Sr. Motion Designer
Cursor is hiring a Sr. Motion Designer in New York, United States. It pays $172k-$250k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Cursor.
Level's read on this job
- Level rates this role Uses AI ●●○○: an ordinary role that requires AI tools.
- Tools and skills the posting cites include Grok.
- Level classifies it as a senior role.
- Level lists 114 other open roles at Cursor.
- The role was posted in the last few days.
AI in this role
SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today, SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of making life multiplanetary and expanding consciousness to the stars.
SpaceXSI is building Super Intelligence to help humanity understand the universe. Our teams are building the full Super Intelligence stack: from our Colossus supercomputers, to Grok models, to our suite of applications, including Grok Bot, Grok Build, Grok Imagine, Grok Voice, and X. We're creating a powerful flywheel where more compute trains better models, better models power more useful products, and what we learn from people using those products shapes what we build next.
SR. MOTION DESIGNER
We are looking for a Senior Motion Designer to help shape how SpaceXSI moves and shows up in the world. This role is built for someone who has built motion systems in fast-moving environments, cares deeply about craft, and brings an AI-first mindset to how creative work gets made. You'll join the Brand Studio, the team behind the brand across the entire SpaceXSI ecosystem (from Grok and Grok Bot to X), and help define both the motion language of the brand and how it comes to life in our campaigns and products. This is a hands-on role with significant ownership, from first concept through final delivery.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Motion system: Define and document the brand's motion language (timing, easing, transitions, logo animation, typography in motion, and graphic behaviors) so other teams can apply it correctly
Workflows & toolkits: Turn recurring motion work into repeatable, AI-assisted templates, tools, and generators that let marketing, product, and other teams produce on-brand motion without you in the room
Campaigns: Concept and produce motion end to end, from storyboards through final delivery, across launch films, product videos, social, paid, web, and out-of-home
Product motion: Partner with product designers and engineers to bring brand motion into product surfaces, from interactions and transitions to onboarding and launch moments
Creative direction: Direct agencies, animators, and freelancers with clear briefs and candid feedback so the output meets the bar you'd set yourself
Collaboration at speed: Partner with marketing, product, engineering, and leadership, present your thinking clearly to senior stakeholders, and move between projects quickly while keeping a high bar and improving the process
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:
Minimum of 6 years of motion design experience, in-house or at an agency or studio
Professional experience with After Effects and at least one 3D tool (Cinema 4D or Blender)
A reel of shipped motion design work
PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:
Fluency in AI coding tools, especially Cursor. You can build your own tools, scripts, prototypes, and simple web pages instead of waiting on engineering
Hands-on experience with AI video and image generation tools as part of a real production workflow
A reel and portfolio that show both motion system work and shipped campaigns. Bonus if they include tools or workflows you built
Sharp instincts for timing, rhythm, typography in motion, and storytelling, from concept and storyboard through execution
A systems mindset: you naturally turn one-off tasks into reusable processes and think about how creative work scales
Conviction in your design decisions and the ability to explain why they matter, to designers, marketers, and leadership alike
Fluency in Figma and Adobe Creative Cloud
Self-directed, fast, and energized by variety and ambiguity
Experience building or relaunching a brand's motion identity at a fast-growing tech company
Experience with real-time or code-based motion, such as Rive, Lottie, or WebGL
3D modeling, lighting, and rendering skills
Sound design sensibility, enough to work closely with audio partners
Experience leading agencies on large, multi-channel campaigns
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:
Onsite role: must be able to work in person at the [San Francisco or New York] office
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:
The annual compensation range for this role is listed below.
Annual Salary:
$172,000 - $250,000 USD
Your actual level and base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, education, and experience.
Base salary is just one part of our total rewards package at SpaceXSI, which also includes equity, comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, short & long-term disability insurance, life insurance, and various other discounts and perks.
How we rate this
Sr. Motion Designer at Cursor rates 46 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Uses AI (AI Level 2 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Uses AI. An ordinary role that requires AI tools.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- What's a project where you used Grok hands-on?
- This role expects you to use AI tools as part of the job. Which ones have you used, and for what?
- Tell me about a time an AI tool got something wrong. How did you catch it?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Grok. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
- Put the AI tool in a bullet point about what you did, not just in a skills list. This role treats it as a required part of the job.
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