In the ongoing quest to out-recruit the competition, one company took to the waters of Seattle on Tuesday to try and grab the attention of engineers who may want to jump ship.
Axon, which makes hardware and software for law enforcement, such as body cameras, rented a boat at the Electric Boat Company on Lake Union and motored up the Ship Canal past the waterfront offices of Google and Tableau in Fremont. A giant black sign draped over the vessel read, “Write code. Save Lives. Axon.io.”
Sydney Siegmeth, public relations director for the company, which is a business unit of Taser International, said the mission was to draw attention to the mission: “Protect Life. Protect Truth.”
“We are a very mission-driven company and we’re looking to hire people that want to work on an impactful mission to help make communities safer,” Siegmeth told GeekWire. “Whether it’s protecting truth one line of code at a time or protecting lives through our devices like body cameras for police, you’ll be making a difference.”
Siegmeth said the recruiting pirates were targeting software engineers (front end, back end, full stack, iOS, test engineers, .NET, Android, Dev/Ops) to help the company build tools for law enforcement. Last month, Axon landed a $28 million contract to build body cameras for all front-line officers in the Los Angeles Police Department.
The company currently employs 85 people in the Axon office and wants to add 30 by the end of this year and another 100 by the end of next year.
“We’re willing to get creative to attract the best talent out there,” Siegmeth said. “Whether that means building the Geekiest Office in Seattle, disrupting lunch at Google or Tableau with a boat in the Fremont Cut or giving away Tesla Model 3’s for eligible new hires.”
The boat made about five passes during its mission on Tuesday and even attracted the attention of a Seattle Police Department Harbor Patrol boat. Siegmeth said the SPD officers were “suspicious” and then “excited” by the Good Ship Axon’s antics.
