Senior Motion Designer

Northern Trust • Chicago, IL

8d • $83,100 - $141,300 • Hybrid

About The Position

We're looking for a Senior Motion Designer to join our Creative team—a strategic visual storyteller with deep expertise in motion graphics, animation, visual effects, and scalable motion systems. This role will concept, design, animate, and deliver high-impact motion work across brand, campaign, social, digital, executive, and event channels while helping evolve how motion is created, governed, and scaled across the enterprise.
The Senior Motion Designer transforms strategy, scripts, briefs, and design direction into polished motion experiences that bring ideas to life with clarity, craft, and brand consistency.
This role spans motion graphics, animation, visual effects, typography in motion, storyboarding, style frames, concept development, editing, sound, color, and post-production for campaign videos, social content, digital advertising, executive communications, event content, explainers, templates, and modular motion assets.
The ideal candidate can own complex motion assignments from concept through delivery, elevate the brand’s motion language, build reusable systems and templates, and support scalable production models, self-service tools, and AI-enabled creative workflows.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in film, video production, motion design, animation, graphic design, or equivalent experience.
• 5-7+ years of motion design, animation, and video experience in an agency, in-house, studio, or production environment.
• Advanced proficiency in Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro; working knowledge of Photoshop, Illustrator, Media Encoder, Figma, Adobe Express, Adobe Firefly, and review tools.
• Experience in using MS Office (Word, Power Point) using Work Front or similar project management tool.
• Strong command of motion graphics, animation principles, visual effects, motion typography, editorial pacing, storytelling, sound, color, and finishing.
• Experience delivering content across channels, specifications, and formats, including 16:9, 1:1, 4:5, and 9:16.
• Knowledge of production and post-production workflows, file formats, codecs, media management, template creation, captioning, accessibility, and delivery standards.
• Ability to manage complex projects independently, collaborate effectively, and deliver high-quality work under deadline.
• Experience building reusable motion systems, templates, style frames, and asset libraries that enable consistent and scalable production.
• Strong portfolio or reel demonstrating motion graphics, animation, visual effects, storyboarding, style frames, and video work across campaigns and content types.

Nice To Haves

• Collaborative: navigates feedback, timelines, and stakeholder dynamics with a low-ego approach.
• Future-focused: curious about how emerging tools, AI-enabled workflows, and self-service models can responsibly support creative delivery.
• Story-first: uses editing and motion to communicate with clarity and impact.
• Growth-oriented: open to feedback, iteration, experimentation, and critique.
• Curious and proactive: asks smart questions, surfaces risks early, and pushes the work beyond “done.”

Responsibilities

• Design and animate motion graphics, typography, titles, transitions, visual effects, data visualizations, iconography, end cards, and branded motion elements.
• Bring complex ideas, messages, and brand stories to life through clear, engaging motion concepts and polished animation.
• Create cutdowns, versions, aspect ratios, and platform-specific motion adaptations while maintaining brand consistency.
• Translate briefs, scripts, data points, and creative direction into storyboards, style frames, animatics, and finished motion solutions.
• Explore visual approaches that balance strategic clarity, brand expression, accessibility, and production efficiency.
• Partner with creative, strategy, marketing, and production teams to shape motion narratives from concept through final delivery.
• Create modular motion systems, templates, toolkits, project structures, and reusable assets that enable consistent, efficient content production.
• Prepare editable motion files, production-ready templates, and exports that support repeatable use across teams, channels, and campaigns.
• Maintain organized libraries, archives, masters, version history, and source files to support ongoing reuse and governance.
• Apply enterprise visual identity, motion principles, and accessibility requirements with precision and consistency.
• Help define and evolve motion standards, governance guidance, templates, and best practices for scalable content creation.
• Ensure final work meets brand, accessibility, legal, licensing, technical, and quality requirements.
• Collaborate with creative leads, producers, designers, writers, marketing partners, and stakeholders from brief through delivery.
• Present editorial and motion decisions with clear rationale and recommendations.
• Balance multiple assignments, feedback rounds, deadlines, and priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Support scalable production models, self-service tools, and repeatable workflows that help teams create brand-aligned motion content more efficiently.
• Use tools such as Adobe Express, Adobe Firefly, Figma, and related creative technologies to explore concepts, accelerate production, and enable thoughtful experimentation.
• Surface production risks, rights or licensing needs, accessibility considerations, technical constraints, and efficiency opportunities early.

Benefits

• retirement benefits (401k and pension)
• health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability)
• paid time off
• parental and caregiver leave
• life & accident insurance
• other voluntary and well-being benefits
• discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior