AI Research Scientist II

Axon•Seattle, WA

3h•$139,500 - $223,200•Hybrid

About The Position

Axon is seeking an applied Research Scientist to join an AI team focused on computer vision and machine learning (CVML). The role develops AI solutions for enterprise and public safety applications, advances CVML and multimodal technology, and turns research findings into responsible AI capabilities for Axon products. The scientist works with product managers, engineers, and cross-functional teams to train models and develop algorithms for intelligent perception and understanding of visual data. The position leads end-to-end research in advanced computer vision, machine learning, and generative AI techniques for cloud and device applications using multimodal data. It includes designing responsible, privacy-preserving, efficient, and scalable models; validating model and system performance in real-world settings; and optimizing for resource-constrained devices. The role also contributes to academic publications, technical documentation, and patent disclosures. The position reports to the Director of AI Research and is based in Axon’s Seattle, Washington office. It follows a hybrid schedule: onsite Tuesday through Friday, with remote work available on Mondays unless an approved workplace accommodation applies.

Requirements

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

Nice To Haves

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

Responsibilities

Collaborate with scientists, engineers, and product managers to build proof-of-concepts that shape future Axon products.
Lead end-to-end research in advanced computer vision, machine learning, and generative AI techniques for cloud and devices using multimodal data, including scene understanding, action recognition, and anomaly detection.
Design and implement responsible, privacy-preserving, efficient, and scalable models for inference and visual-data analysis.
Develop performance and quality metrics for CVML models and systems and validate their effectiveness in real-world settings.
Optimize algorithms for performance, memory footprint, and energy efficiency on resource-constrained devices.
Monitor research and advances in CVML and translate relevant findings into Axon products.
Contribute to academic publications, technical documentation, and patent disclosures.