Senior Motion Designer

Koto; Greater London; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary annual bonus up to 10%

Private medical insurance

Scottish Widows pension contribution 3

25 days holiday + bank holidays

Global studio access

Job summary

Koto in London is seeking an experienced motion designer to author ideas, design animation systems and elevate the team’s output with world‑class branding across assets, motion systems and art direction.

You’ll lead briefs, collaborate closely with the team, manage your time, and embrace AI enhancements while maintaining creative control. Proficiency in After Effects, Premiere and Figma is expected; Cinema 4D + Redshift valued but not mandatory.

Responsibilities

• You generate excellent ideas and can articulate them visually and verbally, leading creative catch-ups and idea sessions to raise the quality of thought.
• You design branded assets, motion systems, character animation, broadcast toolkits and art direction, composing these into world‑class brand identities and guiding others.
• You collaborate closely with the team, learn from colleagues, and support junior staff while following direction from senior members.
• You construct client presentations and present work eloquently.
• You translate immersion and strategic phases of work into design execution.”
• You demonstrate deep branding knowledge and awareness of the creative practitioners within it, delivering work for leading brands and founders.
• You own your role, act on feedback from your manager, and progress beyond.

Job description

The Role

You are an experienced motion designer, your days are spent relentlessly authoring ideas, designing animation systems and inspiring an exceptional quality of work in the team around you.

Your Responsibilities

• You generate excellent ideas and know how to articulate them expertly both visually and verbally. You run creative catch-ups and idea generating sessions to actively increase the quality of thought in your team.


• You spend a significant amount of time designing, have a strong understanding of, and can create briefs for: animated brand assets, motion systems, character animation, broadcast toolkits and art-direction. You can compose all of these components into complete world-class brand identities, inspire and lead others to the same result, and practically support their design where needed.


• You collaborate intimately with the team around you, learning from them and supporting junior staff. You are able to follow direction from the senior team.


• You can construct client presentations and can present work eloquently.


• You assist with and can translate our immersion and strategic phases of work into design execution.


• You demonstrate a deep knowledge of branding and the creative practitioners within it. You consistently deliver work for the most impactful companies of today and the founders defining tomorrow.


• You demonstrate ownership of your role and can both take and action feedback from your manager to progress within it and beyond.


• You have a great understanding of After Effects, Premiere and Figma. Provable experience in Cinema 4D + Redshift workflows are not mandatory but will be highly valued.


• Experience on the following will be taken into account: motion design for interactive web and product experiences (i.e. Rive or Three.js), use of real‑time gaming engines, cel animation.


• You have a strong awareness of the time required to complete motion design tasks. You are able to successfully manage your own time, calendar and meetings.


• You have a willingness to work in person in our London studio and are open to travel globally, from Stuttgart to San Francisco.


• You're keen to find performance enhancements and opportunities with the integration of AI into your workflow, whilst retaining creative agency over the output of your work.

Our Responsibilities

• We will ensure you have meaningful and regular access to your manager to support your personal development and career trajectory.


• We will actively reward performance with promotions, pay increases and a discretionary annual bonus of up to 10% of salary to all employees.


• We ensure Koto is an equal environment for all its employees.


• We will support you in taking family leave and offer significant paid maternity and paternity.


• We will actively encourage you to take 25 days holiday yearly, in addition to UK bank holidays (on average eight), one additional holiday day per year (capped at 5 additional days), and a studio closure between Christmas and New Year.


• We will contribute an additional 3% to anyone wanting to engage in the Scottish Widows pension scheme.


• We offer private medical insurance via Vitality Health and a monthly ‘employee wellness’ benefits package via Juno of £75 per month.


• We offer access to YCN and fund relevant training opportunities to any employee looking to develop themselves and career.


• We reward five years of service with £5,000 and five days holiday. We reward ten years of service with £10,000 and four weeks holiday.


• We will give you the opportunity to work from any the five koto studios globally, with appropriate planning and application.

Our Culture

• At Koto we encourage our team to be ‘rationally optimistic’ about the potential of our work, our clients, their businesses, and the power of brand.


• We pursue the best briefs, want to inspire meaningful work, and for those interested provide an opportunity to make the work of their lives. We are actively cultivating leadership, culture and spaces to encourage this.


• We work in person with an optional WFH day on Friday, and an additional 20 days remote a year. We believe this produces the best work, mentoring opportunities, collective learning and culture.


• We encourage autonomy in each member of our team, allowing them to manage their own time, hours and personal commitments appropriately to complete work.