Short-Form Video Editor (Viral Specialist)

We're hiring an in-house short-form editor to own our Reels and YouTube Shorts output end-to-end. You'll work directly with [our founders / our creators / our brand team] to ship retention-first edits that earn the first 3 seconds and hold the rest.

This isn't a drag-clips-to-timeline role. We want an editor who thinks in hooks, edits in beats, and animates with intent. Mid-level here means you ship publish-ready cuts without hand-holding, push back on briefs that won't perform, and bring trends to us before we ask.

• 25 - 30 short-form edits per month: primarily Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, with occasional LinkedIn video and long-form repurposes
• They are motion-graphics-led: kinetic typography, animated lower-thirds, logo stings, masked transitions, simple 2D character/object motion
• Full post-production ownership per edit: rough cut → sound design & SFX → motion → captions → color → delivery
• 2–3 trend or format ideas per week brought to the team — sounds, hooks, on-screen text styles, edit structures
• Light review of junior editor cuts and contributions to our preset/template library

Must-haves:

• 2–4 years editing short-form for Instagram Reels and/or YouTube Shorts, with shipped work to show
• Strong Adobe Premiere Pro + After Effects workflow — you build your own motion graphics, you don't only adapt templates
• A retention-first instinct: hook in the first 1–3 seconds, pacing that holds the curve, no dead frames
• Current trend literacy on Reels and Shorts — sounds, formats, kinetic caption styles (Poppins / Montserrat / Inter etc.)
• Sound design instincts — when a beat drop, SFX, or beat of silence does the work
• Color grading via Lumetri (or DaVinci Resolve) — clean, consistent, brand-aware
• Comfort shipping 4–6 edits a week without quality drop

Nice-to-haves:

• CapCut Pro for fast trend matches and mobile-native edits
• DaVinci Resolve for grading
• Photoshop / Illustrator for asset creation
• Familiarity with AI tools in your workflow: ElevenLabs (VO), HeyGen, Midjourney / Freepik AI (B-roll), Runway or Kling (generative), Descript
• Reading retention curves and iterating on best-performing cuts
• Experience editing for a creator's personal brand or D2C brand

What we don't need:

• 3D / Houdini-level VFX
• Long-form documentary or film editing as your primary craft
• A 12-tool laundry list — we'd rather you be sharp on Premiere + AE than mid on everything

• Creative ownership: you ship work that goes out, not into a black hole of revisions
• Direct line to [founders/creators] no five-layer approval chain
• [Equipment / software stipend / leave policy]
• A team that ships fast and respects the craft

Send to [Confidential Information] with subject line: Hooked at second one — [Your Name]

Include:

1. Your reel or portfolio link (Drive, Vimeo, Behance, personal site - not attachments)
2. 3 short-form edits you're proud of, each with a one-line note on the result (views, retention, watch time, whatever you measured)
3. One Reel or Short you saved this week and 2–3 sentences on why it works

No cover letter. No passionate about storytelling paragraph. Show us the work.

Shortlisted candidates will get a trial edit on the supplied raw footage before the final round.