About Thesis Thesis is an independent agency working at the intersection of creativity, strategy, and technology. We partner with ambitious brands to solve complex business and marketing challenges and create ideas, experiences, and systems built to scale. We're evolving how we work to bring thinking and making closer together, build more accountable teams, and use technology and AI to expand what's creatively possible. Role Overview As a Senior Motion Designer at Thesis, you are a master visual storyteller, craftsperson, and creative problem solver responsible for shaping and delivering high-impact animation and motion graphics across brand, digital, campaign, and content experiences. You are both a thinker and a maker with refined visual taste, strong storytelling instincts, and deep technical execution skills. You know how to translate complex ideas and static brand systems into dynamic motion that elevates narrative, strengthens brand identity, and drives audience engagement. You take end-to-end ownership of the craft - from conceptualization, styleframe design, and storyboarding through final animation, sound integration, and technical delivery - while staying close enough to the work to meaningfully shape and elevate it. Embedded within multidisciplinary teams, you roll up your sleeves to push creative boundaries, collaborate closely with design, editorial, and creative leads, and mentor emerging motion designers, helping raise the creative and technical bar across the agency.
Key Responsibilities
Motion Craft & Creative Execution
- Lead the design and animation of motion content across social, product, brand, campaign, and experiential assets.
- Translate static design systems, typography, and storyboards into compelling motion, ensuring intentional pacing, visual rhythm, and brand alignment.
- Develop styleframes, storyboards, and motion prototypes for internal exploration and client-facing reviews.
- Master technical execution and delivery from start to finish, including clean project file organization, render optimization, audio synchronization, and multi-format output.
Multidisciplinary Collaboration
- Partner closely with Creative Directors, Art Directors, Designers, Copywriters, and Editors to shape cohesive visual narratives and unified brand systems.
- Participate actively in creative brainstorms and concept development, offering proactive ideas and provocations for how motion can elevate storytelling.
- Collaborate cross-functionally across Strategy, Technology, and Production to reduce handoffs, protect creative ambition, and ensure seamless delivery.
AI, Technology & Making
- Use AI and emerging design and animation tools to accelerate exploration, prototype motion concepts, and increase the creative leverage of the team.
- Partner with Creative and Technology leads to explore new animation workflows, rendering techniques, and tools that keep Thesis's motion language fresh and forward-looking.
- Scale creative output with modern technology without replacing human craft, originality, and artistic judgment.
Mentorship & Craft Standards
- Mentor and guide junior motion designers and interns through constructive feedback, timing critique, and technical troubleshooting.
- Set a high creative and technical standard across the motion discipline while fostering ownership, craft rigor, and autonomy within the team.
- Balance creative ambition with scope, timing, technical constraints, and project realities.
Who You Are
- A seasoned motion designer with 5–7 years of professional experience crafting animation and motion graphics in an agency, content studio, or in-house creative setting.
- A thinker and a maker with deep mastery of core animation principles - timing, easing, spatial rhythm, typography, composition, and visual flow.
- An expert in Adobe After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop, and video editing workflows (Premiere), with working knowledge of 3D software (Cinema 4D, Blender) and sound sync.
- A compelling visual storyteller who can build belief in ideas through styleframes, motion tests, and articulate rationale.
- Curious and experimental with AI, emerging technology, and new ways of making and animating.
- Highly organized, detail-oriented, and comfortable managing multiple deliverables and shifting priorities through ambiguity and fast agency cycles.
- Collaborative, accountable, low-ego, and passionate about elevating the craft and the people around you.
- Bachelor’s degree in Motion Design, Animation, Graphic Design, or equivalent practical experience.
Relationships
- Reports to: Motion Design Lead or Creative Director, Motion
- Direct Reports & Teams: Mentors, guides, and supports Junior Motion Designers and Motion Design Interns across projects
- Internal Cross-Functional Partners: Collaborates with Art Directors, Copywriters, Designers, Creative Directors, Strategy Leads, UX/Product Designers, Editors, Sound Designers, and Production Partners
- External Partners: Serves as a motion design specialist in client-facing presentations and collaborates with external production partners and vendors
Work Environment and Physical Demands The following capabilities are required in order to perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations that do not create an undue burden on the agency are available to address the following requirements:
- Using standard office equipment, computers, and related technology.
- Certain activities are performed in an environmentally controlled office setting subject to extended periods of sitting, keyboarding, and manipulating a computer mouse.
- Bending, reaching, lifting, pushing, and pulling up to 25 pounds.
- Thesis operates on a hybrid work model, with in-office collaboration Tuesday through Thursday and remote work on Mondays and Fridays.
- As a proud B-Corp, Thesis prioritizes candidates based in the Portland Metro area to allow for a hybrid working set-up in our beautiful office in NW Portland.
- No travel is anticipated for this role.
Inclusion and Encouragement We know that experience can show up in many ways, and we encourage you to apply even if you don't meet 100% of the qualifications. If you're passionate about strategy, eager to grow, and excited to contribute your perspective, we'd love to hear from you. At Thesis, we believe the best ideas come from bringing together diverse voices, experiences, and ways of thinking. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are not checkboxes-they are essential to how we work, collaborate, and create. We are committed to fostering an environment where all employees can thrive and where every individual is treated with respect and dignity. Thesis is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. We provide reasonable accommodations throughout the hiring process for applicants with disabilities. If you require an accommodation, please contact Human Resources at HR@Thesis.Agency. As part of our commitment to equitable hiring practices, we do not request or consider applicants' salary history when making hiring decisions.
