Motion Designer at Pinterest

Millions of people worldwide visit Pinterest to discover creative inspiration, explore new possibilities, and plan meaningful experiences that become lifelong memories.

At Pinterest, our mission is to inspire everyone to create a life they love, and that mission begins with the talented people behind our platform.

Build a career where you drive innovation for millions of users, turn your passion into opportunities for growth, celebrate diverse perspectives, and enjoy the flexibility to deliver your best work. At Pinterest, creating a career you love is possible.

Artificial intelligence is more than just a feature at Pinterest. It is a powerful tool that enhances creativity and expands our impact.

We welcome candidates who are enthusiastic about working with AI. Throughout the recruitment process, we aim to understand your fundamental skills, professional experience, and ability to collaborate effectively with AI.

Our interview process focuses on your ability to explain your thinking and approach. We want to understand not only what you know but also how you solve problems and make decisions.

More information about our AI philosophy and its role in recruitment is available on Pinterest’s careers website.

Pinterest is seeking an experienced and innovative Staff Motion Designer to join its Design Innovation team. In this role, you will shape and advance the motion design language that delivers clarity, consistency, and engaging experiences across Pinterest’s products, platforms, and major features.

This is a hands-on, cross-functional position that requires a combination of exceptional motion design skills, strategic thinking, and technical design expertise.

You will develop reusable motion principles, patterns, design tokens, and implementation guidelines for the company’s design system.

You will also collaborate with product and engineering teams to address complex interaction challenges and create tools and prototypes that support the development of high-quality motion experiences at scale.

Your contributions will influence everything from individual user interactions to the overall Pinterest experience.

What You’ll Do

• Establish and continuously improve Pinterest’s motion design language, including principles, interaction patterns, transitions, timing, design tokens, technical specifications, and documentation to ensure consistency, accessibility, and reusability.
• Guide motion design for major product launches and AI-powered experiences, using animation to communicate interface states, user actions, visual hierarchy, feedback, progress, and system responses.
• Collaborate across product design, engineering, product management, research, and content teams to align individual projects with a unified motion strategy and improve the quality of delivered products.
• Transform creative motion concepts into scalable design system resources that minimize inconsistent implementations, strengthen product consistency, and help teams work more efficiently.
• Develop and test motion concepts using appropriate methods, including animation studies, design applications, coding, AI-powered tools, and custom prototypes, to communicate ideas and support faster decision-making.
• Work directly with engineering teams to deliver technically advanced animations while considering performance, platform standards, accessibility, and long-term maintainability.
• Create or support lightweight tools, templates, and workflows that help designers experiment with motion and enable engineers to implement sophisticated animations consistently.
• Keep up with emerging AI-powered motion and visual creation technologies, using them strategically to improve brainstorming, prototyping, and production while maintaining quality control and accountability for final results.
• Review motion designs and implementations, provide constructive recommendations, and mentor designers in animation principles, systems thinking, prototyping, and effective engineering collaboration.
• Communicate the reasoning, technical considerations, and user benefits behind design decisions to colleagues, management, and executive stakeholders while promoting high standards for motion design and system quality.

What We’re Looking For

• At least 8 years of professional experience in motion design, product design, interaction design, or a related field, supported by a portfolio showcasing outstanding motion work in launched digital products or platforms.
• Proven experience operating at staff or principal level, influencing multiple teams, establishing product or design-system strategies, and improving design quality without depending on formal leadership authority.
• Advanced knowledge of motion and interaction design principles, including timing, choreography, easing, spring animations, visual feedback, and transitions, with the ability to determine when motion improves usability, understanding, emotional connection, and user confidence.
• Experience developing or significantly improving scalable motion systems, including design principles, token libraries, reusable patterns, documentation, tools, and governance processes that can be adopted across products and platforms.
• A strong track record of working with engineers to implement complex animations, with practical knowledge of performance optimization, technical limitations, platform conventions, design handoff, and quality assurance.
• A design technologist approach, with the ability to use prototyping applications, AI tools, coding, and technical workflows to explore concepts, communicate design intentions, and improve collaboration between design and engineering teams.
• Strong product and systems thinking, with the ability to connect creative decisions to user requirements, business objectives, accessibility, implementation efficiency, and measurable outcomes.
• Excellent communication and presentation abilities, including simplifying complex ideas, producing clear documentation, facilitating constructive design reviews, and building alignment among cross-functional teams.
• A collaborative and open-minded approach, with enthusiasm for experimentation, continuous learning, mentorship, and inclusive design. You should consider reduced-motion settings, cognitive demands, and the different needs of users throughout the design process.
• A bachelor’s degree in design, animation, human-computer interaction, or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience.

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience designing motion for AI-powered, conversational, multimodal, or other emerging digital experiences.
• Contributions to large-scale design systems, publicly available motion frameworks, or open-source animation libraries.
• Experience developing tools for designers or engineers that improve motion prototyping, design handoff, and implementation quality.
• Background working on large consumer-facing platforms, personalized products, or environments that support rapid experimentation.

Join Pinterest and help establish the motion design language for its next generation of products. Your work will make experiences more intuitive, engaging, and distinctly Pinterest while strengthening design quality, user trust, and consistency for millions of users.

In-Office Requirements

Pinterest understands that the ideal working environment varies depending on individual roles and departmental needs. Daily work arrangements may differ across teams and responsibilities.

This position requires in-person collaboration at the office approximately one to two times every six months. As a result, the successful candidate may be based anywhere within the country.

Relocation Policy

Relocation assistance is not available for this position. Candidates can visit Pinterest’s PinFlex careers page for additional information about the company’s flexible working arrangements.

Job Classification: #LI-REMOTE

Salary and Benefits

Pinterest is committed to maintaining an equitable, inclusive, and supportive workplace for all employees.

To promote transparency, the company provides the base salary range for this position. The role is also eligible for equity compensation.

Final compensation will depend on several considerations, including the candidate’s location, travel requirements, relevant professional experience, and specialized skills.

Additional details about Pinterest’s workplace culture and employee benefits are available on the company’s careers website.

Application Eligibility: Applicants based in the United States only.

Annual Base Salary Range: $158,765 – $326,870 USD.