Sr. Technical Character Artist I

Axon • Seattle, WA

2d • $104,250 - $166,800 • Onsite

About The Position

Axon is hiring a Senior Technical Character Artist for its VR team, which builds immersive public-safety training for standalone VR headsets. The team develops scenario-based training—including community engagement, empathy, coping, de-escalation, and less-lethal weapon training—to help officers engage with communities more safely and effectively. Characters are central to these conversation-based scenarios, where trainees’ words and body language influence interactions with non-playable characters and trainers provide feedback afterward.

The Senior Technical Character Artist bridges art and technology for the team’s NPCs. The role owns character creation and character technology end to end, including MetaHuman-based workflows, parametric clothing, materials, and the delivery of visually compelling characters within the technical limitations of standalone headsets. The artist works with Art, Engineering, Content, UX, User Research, Tech Art, and Animation, and helps the wider art team produce and integrate content efficiently. This is a senior individual-contributor role expected to work independently, taking direction from the Art Director and Lead Technical Artist rather than requiring day-to-day management.

The position is based in Seattle, Washington, and reports to the Art Director, with daily and core direction from the Lead Technical Artist. It has no direct reports. The team works closely with law enforcement officers, community subject experts, and Axon’s Community Impact team. Axon describes its culture as open, collaborative, and friendly, with daily check-ins, open-format meetings, and a weekly VR Happy Hour.

Requirements

• Shipped at least one title as a Technical Character Artist or Character Artist.
• At least 5 years of experience working in the gaming and/or VR industry.
• At least 5 years of Unity or Unreal game-engine experience.
• Strong character-art skills and 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 clothing created inside Unreal Engine.
• Experience creating materials via node graphs or code.
• Experience using AI-assisted workflows, such as Cursor, Claude Code, or Tripo.
• Experience building tools and automation using AI toolsets.
• Experience creating realistic human characters.
• A portfolio showcasing character art and other relevant work.
• A track record of working independently and owning deliverables, including in ambiguous environments.
• Ability to work with cross-functional teams, including Engineering, Design, and Product.

Nice To Haves

• 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, such as ARKit-52 or similar.
• Experience with sculpting and texturing tools such as ZBrush and Substance Painter/Designer.
• Experience with cloth-authoring tools such as Marvelous Designer, and hair or groom experience using cards.
• Custom URP shader experience for skin, eyes, hair, and fabric.
• Mobile optimization experience, including LODs, topology, bone and blendshape budgets, and texture atlasing.

Responsibilities

• Create realistic human characters from concept through engine-ready assets.
• Own and evolve the MetaHuman-based character creation pipeline.
• Build and maintain parametric clothing workflows, including Chaos Cloth setup for clothing created in Unreal Engine.
• Skin and weight-paint characters and build corrective blendshapes.
• Author materials and shaders using node graphs or code for mobile hardware, including custom URP shaders for skin, eyes, hair, and fabric.
• Optimize characters for mobile hardware, including LODs, topology, bone and blendshape budgets, and texture atlasing.
• Build tools and automation using AI toolsets to accelerate character production.
• Use AI-assisted tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, and Tripo to speed production without compromising quality.
• Meet visual targets within polygon, texture, and draw-call budgets.
• Create production pipelines that improve rapid integration and testing.
• Document pipelines, set standards, and communicate methods to artists and software engineers.
• Collaborate with Tech Art and Animation so characters rig, deform, and animate well.
• Attend stand-ups and play tests, share progress, and provide feedback on the experience.
• Work with cross-functional partners, including Art, Engineering, Content, UX, User Research, Tech Art, and Animation.
• Help deliver immersive VR-based empathy, coping, and de-escalation training for public safety.

Benefits

• Competitive salary.
• 401(k) with employer match.
• Discretionary paid time off.
• Robust parental leave policy.
• Award-winning office and working environment.
• Opportunities to ride along with real police officers, explore third-party VR content, and get paid to play.
• Bonus and stock awards as components of total compensation.
• Benefits options intended to support employees physically, financially, and emotionally.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed