Lead Designer Jobs in Seattle, WA

Join the Future of Commerce with Whatnot!

Whatnot is the largest livestream shopping platform in North America and Europe to buy, sell, and discover the things you love. Whether it's trading cards, fashion, electronics, or live plants, our sellers are building real businesses across hundreds of categories. We're building live commerce at a scale that's never been done in the West, and there's no playbook to copy. The people here are shaping how an entirely new industry develops.

As a remote co-located team, we're inspired by our values and anchored in hubs across the US, UK, Ireland, Poland, Germany, and Australia. We move fast, stay close to our users, and focus on the work that drives the most impact.

We're one of the fastest growing marketplaces and were recently named the #1 Best Startup Employer in America by Forbes. Check out the latest Whatnot updates on our news and engineering blogs and join us as we enable anyone to turn their passion into a business and bring people together through commerce.

Role

We’re looking for a Senior Motion Designer to join the creative team at Whatnot. Our small but mighty team builds the Whatnot brand and delivers best-in-class creative across campaigns, launches, and live moments, both on-platform and off. As a core member of the team, you'll play a key role in shaping how motion defines our visual identity, collaborating alongside brand designers and creative leads from the ground up to concept and execute high-impact work that drives campaigns and brand moments. We're looking for a hands-on designer with strong taste and a point of view who works across 2D and 3D to bring depth, energy, and storytelling into projects early, influencing layout, pacing, composition, and overall creative direction. If you're excited to explore emerging tools, experiment with new visual approaches, and help define what great motion looks like at Whatnot, we'd love to hear from you.

• Collaborate closely with marketing, product, and comms teams to develop and execute motion work that supports campaign strategies and business objectives.
• Concept and execute high-quality 2D and 3D motion graphics for campaigns, events, product launches, and brand activations, owning projects end-to-end from initial concept to final delivery.
• Animate 3D models and scenes with strong timing, pacing, camera work, and storytelling.
• Contribute to visual direction, layout thinking, and design exploration, ensuring motion is a driving force in how our brand shows up across digital and physical touchpoints.
• Work fluidly across Cinema 4D, Adobe Creative Suite, and Figma to bring ideas to life.
• Help evolve Whatnot’s motion language through experimentation and exploration, staying ahead of trends, emerging tools, and creative best practices to keep our motion work fresh, effective, and culturally resonant.
• Deliver polished, production-ready work under tight timelines while maintaining a high standard of craft.

We offer flexibility to work from home or from one of our global office hubs, and we value in-person time for planning, problem-solving, and connection. Team members in this role must live within commuting distance of our San Francisco, New York, or Los Angeles hubs.

You

People who do well at Whatnot tend to be comfortable figuring things out as they go, biased toward action, and genuinely curious about what they're building. They care more about outcomes than credit and stay close to the product and the people using it.

As a Senior Motion Designer, you should have 5–8+ years of experience in motion design, with a strong portfolio demonstrating refined, high-quality work across 2D and 3D. This is a hands-on role and your focus will be delivering exceptional motion graphics in a fast-paced, highly collaborative environment.

Candidates should have:

• A portfolio showcasing highly polished motion design work across brand, campaign, and digital experiences.
• Expert-level proficiency in Adobe After Effects.
• Strong working knowledge of Cinema 4D/Redshift.
• The ability to produce refined, detail-oriented work under tight timelines.
• Confidence collaborating closely with designers, marketers, and creative leads to bring ideas to life.
• A proactive, solutions-oriented mindset in a fast-moving environment.

Nice to have:

• Experience with Rive.
• Background in a high-growth startup or creative studio environment.

Benefits

• Flexible Time off Policy and Company-wide Holidays (including a spring and winter break)
• Health Insurance options including Medical, Dental, Vision
• Work From Home Support
• Home office setup allowance
• Monthly allowance for cell phone and internet
• Care benefits
• Monthly allowance on wellness
• Annual allowance towards Childcare
• Lifetime benefit for family planning, such as adoption or fertility expenses
• Retirement; 401k offering for Traditional and Roth accounts in the US (employer match up to 4% of base salary) and Pension plans internationally
• Monthly allowance to dogfood the app
• Parental Leave
• 16 weeks of paid parental leave + one month gradual return to work *company leave allowances run concurrently with country leave requirements which take precedence.

EOE

Whatnot is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value diversity, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, parental status, disability status, or any other status protected by local law. We believe that our work is better and our company culture is improved when we encourage, support, and respect the different skills and experiences represented within our workforce.

Compensation Range: $155K - $200K