Motion Designer (Contract)
Role & Responsibilities
Design and Animate Motion Graphics Across Brand Touchpoints: Create motion design work across hero videos, product explainers, social content, investor deck animations, lower thirds, title cards, transitions, and logo mnemonics. Your work spans everything from short, punchy social cutdowns to sustained motion sequences that carry a brand identity across an entire piece.
Kinetic Typography and Data Visualization: Animate type and data in ways that communicate complex deep tech concepts clearly. This includes technical infographics, timeline animations, statistics reveals, process diagrams, and typographic sequences that carry narrative weight in videos where 3D animation alone isn't enough.
Build Motion Systems for Brand Identity: Design repeatable motion elements that extend a client's brand identity into moving contexts, including logo reveals, transition libraries, animated template systems for social and internal use, and the motion "grammar" that becomes part of a brand's audio-visual identity. Your motion systems should let client teams generate consistent content on their own after handoff.
Integrate with 3D and Video Work: Layer 2D motion over 3D renders and finished video, coordinating with 3D animators, storyboard artists, and editors to make sure your work strengthens the piece as a whole. This includes designed callouts, technical annotations, transitions between shots, and typographic elements that clarify or emphasize what the visual is showing.
Deliver Across Formats and Platforms: Produce motion deliverables optimized for the platform they'll appear on: video edits for the hero piece, scroll-triggered Lottie animations for the website, aspect-ratio-specific cuts for LinkedIn, X, and Instagram, and looped or bumper versions for internal use. You know when to build once and export many times, and when a format needs its own dedicated design.
Collaborate with Designers, Directors, and the 3D Team: Work within established brand systems and respond to creative direction from art directors and creative directors. You participate actively in creative reviews, provide input on how motion decisions ladder up to brand identity, and coordinate with the 3D team to ensure integrated pieces feel unified rather than assembled.
Qualifications
Passion for Deep Tech: You must love deep tech and be genuinely excited by cutting-edge technologies.
Portfolio & Experience: Professional experience creating motion design work for brand, commercial, product, or editorial contexts. Your portfolio must demonstrate both design fundamentals (type, layout, color, composition) and animation craft (timing, easing, choreography). A reel of animated templates without underlying design thinking is not the right fit.
Technical Proficiency: Expert-level After Effects. Strong proficiency in Illustrator and Photoshop for design work, and comfort with Cinema 4D or Blender for 2.5D and light 3D motion work within After Effects. Familiarity with expressions, plugins (Trapcode Suite, Plexus, Element 3D), and efficient project structure.
Design Fundamentals: Strong grounding in graphic design. You understand type systems, layout, color, hierarchy, and composition, and you can design a frame from scratch, not just animate one someone else designed. This is a design-forward role first and an animation role second.
Kinetic Typography: Demonstrated ability to animate type in ways that support meaning rather than distract from it. You understand pacing, rhythm, and legibility, and you know when to reach for elaborate type animation and when a clean cut is stronger.
Data Visualization and Infographic Motion: Comfort translating data, technical processes, and abstract concepts into clear animated visuals. Deep tech clients often need to explain how something works or why it matters, and motion is one of the most effective tools for that job.
Web-Ready Delivery: Experience producing motion assets optimized for web contexts, including Lottie/Bodymovin exports, scroll-triggered animations, and understanding of how motion assets integrate with tools like Webflow. You know the performance and format constraints that apply to motion on the web.
Working Within Brand Systems: Ability to work within established visual identity systems and extend them into motion respectfully. You understand that motion design for brand work is about serving the identity, not showcasing personal style at the identity's expense.
Pipeline Awareness: Understanding of where your work sits in the broader production pipeline, including how motion design integrates with 3D animation, video edit, and web development downstream. You structure your projects and exports in a way that supports the whole team.
Communication & Teamwork: Excellent communication skills. You can talk to designers about design intent, to directors about pacing and tone, and to developers about how your work needs to be integrated. Since our team is distributed, you need to be comfortable working remotely, collaborating via Slack and Zoom, and proactively communicating status and blockers.
Tech Savvy & Curiosity: A genuine passion for technology and innovation is important. Our clients are building world-changing tech in AI, robotics, biotech, aerospace, and more. Your enthusiasm for these domains will help you produce motion work that communicates their technologies with the clarity they deserve.
Bonus Skills: Experience with Rive or Cavalry is a plus, especially for interactive and procedural motion work. Familiarity with Houdini for procedural design, cel animation techniques for character or organic motion, or sound design and audio-driven animation will help your work stand out. Any prior work in aerospace, defense, robotics, semiconductors, medical devices, or industrial visualization will help you understand our clients faster.
About HAUS
HAUS is the world’s first integrated public relations and creative services agency purpose built for deep tech startups and scaleups. In January 2022, we set out on a mission to accelerate the adoption of technologies that maximize freedom, material abundance, and human flourishing. Since then, we’ve had the opportunity to support more than 100 startups, scaleups, venture firms, research labs, and other organizations in industries including artificial intelligence, aerospace, biotechnology, climate, defense, energy, advanced manufacturing, quantum computing, semiconductors, robotics, and more.
Compensation & Contract Details
Compensation: Competitive; depends on experience and market rates
Location: Remote (work from anywhere, no specific location requirements).
Job Type: Freelance contract
This role is a temp-to-perm opportunity. We’re initially engaging on a freelance/contract basis to ensure a great mutual fit. That means you’ll have a chance to show off your skills and see how you enjoy working with our team, and we’ll get to see how you fit into our workflow and company culture. If everything goes well, there’s a strong possibility of it turning into a permanent full-time position at HAUS. It’s an exciting chance to prove yourself and potentially secure a long-term role doing work you love with us!