Principal Product Designer, Robot Animation and Character, Fauna

• Fauna Robotics is building capable, safe, and delightful robots for everyday
• life. We are hiring a Principal Product Designer to animate our robots and build
• a consistent character. This is the person who decides what our robot feels like
• as a sidekick in someone's home — and the person who animates it to get there.

• You are an animator first, at the top of your craft. You will define the robot's
• personality and its expressive motion vocabulary — how it greets someone, shows
• curiosity, hesitates, celebrates, or settles into calm — and you will craft the
• performances that establish it, from first concept through what ships.

• This is a hands-on animation and design role. You spend your days animating:
• blocking performances, refining timing, and dialing in the character. You'll
• work alongside Design Technologists, HRI researchers, and roboticists who own
• the tools, pipeline, and hardware — you bring the performance and the
• personality; they help you land it on a real robot. Our process is iterative and
• demo-led: block it out, put it on hardware, watch how it reads in the room, and
• let each pass sharpen the next.

Key job responsibilities

• Craft the robot's key performances — from concept and blocking through final

motion — setting the character and the quality bar in the animation itself

• Build the expressive motion vocabulary: locomotion styles, conversational

gesture, emotional reactions, idle behavior, and the small moments that make a

character feel alive

• Define the robot's personality — its point of view, emotional range, and

behavioral signature — and keep it consistent across every animation as the

product evolves

• Iterate on real hardware: test how a performance reads in person, from every

angle, and refine timing and weight until it lands

• Work with motion capture and reference where it helps, then adapt and refine

performances for the robot's form factor and joint constraints

• Capture character intent in animation-ready artifacts — performance

references, motion studies, behavioral scripts, and concept videos — so the rest

of the team can build on it

• 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 focus is not just functionality, but
• experience. We’re building robots that feel responsive, expressive, and
• genuinely useful.
• At Fauna, you’ll work at the frontier of this space, helping define how robots
• move, manipulate, and interact with people in natural environments. It’s an
• opportunity to solve hard problems across hardware and software with a team
• focused on making robotics accessible and joyful to build.
• If you care about making robotics real for everyone and building systems that
• are as delightful as they are capable, we’re interested in hearing from you.
• Basic Qualifications: - 12+ years of professional experience in character

animation

• A body of work — reel required — that demonstrates authorship of character and

personality through motion: timing, weight, appeal, and performance

• Mastery of animation craft across a range of characters and emotional

registers, from broad performance to subtle, quiet moments

• Experience carrying a character from concept through finished, polished

animation

• Ability to work within real production or technical constraints without losing

• the performance Preferred Qualifications: - Background in feature, episodic, or
• games animation, or themed entertainment, where animation drives character and

story

• Experience animating stylized or non-human characters — robots, creatures,

mascots — where personality must come through a non-human form

• Experience with physically embodied characters: robots, animatronics, or

real-time/interactive systems where motion plays out in the physical world

• Experience with motion capture: directing sessions, cleaning data, retargeting

to non-human characters

• Comfort working within physical or real-time constraints (joint and timing

limits, hardware platforms) without losing the performance

• Experience defining character for a new product or franchise, where no

performance language exists yet

• Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis
• of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

• Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our
• customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or
• adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the
• interview or onboarding process, please visit
• https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations
• [https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations] for more
• information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please
• contact your Recruiting Partner.

• The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package
• will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final
• compensation will be determined based on factors including experience,
• qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits
• including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life &
• AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health
• Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy
• Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave.
• Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits
• [https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits].

USA, NY, New York - 162,600.00 - 284,600.00 USD annually