Job Description

Our mission is to protect life.

We’re out to make the world a safer place by solving big problems and taking on the public safety challenges of our time. From our company's inception building the TASER device to a full suite of hardware and software solutions, we are focused on providing police agencies with state-of-the-art devices and services they need to successfully serve and protect us. In the next few years, we're going to eliminate the burden of paperwork in policing, so officers can increase the time they spend building relationships and serving in their communities. We’ll put video at the heart of police records so our justice system can get to the truth faster. And we won't stop innovating until the bullet is rendered obsolete.

It’s a big mission, but it’s one we’ll pursue relentlessly every single day.

Your Impact

You aren’t like everybody else. You aim a little higher. You reach a little further. Your experience is much broader than just a previous career or a few past jobs. You've been listening, learning, and paying attention to recent events which have demonstrated to you why building world-class technology for Public Safety is so important. You do more because it matters to you.

You are a rabid writer, the creative daydreamer whose passion for making audiences feel emotionally connected to your stories is paired with your innate desire for social good. You’ll bring to life not just a single story but complex branching narrative systems that weave the elements of immersive sound design, 3D environments, character development, and dialogue — using decades of Law Enforcement experience to design and ship dozens of memorable learning experiences. As a Lead Narrative Systems Designer at Axon, you will play an important role in the creative process in which teams create and bring to life the playable characters that exist in our Simulator Training.

As part of Axon’s VR & AR team, you’ll be a key player driving new content ideas and working with VR and AR technologies to conceive, test and build immersive user experiences that will define the future of augmented and virtual reality use in Public Safety applications. We see leveraging the technology for training applications to be the first stop on our journey.

You will join an interdisciplinary team tackling the biggest challenges in public safety training head-on, including immersive VR-based empathy development training and de-escalation training to help officers engage with the communities they serve with greater awareness and safety.

As Lead Narrative Systems Designer for Axon’s Virtual and Augmented Reality program, you will be responsible for unleashing the creativity of the narrative design function, helping to tell impactful stories in dynamic virtual spaces, leveraging a specialized learning program that allow users to feel as though endless possibilities exist.

We seek to accomplish this while abiding to the following guiding principles:

• Build AR and VR Solutions for Social Good: With our mission to Protect Life, we develop AR & VR solutions that benefit both law enforcement and the community, while addressing key issues in society.
• Empower Agencies with Data: Deliver ongoing data and analysis that provide agencies with key insights that enable them to make decisions that result in building better, more efficient, and positive programs.
• Develop an Active and Diverse Virtual Platform: Leverage the latest in AR & VR technologies to create a robust portfolio of solutions and the highest-quality content, that enable users to be more effective in their roles and manage the challenges of 21st century public safety.
  
  

Responsibilities

• Ownership of the narrative design development process including all deliverables, all documentation that guides the creation of content, and the creative direction of the stories.
• Lead and mentor a team of fellow narrative designers to develop a consistent and engaging cadence of content.
• Create story outlines and project briefs of situations that can be compellingly represented and experienced in the simulation.
• Inspire teammates by participating constructively in production and content-related meetings with experts to design and share ideas for new scenarios, character personas, and virtual environments, highlighting specific details for the learner.
• Help to create narrative systems that can support the required interactions and gameplay of the VR/AR training scenarios.
• Drive forward the future of narrative interactions, by exploring new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP).
• Work with sound producers and design leadership to plan voiceovers, such writing/reviewing casting documents and providing talent direction in voice recording sessions.
• Ensure all VR content achieves the mentality of “Protect Life” with expert-backed Learning Outcomes.
• Be a strategic thought partner by improving writing workflows, script methodologies, and processes.
  
  

Basic Qualifications

• Minimum five (5) years of experience working in a Writer and/or Narrative Designer role in game development or related fields.
• An excellent understanding of non-linear narrative systems and structures, with demonstrated work.
• Knowledge of narrative design and scriptwriting tools (such as Final Draft, Inkle, Twine, etc.)
• Familiarity with scripting and/or programming tools.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, with experience pitching ideas and quickly storyboard for review.
• Experience working with voiceover directors and talent during VO recordings.
• A passion for Extended Reality (XR) technologies, such as Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR).
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in or with Public Safety, most notably law enforcement.
  
  

Compensation And Benefits

• Competitive salary and 401K with employer match.
• Discretionary paid time off.
• Robust parental leave policy.
• An award-winning office/working environment.
• Ride along with real police officers in real life situations, explore wide range of third-party VR content, get inspired.
• Get paid to play
• And more...
  
  

NOTE: 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 require legal eligibility to work in a firearms environment.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, creed, color, sex (including gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy, childbirth, or medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth), breastfeeding (or medical conditions relating to breast feeding), age, marital status, national origin or ancestry, genetic information, disability (including medical condition), veteran status, citizenship status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local, state, or federal law.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities and/or religious reasons to perform the essential functions of this position. Additionally, if you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability or religious reason for any part of the employment process, please send an email to recruitingops@axon.com. Please note that this email address is for accommodation purposes only. Axon will not respond to inquiries for other purposes.