Senior Video Editor (YouTube)
Position Overview
- Job Title
- Senior Video Editor (YouTube)
- Employment Type
- Full-time
- Location
- Hybrid / Remote
- Reports To
- COO and Creative Strategist
- Compensation
- $1,500 to $4,000 USD per month, depending on experience and application performance (85% of rate during the 2-month trial period)
About the role
NIA Production does not launch channels by guessing what works. We build repeatable systems backed by audience data.
This role exists to develop the editing formula behind every new YouTube channel we launch. Rather than maintaining an established editing style, you will identify what keeps viewers watching, test competing creative approaches, and turn successful experiments into documented systems that other editors can execute consistently.
Once a channel's editing formula has been proven and handed off, you move on to the next experimental channel and repeat the process. Your success is not measured by how many videos you edit, but by how many successful editing systems you create.
Each engagement follows the same cycle: discovery and competitor research, concept development, pilot videos, style package and template build, then handoff and training.
This role is hybrid, with periodic onsite stretches in Da Nang, Vietnam. How many months per year you can be onsite will be part of the application. NIA covers housing and travel for those periods.
About us
NIA Production is a YouTube conglomerate. We own, build, and operate our own channels in-house. Every channel we run is ours.
We are 90+ people strong and growing rapidly. Most of our team is hybrid and we hire globally. We move fast. We care about results, and we hire people who think the same way.
Responsibilities
- Study the top-performing videos in the niche and work out the editing mechanics behind their retention: how the first 15 to 30 seconds are built, where cuts speed up or slow down, how b-roll and sound design hold attention.
- Turn that into a direction covering pacing, hook structure, text and graphics, music, and SFX, then pitch it and defend it with reasoning specific to that niche.
- Develop a deep working understanding of both the niche and the specific channel you are building, deep enough to know what will work before testing it.
- Prove the style in real edits. Take raw, unstructured footage and turn it into videos with a strong hook and intentional pacing.
- Run structured tests between competing approaches, and use average view duration and retention data to decide what becomes the standard.
- Build the infrastructure the channel needs to move fast: intro templates, title and caption styles, SFX libraries, transition presets, project templates.
- Document the formula, train the editor who inherits it, and leave notes detailed enough for them to hold the retention curve without guessing at your reasoning.
- Coordinate with the team, meet turnaround times, and manage any additional editors brought on to support volume.
What this role is not
- You are not a stylist. You do not have one signature look you apply to everything.
- You are not a maintainer. You like working out the formula, not running it. If you need one channel to settle into, the constant handoffs will wear on you.
- You are not an order-taker. You push back on footage that cannot support retention and defend a direction with reasoning.
- You are not attached to your edit. A retention graph can prove you wrong, and you accept it when it does.
- You are not a lone wolf. You build so someone else can take over.
Requirements
- A portfolio of real, published YouTube edits, ideally across more than one niche or format.
- A track record of turning raw, unstructured footage into compelling videos with a strong hook and intentional pacing, not just polishing footage already shot to a script.
- Strong ability to read retention graphs: spotting the exact moment viewers dropped off, explaining why, and tying it to a specific editing decision.
- Demonstrated versatility, with evidence of adapting your pacing and style across genuinely different content.
- The ability to watch a competitor's video and explain in full technical detail which editing decisions are driving retention.
- Strong motion graphics ability and working knowledge of AI tools relevant to editing and production.
- Ability to manage your own workload across more than one channel without close oversight.
- You genuinely enjoy hard challenges. Working out a retention formula from raw, untested footage is difficult and full of dead ends.
Nice to have
- You have launched a channel from its earliest uploads, building the editing style and format from scratch.
- You have built reusable editing systems (templates, presets, SFX libraries) that other editors actually adopted.
- You have trained someone or handed off work before.
What success looks like
- Average view duration and retention improve and hold across multiple uploads, not on one standout edit.
- Every channel you work on ends up with a documented editing system the team can run without you.
- Your tests produce clear, data-backed winners the team can confidently standardize.
- You move through channels at a healthy pace instead of staying on one longer than needed.
- Your handoff notes are clear enough that another editor understands the reasoning behind every major decision.
- You coordinate well with the team and are proactive in surfacing issues that affect the channel's success.
Ready to apply?
Applications are reviewed as they come in. We read every submission.