Senior Robot Animator
San Mateo$100k - $300kPosted 1mo ago
About the role
Senior Robot Animator at Skild AI focusing on rigging, keyframe animation, and retargeting for both simulation and physical robots. Collaboration with robotics, simulation, and hardware teams to create motion that works in both virtual and real environments. The role emphasizes animation craft with an understanding of physical robot capabilities.
Responsibilities
- Author robot motion in Maya (or Blender) using keyframe, procedural, and capture-based techniques
- Work with our robotics engineers to take motion from digital content creation (DCC) to real hardware
- Choreograph and time performances, including multi-robot sequences and motion cut to music or camera
- Deliver finished rendered work as well as sequences performed by the machines themselves
- Build motion libraries and retargeting that support our simulation and machine learning work
- Partner with our hardware teams on previz and range-of-motion studies that inform design
Qualifications
- 5+ years animating professionally in film/VFX, games, or robotics, or equivalent senior-level experience — demo reel required
- Expert keyframe animation with a strong sense of weight, timing, and body mechanics
- Rigging experience with mechanical or articulated characters: constraints, IK/FK, joint limits, mechanism-accurate setups
- Comfortable cleaning, editing, and retargeting motion capture onto non-human skeletons
- Background working with humanoid or robotic characters in simulation or the real world
- Familiarity with controls/rigid-body dynamics/simulation is a plus
Skills
Required:Keyframe animationRiggingMotion capture retargetingMaya or Blender
Nice to have:Simulation/rigid-body dynamics
Last updated Aug 30, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
About Skild AI
Bringing AI into the physical world
Building general purpose robotic intelligence
omni-bodiedAIPhysical AIliquid-ai-recruiting-targetphysical-ai-funding-landscaperobotics
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