Senior Agentic AI Research Scientist

Axon; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 159,750 - 255,600; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

401k with employer match

Discretionary paid time off

Paid parental leave

Medical, Dental, Vision plans

Fitness Programs

Emotional & Mental Wellness support

Job summary

Axon is seeking a Senior AI Research Scientist in Seattle, WA to develop AI solutions that enhance public safety and transform enterprise operations. You’ll collaborate with teams to build innovative AI applications focused on multimodal reasoning systems and video understanding.

This role is hybrid, promoting in-person teamwork while allowing flexible remote work on Mondays. Candidates should have a PhD and proficiency in machine learning tools. Axon offers competitive salaries and comprehensive benefits.

Qualifications

• PhD and 3+ years of experience in a relevant field.
• Proven track record in applied research or production impact.
• Strong understanding of computer vision fundamentals.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate to build proof-of-concepts for AI solutions.
• Lead research on AI-assisted reasoning using multimodal data.
• Design scalable models for visual data analysis.

Skills

Multimodal machine learning

Video understanding

Large language models

Analytical thinking

Proficiency in Python

Education

PhD in Computer Science or related field

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Keras

Job description

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.

Join Axon and be a Force for Good

Your Impact

We are seeking a skilled and innovative Senior AI Research Scientist to join a new team focusing on agentic video and multimodal reasoning systems. As a research scientist at Axon you will play a crucial role in developing AI solutions that transform both the enterprise and public safety domains and support our company’s mission: accelerate justice, protect truth, and save lives. You will advance the state-of-the-art in machine learning and multimodal technology and apply your research findings to create new responsible AI capabilities for Axon products. You will collaborate with product managers, engineers and cross‑functional teams to train models and develop cutting‑edge algorithms and solutions that enable intelligent perception and understanding of visual and multimodal data.

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. 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.

What You’ll Do

Reports to: Director of AI Research

Location: This role is based out of our Seattle, WA office and follows a hybrid schedule. We rely on in‑person collaboration and ask that team members work onsite Tuesdays through Fridays, with the flexibility to work remotely on Mondays, unless there is an approved workplace accommodation. We believe that connection fuels innovation, and our in‑office culture is designed to foster meaningful teamwork, mentorship, and shared success.

• Collaborate with other scientists, engineers and product managers to build proof‑of‑concepts to shape the Axon of tomorrow.
• Lead end‑to‑end research efforts in AI‑assisted universal search of and reasoning over large multimodal data with an emphasis on video understanding.
• Advance related computer vision, machine learning and gen‑AI techniques for cloud and devices from multimodal data sources, including scene understanding, action recognition and anomaly detection.
• Design and implement responsible, privacy‑preserving, efficient and scalable models for inference and analysis of visual data.
• Develop performance and quality metrics for agentic multimodal reasoning models and systems, and validate their effectiveness in real‑world settings.
• Stay up‑to‑date with the latest research and advances in agentic AI, machine learning and computer vision and translate relevant findings into shipping Axon products.
• Contribute to academic publications, technical documentation, and patent disclosures to share insights and findings with the broader community.
• Coach and mentor junior scientists.

What You Bring

• PhD and 3+ years of experience in Computer Science or a related field with a focus on multimodal machine learning, large language models, video understanding, information retrieval, agentic reasoning or related technical fields.
• Proven track record of applied research and/or production impact in multimodal learning, video‑language modeling, retrieval systems, foundation models, agentic systems, or RAG architectures.
• Experience owning and driving the ML development lifecycle from problem definition and data strategy through model development, evaluation, deployment, and iteration in production environments.
• Experience contributing to large‑scale ML and multimodal RAG systems including embeddings, indexing and vector search at scale, distributed training or inference workflows, evaluation and ranking optimization, agentic tool use, and grounding LLMs with external knowledge.
• Strong understanding of video analysis and temporal modeling as well as computer vision fundamentals and trade‑offs.
• Excellent problem‑solving skills, analytical thinking, and the ability to work independently as well as collaboratively in a team environment.
• Proficiency in Python and frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow or Keras.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to effectively present complex technical concepts to both technical and non‑technical audiences.

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

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: $159,750 USD - $255,600 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 [e-mail] 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, and 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 [e-mail]. Please note that this email address is for accommodation purposes only. Axon will not respond to inquiries for other purposes.