Staff Motion Designer, Design Innovation

Pinterest•San Francisco, CA

9d•$158,765 - $326,870•Remote

About The Position

Pinterest is seeking a Staff Motion Designer to join its Design Innovation team and define and evolve the motion design language across Pinterest’s product surfaces and flagship features. This hands-on, horizontal role combines motion craft leadership, systems thinking, and design technology. The designer will establish reusable motion principles, patterns, tokens, and implementation guidance within the design system; collaborate with product and engineering teams on complex interaction challenges; and build tools and prototypes that help teams explore and ship high-quality motion at scale. The role spans individual interaction details and the cohesive Pinterest experience. It includes leading motion direction for flagship and AI-forward experiences, turning craft explorations into scalable system contributions, prototyping and validating ideas, and partnering with engineering through implementation. The designer will also develop or enable workflows and tools, apply AI-enabled motion and visual-creation tools thoughtfully, conduct quality reviews, mentor designers, and communicate motion decisions and their user impact to teams and leaders. The role can be situated anywhere in the country and requires in-office collaboration 1–2 times every six months. It is not eligible for relocation assistance. The stated U.S. base salary range is $158,765–$326,870, and the position is also eligible for equity.

Requirements

At least 8 years of experience in motion design, product design, interaction design, or a closely related discipline, with a portfolio demonstrating exceptional motion craft in shipped digital products or platforms.
A staff- or principal-level record of influencing across teams, shaping product or design-system direction, and raising quality without relying on formal authority.
Deep command of motion and interaction design principles, including timing, choreography, easing, spring behavior, feedback, and transitions, with sound judgment about motion’s effects on usability, comprehension, emotion, and trust.
Experience creating or materially evolving scalable motion systems, such as principles, token sets, pattern libraries, documentation, tooling, and governance that teams can adopt across products and platforms.
Demonstrated experience partnering closely with engineers to implement complex motion, with practical fluency in performance, technical constraints, platform conventions, handoff, and quality assurance.
A design technologist mindset and comfort using prototyping tools, AI, code, or technical workflows to explore ideas, communicate intent, and improve how teams design and build.
Strong product and systems thinking, connecting craft decisions to user needs, product strategy, accessibility, implementation efficiency, and measurable impact.
Excellent communication and storytelling skills, including synthesizing ambiguity, creating clear documentation, facilitating constructive critique, and aligning cross-functional partners.
A collaborative, low-ego working style and interest in learning, experimentation, mentoring, and inclusive design; consideration of reduced-motion preferences, cognitive load, and diverse user needs from the beginning of the design process.
A bachelor’s degree in design, animation, human-computer interaction, or a related field, or equivalent experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience defining motion for AI, conversational, multimodal, or other emerging product experiences.
Experience contributing to platform-wide design systems, public motion systems, or open-source animation libraries.
Experience building designer-facing or engineer-facing tools that improve motion prototyping, handoff, or implementation quality.
Experience in large-scale consumer products, personalization, or rapid experimentation environments.

Responsibilities

Define and evolve Pinterest’s motion design language, including principles, interaction and transition patterns, timing and tokens, specifications, and guidance.
Lead motion direction for flagship and AI-forward experiences, using motion to clarify state, cause and effect, hierarchy, feedback, progress, and system responsiveness.
Partner with product designers, engineers, product managers, researchers, and content designers to connect feature work to shared motion strategy and improve shipped experiences.
Turn high-craft explorations into scalable design system contributions that reduce ad hoc implementation, improve consistency, and help teams work confidently and efficiently.
Rapidly prototype and validate motion ideas using motion studies, design tools, code, AI-enabled tools, or custom prototypes.
Work with engineering during implementation to solve technically ambitious animation challenges while considering performance, platform conventions, accessibility, and maintainability.
Develop or enable lightweight tools, templates, and workflows that help designers explore ideas and engineering teams build sophisticated animations reliably.
Apply AI-enabled motion and visual-creation tools strategically to ideation, prototyping, and production while validating quality and owning final outcomes.
Conduct motion quality reviews, provide actionable feedback on designs and implementations, and mentor designers in motion principles, systems thinking, prototype craft, and engineering partnership.
Explain the rationale, tradeoffs, and user impact behind motion decisions to teams, leaders, and executives, and build alignment around motion craft and system quality.