AI Research Scientist II

Reports to: Director of AI Research

Location: Seattle, WA office; hybrid (on-site Tues–Fri, remote Mondays unless accommodation approved).

About the role

Axon is seeking an applied Research Scientist to join an AI team focused on computer vision and machine learning. You will develop responsible AI capabilities that accelerate justice, protect truth, and save lives across enterprise and public safety domains. Your work will advance the state-of-the-art in CVML and multimodal technology, translate research into product features, and collaborate with product managers, engineers, and cross-functional partners.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with scientists, engineers, and product managers to build proof-of-concepts that shape Axon’s future.
• Lead end-to-end research in advanced computer vision, machine learning, and generative AI techniques for cloud and devices using multimodal data sources.
• Design and implement responsible, privacy-preserving, efficient, and scalable models for visual data inference and analysis.
• Develop performance and quality metrics for CVML models and validate effectiveness in real-world settings.
• Optimize algorithms for performance, memory footprint, and energy efficiency to meet resource-constrained device requirements.
• Stay current with CVML research and translate relevant findings into shipping Axon products.
• Contribute to academic publications, technical documentation, and patent disclosures to share insights with the broader community.

Requirements

• PhD (or equivalent research experience) plus at least 1 year of industry experience in Computer Science or a related field with a focus on computer vision, machine learning, or artificial intelligence.
• Proven track record of research in machine learning or computer vision.
• Experience owning the ML development lifecycle from problem definition and data strategy through model development, evaluation, deployment, and iteration in production.
• Strong computer vision fundamentals: image processing, feature extraction, object detection, semantic segmentation; ability to reason about trade-offs across accuracy, robustness, latency, and compute.
• Strong data-centric ML experience: dataset curation, labeling strategies, metric design, and analysis of long-tail and edge cases.
• Excellent problem-solving skills, analytical thinking, and ability to work independently and collaboratively.
• Proficiency in Python and frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or Keras.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to present complex technical concepts to technical and non-technical audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in video analysis, search, and/or action recognition.
• Experience developing computer vision algorithms for resource-constrained edge devices or embedded systems.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and 401k with employer match.
• Discretionary paid time off and paid parental leave.
• Medical, dental, and vision plans.
• Fitness programs and emotional & mental wellness support.
• Learning & development programs and employee resource groups.
• Snacks in offices.

Pay

Base Pay Range: $139,500 USD – $223,200 USD