Senior Robot Animator: Shape Real-World Robot Motion

Skild AI; San Mateo (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Skild AI is hiring a Senior Robot Animator to rig, animate, and refine motion for robots, in both simulation and hardware contexts. You will blend keyframe craft with capture-based techniques, supporting robotics, simulation, and hardware teams across projects.

The role emphasizes an animation-first approach for non-human characters, with strong emphasis on weight, timing, and mechanical rigging. Collaboration across engineering and R&D enables real-world deployments.

Qualifications

• 5+ years animating professionally in film/VFX, games, or robotics; demo reel required.
• Expert keyframe animation with weight, timing, and body mechanics.
• Rigging experience with mechanical or articulated characters (constraints, IK/FK, joints).
• Comfortable editing and retargeting motion capture onto non-human skeletons.
• Experience with humanoid or robotic characters in simulation or real world.

Responsibilities

• Author robot motion in Maya (or Blender) using keyframe, procedural, and capture-based techniques.
• Collaborate with robotics engineers to move motion from digital content creation to real hardware.
• Choreograph and time multi-robot performances and sequences; sync to music or camera.
• Deliver finished rendered work and machine-performed sequences.
• Build motion libraries and retargeting for simulation and ML work.
• Partner with hardware teams on previz and range-of-motion studies.

Skills

Keyframe animation

Rigging

Motion capture retargeting

Maya/Blender

Robotics collaboration

Tools

Maya

Blender

Job description

Skild AI is hiring a Senior Robot Animator to rig, animate, and refine motion for robots, in both simulation and hardware contexts. You will blend keyframe craft with capture-based techniques, supporting robotics, simulation, and hardware teams across projects.

The role emphasizes an animation-first approach for non-human characters, with strong emphasis on weight, timing, and mechanical rigging. Collaboration across engineering and R&D enables real-world deployments.