Rive Motion Designer

At favorited, we believe that digital communities should be more than just spaces to watch content. With backing by a16z and other heavy hitters in the tech and entertainment space, we’re redefining mobile live-streaming as a fully interactive, gamified experience. Our platform is a place to connect, engage, and play, and empowers creators by enhancing audience participation, fostering deeper connections, and ensuring that creators are compensated fairly for their work.

Our work culture is intense and isn’t for everyone. But if you are a self-starter who wants to build the future of social interaction alongside others who excel in their disciplines and expect the same from you, there’s no better place to be.

The Problems You’ll Solve

We’re looking for a sharp, inventive Rive Motion Designer to help us bring real-time interactivity to life through animation. You’ll own how the Favorited app moves, reacts, and surprises — designing motion systems that amplify key moments: from battle countdowns to chaotic gifting sprees, from microinteractions to gameified power-ups.

You’ll be part of a fast-moving, experimental design team pushing the limits of live mobile content. This role is ideal for someone who’s obsessed with expressive UI, knows how to make moments feel alive, and thrives in a high-autonomy, high-expectation environment.

Responsibilities:

• Design and animate expressive, performant Rive files for the Favorited app
• Build and maintain a system of motion components — from gifting effects to live battle sequences
• Create in-app animations that respond to user interaction, stream events, and creator inputs
• Collaborate closely with product designers and engineers
• Contribute to evolving Favorited’s design language in motion

What We’re Looking For

You’re an expert in Rive with real-world experience shipping interactive motion work in production. You have a strong grasp of timing, easing, and the kind of expressive movement that brings interfaces to life. Your portfolio showcases real-time animation — ideally across games, live-streaming, or mobile apps — and you thrive in highly collaborative environments where design, product, and engineering work in sync. Bonus points if you’ve explored audio-reactive motion, shaders, procedural animation, or have worked on stream overlays, game UIs, or other systems built for live interaction.

What you see below is not necessarily a requirement but encouraged.

Minimum Requirements:

• 2+ years of experience in motion design, interactive media, game development, or real-time systems — or a strong portfolio of personal projects and hands-on experimentation
• Mastery of motion fundamentals: timing, easing, anticipation, and UI animation principles
• Production experience using Rive (or similar tools) to create performant, interactive animations
• Ability to rapidly prototype, iterate, and work in short creative cycles

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with tools like After Effects, Figma, or Lottie alongside Rive
• Background in UX/UI and an understanding of how motion enhances interaction
• Familiarity with game mechanics, feedback loops, or real-time audience engagement

Nice to Haves:

• Experience with game mechanics, motion in live-streaming, or reactive UI
• Familiarity with Figma, After Effects, or procedural animation workflows
• Creative coding chops (JS, TypeScript, Python, shaders, GCP)
• Interest in real-time feedback systems, from sparkles to entire UIs
• Passion for live culture — gaming, performance, music, digital events
• A weird side project that makes us say "wtf, love that"

Where You’ll Work

This is a full-time contract to hire position based in Santa Monica, CA.

favorited is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Employees may be eligible for family and medical leave under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) or Pregnancy Disability Leave (PDL).

In compliance with the California Equal Pay Act, the salary range for this position is provided above. Actual compensation may vary based on experience, qualifications, and location.