Lead Video Editor - AI-Driven Paid Social (1099)

About the role
A $100M DTC brand with one of the largest paid-media budgets in our category, and we’re hiring a Lead AI Video Editor to run our editing team and raise the quality of every ad we ship. This is a rare seat: real spend behind your creative, a team to build, and a direct path into creative leadership as we scale. You’ll produce AI-generated and AI-assisted direct response ads for Meta, TikTok, and YouTube — short and long form — review the team’s cuts, and build the systems that let us scale output without losing quality. This is a player-coach role: you edit, you lead, and you own the bar.

What you’ll do
Produce high-converting paid ads at volume using both AI generation (synthetic UGC, avatars, generative B-roll, AI voice) and traditional editing of real creator footage
Lead and manage a team of editors: assign work, review cuts, give specific feedback, and hold deadlines
Build and document the production system — templates, prompts, QA checks, hook/pacing/caption standards — so winners get repeated
Partner with Creative Strategists and media buyers to turn briefs into ads and performance data into the next iteration
Evaluate and roll out new AI video tools as they come online

What we’re looking for
4+ years editing paid social ads for DTC / eCommerce brands, with a portfolio that has performed at scale
Hands-on with current gen-AI video tools (Sora, Veo, Kling, Runway, HeyGen, ElevenLabs or equivalent) and a track record of shipping AI-generated ads that converted
Premiere Pro and After Effects; CapCut a plus
Experience leading or managing other editors — not just mentoring, actually running output
Deep DR instincts: hooks, first 3 seconds, retention, captions, B-roll, native platform formats
Comfortable reading ad performance data (hook rate, hold rate, CTR, ROAS) and iterating from it
High volume, tight turnarounds, takes ownership, flags problems early
Available 30–40 hours per week

Nice to have
Experience at a 7- to 9-figure DTC brand or performance creative agency
Automation experience (n8n, ffmpeg/Python variant pipelines, Claude/ChatGPT in the workflow)
UGC and creator-led content

What you’ll have
A $100M DTC brand with a large, growing marketing budget behind your work
Millions in ad spend testing your creative in real time
Direct line to the Head of Creative
Strong Creative Strategists and a team to lead
Budget for AI tools and training
Leading a team of 5+ video editors
A clear growth path: Lead today, Head of Creative Production as the team scales

How to apply
Apply with your resume that includes a link to your work. Shortlisted candidates will be asked to walk through two ads: one AI-generated and one cut from real footage, with a note on how each performed and why.