Principal Animation and Motion Designer

We’re hiring a Principal Animation & Motion Designer to define how our brand moves—emotionally, strategically, and systemically—across every touchpoint. This is a craft-forward leadership role for someone who blends conceptual vision with deep technical mastery and a passion for mentoring others.

Reporting to the Creative Director, Design, you’ll be the senior-most motion leader in the company—with dotted-line influence across brand, product, and performance marketing. From national campaigns to micro-interactions, you’ll lead the charge in building scalable motion systems and high-impact creative that resonate with millions.

Why now?

Realtor.com is entering its boldest creative era yet—with new leadership, a new Austin HQ, and a clear mission: help people feel confident in one of life’s biggest decisions.

We’ve launched a national brand campaign featuring Reba McEntire. We’ve rebuilt our team with talent from Tesla, YETI, Yelp and USAA. And we’re partnering with GSD&M to push the work further, faster. Now we’re ready to take motion to the next level. This role is pivotal in driving that evolution.

This role supports both B2C and B2B storytelling—powering consumer campaigns seen by millions, and creating high-impact content for the largest real estate industry events in the country. From product launches to partner activations, you’ll help us show up with confidence and craft in front of the top agents, brokers, and builders in the U.S.

What You’ll Do:

Lead with vision:

• Set the creative vision and strategic direction for how motion comes to life across brand, product, and marketing.
• Establish scalable, emotionally intelligent motion systems that enhance both brand storytelling, user experience and client engagement.
• Serve as the single point of accountability for motion design, establishing and evolving our brand motion guidelines and best practices.
• Create broadcast-quality video outputs for campaigns that reach national audiences, including primetime TV placements.

Drive business impact:

• Lead high-visibility brand and product launches with motion storytelling that sparks emotion and drives conversion.
• Collaborate closely with product management, product design and product marketing teams to embed motion into the heart of our user experience and ecosystem and establish scalable toolkits and training resources to up level motion literacy across the org.
• Influence the creative direction at the highest levels—partnering with executive stakeholders and external agencies to align motion strategy with business goals.

Innovate and elevate:

• Introduce and champion new tools, formats, and storytelling techniques—including Lottie, 3D, and generative AI—to keep us on the leading edge.
• Elevate the craft of motion across the team by coaching, mentoring, and modeling excellence, helping designers think in motion and tell more dynamic stories.
• Represent motion in leadership forums and cross-functional conversations, shaping the future of creative expression at Realtor.com .
• Shape how we evaluate, hire, and develop top-tier motion talent as the brand grows.

How We Work:

We balance creativity and innovation on a foundation of in-person collaboration. For most roles, our employees work three or more days in our offices, where they have the opportunity to collaborate in-person, adding richness to our culture and knitting us closer together.

What You’ll Bring

• 12+ years of experience in motion design, creative direction, and design systems across digital and product platforms
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
• Proven track record of creating and implementing motion systems at scale and shipping work with measurable impact
• A standout portfolio of conceptual and production work that demonstrates your range, creative direction, craft, and clarity of storytelling
• Deep technical expertise in After Effects, Lottie, Premiere, Figma, and 3D or programmatic animation tools
• Strong communication and influence skills, especially when working with executive stakeholders and influencing cross-functional partners
• An innovation-forward mindset—you’re constantly experimenting, evolving your craft, and bringing others along with you

Why Austin?

Our downtown Austin office is more than just a workspace—it’s the creative hub for a brand that’s ready to lead. You’ll find energy, inspiration, and collaboration at the heart of every project.

What Success Looks Like

• You build and lead a cohesive, high-impact motion language that elevates our brand and product experiences.
• You’re the go-to leader for how our brand moves, leading the creative development of breakthrough, business-driving motion work.
• You influence creative strategy across brand, performance, and product.
• You mentor and inspire others, embedding motion deeply into our design culture.
• You help make Realtor.com one of the most visually distinctive and emotionally resonant brands in the category.

Ready to set the standard for motion at Realtor.com? Let’s build something unforgettable—together.

How we Reward you:

Realtor.com® is committed to investing in the health and well-being of our employees and their families. Our benefits programs include, but are not limited to:

• Inclusive and Competitive medical, Rx, dental, and vision coverage
• Family forming benefits
• 13 Paid Holidays
• Flexible Time Off
• 8 hours of paid Volunteer Time off
• Immediate eligibility into Company 401(k) plan with 3.5% company match
• Tuition Reimbursement program for degree and non-degreed programs
• 1:1 personalized Financial Planning Sessions
• Student Debt Retirement Savings Match program
• Free snacks and refreshments in each office location