Axon ecosystem through Axon Academy, Axon Evidence, Axon Performance, and Axon Standards. Your Impact You will join an interdisciplinary team tackling the biggest challenges in public safety training head-on, including immersive VR-based empathy, coping and de-escalation training that helps officers engage with the communities they serve with greater awareness and safety. As one of the expanding members of Axon's VR team, the Senior Technical Character Artist is the bridge between art and technology for our NPCs. Because most training is a conversation, the believability of our characters carries the training. You will own character creation and character technology for our standalone-headset training simulators, from MetaHuman-based workflows to parametric clothing and materials, and help the rest of the art team deliver the best possible content under our technical restrictions. You will partner with Art, Engineering, Content, UX and User Research to deliver the best immersive quality for our trainings. This is a senior role. We expect you to work independently, own your area end to end, and take direction from the Lead Technical Artist and the Art Director rather than needing day-to-day management. We believe happy teams make the best products, so we foster a friendly, open, introspective team culture that encourages everyone to speak their mind, collaborate, and have fun. The team runs daily check-ins and open-format meetings, plus a weekly VR Happy Hour in headset. We spend a lot of time with law enforcement officers to learn about their needs and see the real impact of our work, and we work closely with our Axon Community Impact team and community subject experts so our content reflects the needs of both law enforcement and community. Role Details • Location: Seattle, WA • Reports to: Art Director (Receives daily and core direction from Lead Tech Artist) • Direct reports: None • Level: L8 • Platform: VR training simulators on standalone headsets What You'll Do You will be a key member of the VR Art Team with a critical role in how our characters are built, clothed, and rendered. On any given day you may find yourself: • Creating realistic human characters from concept through engine-ready assets • Owning and evolving our MetaHuman-based character creation pipeline • Building and maintaining parametric clothing workflows, including Chaos Cloth setup for clothing created inside Unreal Engine • Skinning and weight-painting characters, and building corrective blendshapes • Authoring materials and shaders, via node graphs or code, that hold up on mobile hardware (including custom URP shaders for skin, eyes, hair, and fabric) • Optimizing characters for mobile: LODs, topology, bone and blendshape budgets, and texture atlasing • Building tools and automation using AI toolsets to speed up character production • Using AI-assisted tools (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code, Tripo) to accelerate production without compromising quality • Meeting visual targets within polygon, texture, and draw-call budgets • Creating production pipelines that improve rapid integration and testing • Documenting pipelines, setting standards, and communicating methods to other artists and software engineers • Collaborating with Tech Art and the Animation team so characters rig, deform, and animate well • Attending stand-ups and play tests to share progress and give notes on how the experience is playing What You Bring • Shipped at least one title as a Technical Character Artist or Character Artist • Strong skills as a character artist, with a good eye for anatomy, form, and likeness • Experience with the MetaHuman pipeline for character creation • Experience with parametric clothing, including working knowledge of Chaos Cloth for creating clothing inside Unreal Engine • Experience creating materials via graph or code • Experience using AI-assisted workflows (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code, Tripo) • Experience building tools and automation using AI toolsets • Experience with realistic human character work • A portfolio demonstrating past work • A track record of working independently and owning your deliverables, including in ambiguous environments • Ability to work with cross-functional teams, including Engineering, Design, and Product Requirements • Portfolio showcasing the best of your work in character art and any other relevant materials • 5+ years working in the gaming and/or VR industry • 5+ years of Unity or Unreal game engine experience Preferred • Unity experience (strongly preferred) • Experience with VR or mobile VR • Unreal Engine experience • Skinning and weight-painting expertise, including corrective blendshapes • Blendshape and facial rig knowledge (ARKit-52 or similar) • Sculpting and texturing tools (ZBrush, Substance Painter/Designer) • Cloth authoring tools (Marvelous Designer) and hair or groom experience (cards) • Custom URP shader experience for skin, eyes, hair, and fabric • Mobile optimization experience: LODs, topology, bone and blendshape budgets, texture atlasing Benefits That Benefit You • Competitive salary and 401K with employer match • Discretionary paid time off • Robust parental leave policy • An award-winning office and working environment • Ride along with real police officers in real-life situations, explore a wide range of third-party VR content, get inspired • Get paid to play • And more Axon is a total compensation company, meaning compensation is made up of base pay, bonus, and stock awards. 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 https://www.axon.com/careers . Base Pay Range $104,250 — $166,800 USD 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. We collect personal information from applicants to evaluate candidates for employment. You may request access, deletion, or exercise other CCPA rights at axongreenhousesupport@axon.com or via our Axon Privacy Web Form . For more information, please see the Your California Privacy Rights section of our Applicant and Candidate Privacy Notice. 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. Phishing alert: Axon will never ask you to pay for any part of the hiring process, including training, equipment, or background checks. We do not make job offers via text message, WhatsApp, or instant messaging platforms without a formal interview process. All legitimate job openings are listed on our official careers page at https://www.axon.com/careers . If you receive a suspicious offer or outreach from an email address that is not @axon.com , or if you are asked for sensitive personal information (bank details, Social Security Number) prematurely, please ignore the message and report it to recruitingops@axon.com .