Sound Designer, Virtual/Augmented Reality
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.
For this position, we will only consider U.S. based applicants at this time.Your Impact
We are working with cutting edge technology and need your help to make it all come together. You will join an interdisciplinary team tackling the biggest challenges in public safety training head-on, including immersive VR based empathy, coping and de-escalation training to help officers engage with the communities they serve, with greater awareness and safety. 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.
As one of the founding members for Axon’s XR Studio, you will be responsible for bringing our VR content to life with planning and prototyping and also throughout production development and launch. We are seeking a Sound Designer to compose, design, implement and iterate on the platform, applications (both VR and Mobile) and video content that make up our VR and AR-based training. You will partner with design, art, user research, product and multiple engineering teams and elevate our immersive experiences with innovative sound design to create VR training experiences that revolutionize police training.
Our AR/VR Team Culture
We believe that happy teams make the best products, so we foster a friendly, open, introspective team culture that encourages everyone to speak their mind, collaborate together, and have fun. (The team has weekly VR happy hours in headset.)
We believe we can only succeed if we deeply understand our customers and get to know them. We spend a lot of time with law enforcement officers to learn about their needs, watch their experience and see the real impact of our work. We also work closely with our Axon Community Impact team, along with other community subject experts to create our content and curriculum to reflect the needs of both law enforcement + community.
Your Day-to-Day
You will be driving all sound design decisions and across the VR development team, prototyping new experiences and technologies and designing and implementing our audio for our core shipping products. You will be a strategic partner to UX, Art, Product Management and Design when identifying product features. On any given day you may find yourself:
- Planning, sound design, and audio implementation of a next generation feature that is a part of your current sprint such as the refinement of an NPC dialogue, spatialized environmental audio, or a cinematic intro scene.
- Recording a voice actor at your studio in the office and guiding the talent.
- Communicating with the team in standup about a problem that you are prioritizing.
- Creating or modifying the interaction audio for mobile or in-VR UI.
- Reviewing requirements, specifications and technical design documents to provide timely and impactful feedback.
- Exploring the latest audio tools and plugins.
- Collaborating with a Unity Engineer to help you troubleshoot a script you wrote so that you can better implement or automate your design vision into the scene.
- Contributing to or leading the strategy of a new development pipeline.
- Participate in design and code reviews with colleagues.
- Composing a new environmental audio track or creating the perfect achievement flourish effect or selecting the perfect soundtrack for a launch video.
- Exploring the tech and performing feasibility analysis on features with the Design and PM team before they finalize a long term roadmap.
- Ideation and documentation of the Axon VR sound design best practices and design language.
Basic Qualifications
- Minimum five (5) years of professional sound design experience.
- Deep experience designing for and shipping customer facing applications or games
- Experienced across sound design, DSP processing/editing, audio implementation, foley, spatial audio, field recording, and in studio recording sessions.
- You have a deep knowledge of game audio implementation tools and technologies.
- Exceptional design sense and sound design taste.
- Experience collaborating with Art and Engineering to implement sound design in-engine (Unity/Unreal).
- A portfolio demonstrating your passion and quality for sound design and XR
- Experience designing within XR technical, optimization, render performance and implementation constraints.
- Works effectively with cross-functional teams
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience working on mobile VR.
- Experience working in game development industry.
- Deep programming experience.
- You want use technology to make a positive impact.
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, see them use technology, get inspired
- Get paid to play
- And more...
#LI-REMOTE
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.