Amazon.com Services LLC

Software Development, subsidiaries

DesignTechnologist,RobotAnimation

$158–214k New York, New York, United States FULL TIME
Market Sentiment
HIGH DEMAND

Neural analysis suggests this role is
optimal for Mid+ candidates.

The Brief

“Design Technologist, Robot Animation at Amazon.com Services LLC. Skills: Robot animation, Character animation, Motion design, Technical animation. Author expressive robot animations. Articulate robot personality”

Industry & Context.

Software Development, subsidiaries
Problems you'll solve

Work within constraints; Adapt to joint constraints

What They're Looking For.

Must Have

3+ years professional experience, Character animation experience, Motion design experience, Technical animation experience, Expressive personality-driven motion demo reel, Scripting ability in Python, Tooling experience, Pipeline integration experience, Procedural animation experience, Experience within technical constraints, Real-time engines experience, Joint physics limits experience, Hardware platforms experience, 3D Studio Max experience, Maya experience, Photoshop experience, Zbrush experience, Substance experience, Unreal experience, Blender experience

Nice to Have

Motion capture experience, Directing motion capture sessions, Cleaning motion capture data, Retargeting motion capture data, Animating for stylized characters, Familiarity with real-time animation systems, Experience with robotics, Experience with physical characters, Experience with animatronics, Film background, Games background, Themed entertainment background

What You'll Do.

Author expressive robot animations

Articulate robot personality

Create locomotion styles

Create conversational gestures

Create emotional reactions

Create interactive behaviors

Partner with HRI researchers

Partner with robotics engineers

Understand robot physical capabilities

Understand interaction needs

Work with motion capture

Create base animations

Adapt animations for robot form factor

Refine animations for joint constraints

Develop tools for animation authoring

Develop workflows for animation authoring

Integrate with robot behavior pipeline

Test animations on real hardware

Iterate based on in-person feedback

How You'll Work.

Team & Collaboration

HRI researchers; Robotics engineers

Full Job Description

We are seeking a Design Technologist to define the expressive motion vocabulary that makes our robot feel alive: how it gestures when speaking, how it shows curiosity, excitement, hesitation, and calm. You will work with motion capture, hand animation, and procedural techniques to build a library of movements that bring our robots to life in real time. This role sits at the intersection of character animation and robotics. You need strong animation instincts — timing, weight, personality — and enough technical fluency to work within the constraints of physical robots that must work in the real world. Key job responsibilities - Author expressive robot animations that articulate the robot's core personality: locomotion styles, conversational gesture, emotional reactions, interactive behaviors - Partner closely with HRI researchers and robotics engineers to understand what the robot can physically do and what interactions need to feel like - Work with motion capture to create base animations, then adapt and refine them for our robot's form factor and joint constraints - Develop tools and workflows (Python, Blender/Maya scripting) to accelerate animation authoring and integrate with the robot's behavior pipeline - Test animations on real hardware and iterate based on how they read in person, from all angles About the team Fauna Robotics, an Amazon company, is building capable, safe, and genuinely delightful robots for everyday life. Our goal is simple: make robots people actually want to live and interact with in everyday human spaces. We believe that future won’t arrive until building for robotics becomes far more accessible. Today, too much effort is spent reinventing the fundamentals. We’re changing that by developing tightly integrated hardware and software systems that make it faster, safer, and more intuitive to create real-world robotic products. Our work spans the full stack: mechanical design, control systems, dynamic modeling, and intelligent software. The foc

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