Performance Editor (Video, Ads, Social, Youtube)

IS THIS YOU?

This role is a fit if you make creative decisions with data — not gut alone
You have a deep understanding of hook frameworks.
You know what stops a scroll and why.
You know what keeps someone watching and how to ensure script meets needs
You edit toward hook rate, hold rate, and retention.
You obsessively study winning creative and platform ad trends

THE MINDSET WE'RE HIRING FOR

The best editor for this seat is a scroll-stopping craftsman who is also a student of the brand and the buyer. Before you touch footage, you want to know: who are we selling to, what's the offer, and what has to happen in the first 3 seconds. You keep up with formats and platform trends because paid and organic creative ages fast. You have taste — and no ego about killing your own cut when a different version wins.

WHO WE ARE

Modern Herb Co. is a vertically integrated, self-funded direct-to-consumer brand in the federally legal hemp-derived cannabis space — THC and CBD gummies, tinctures, vapes, and wellness products, shipped nationwide and age-gated to 21+. We manufacture much of what we sell and we're building a serious in-house performance marketing team from the ground up. This is a seat for a builder, not a coaster.

THIS ROLE IS / THIS ROLE IS NOT

The person who turns raw footage, creator clips, and AI/UGC assets into scroll-stopping short-form video ads at real volume.
The editor for our YouTube podcast — cutting long-form episodes and spinning high-performing shorts out of them.
Someone who supports scripting for ads and YouTube shorts (hooks, beats, on-screen text) alongside our Performance Creative Strategist.
An editor who executes proven hook and retention frameworks and can tell you why a cut works.
A genuine student of our product, our customer, and the hemp/cannabis market — because the best editors here make creative for OUR buyer, not a generic feed.
Someone who reads the performance data of their own creative and uses it to inform the next round: sharper hooks, tighter pacing, better payoff.
Platform-native — you edit for Reels, TikTok, Shorts, YouTube, and paid placements as native formats, not cutdowns.

THIS ROLE IS NOT:

A media buyer. You don't manage ad accounts or spend.
A designer or motion-graphics lead. Motion skills are a plus, not required.

A "stitch the clips together" editor. If you don't care whether the video performs, keep scrolling.

WHAT YOU'LL OWN

Edit short-form video ads at volume — the scroll-stopping, hook-first creative that drives someone from "never heard of them" to "add to cart."

Edit our YouTube podcast: longform episodes plus shorts cut down from them.
Support scripting for ads and YouTube shorts — hooks, beats, on-screen text — in partnership with content director and creative strategist.
Apply hook, pacing, retention, and payoff frameworks to every cut.
Own the craft of the first 3 seconds.
Learn our products, our customers, and our category deeply enough that your editing choices — angle, hook, proof, what to cut — are built for our buyer.
Own thumbnail, caption, and on-screen-text craft (most of this is watched muted).
Review the creative-level performance of your own edits — hook rate, hold rate, retention, thumbnail CTR — and use it to inform the next round.
Stay abreast of ad, industry, and YouTube video-content trends, hooks, and platform changes, and bring what you find back to the work.
Ship on a consistent cadence with your own QA standards; deliver multiple ratios (9:16, 4:5, 1:1) from the same edit.
Partner with the Performance Creative Strategist (creative direction), the media buyers (what's live and what's needed), and the content Producer (what to capture).

WHERE YOUR TIME GOES

This will flex week to week, but roughly:

~45% Editing short-form video ads
~25% Editing the YouTube podcast — longform episodes and shorts
~10% Scripting support for ads and YouTube shorts
~10% Reviewing creative performance data to inform the next round
~10% Staying current on ad, industry, and YouTube trends, hooks, and changes

Ad creative is the center of gravity. Everything else feeds sharper ads and a stronger channel.

SUCCESS IN YOUR ROLE LOOKS LIKE

Sustained volume of ad variants shipped, with consistent quality.
A steady cadence of podcast episodes edited and shorts published from them.
Hook rate and thumb-stop on your creatives is above average.
Hold rate at the 3-second mark and average view duration improve on what you cut.
Thumbnail/creative CTR holds above category benchmark.
You demonstrably understand our products and buyer — your edits show it, and you flag what's winning and losing without being asked.
On-time cadence, every week.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

2+ years, provable, editing short-form video at volume and/or paid ad creative. Portfolio required.
Working proficiency in Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, or CapCut Pro.
You can articulate, on the spot, why the first 3 seconds of a high-performing ad or Short is working — at the frame level.
You understand hook rate, hold rate, thumb-stop, and retention well enough to edit toward them.
Comfortable editing longform (podcast) as well as short-form, and turning one into the other.
Strong caption, on-screen-text, and pacing instincts for muted, vertical, platform-native viewing.
Self-directed and organized enough to run a high-volume queue remotely.

NICE TO HAVE

After Effects / motion graphics.
Hands-on with AI video and UGC tooling (e.g., ElevenLabs, Runway, CapCut AI, image-to-video).
Direct-response / VSL editing experience.
Experience editing in a restricted category (hemp/cannabis, supplements, alcohol, etc.).

SOFT SKILLS & TEMPERAMENT WE'RE FILTERING FOR

We're looking for proof. Be ready to show, not tell.

Self-managed and organized — remote, high-volume; you run your own queue.
Curious and current — you study winning creative and platform shifts for fun.
A student of the brand and buyer — you research before you cut.
Problem-solver, not direction-dependent — you don't need a checklist to move.
High standards and hard-working — we expect a lot and reward exceptional.
Direct and coachable — you take feedback and kill your darlings when data says so.

LOGISTICS

Full-time, W-2, remote (U.S.-based). - Reports to the Director of Brand & Customer Marketing; takes day-to-day creative direction from the Performance Creative Strategist. - Compensation: $60,000–$80,000, based on provable experience. IHC Investments, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. To apply: submit your resume, your portfolio/reel, and your answers to the application questions above.

Pay: $80,000.00 - $90,000.00 per year

Benefits:

Dental insurance
Employee discount
Health insurance
Life insurance

Application Question(s):

How many years have you edited professionally? In a typical week, how many short-form videos do you personally cut? And how many long-form videos or episodes?
Which platforms do you have expertise editing for?
A YouTube long-form video has a high thumbnail click-through rate and strong retention through the first 60 seconds, but watch time falls off hard around the halfway point. Name the three most likely causes inside the edit, rank them by what you'd fix first, and say how you'd test the fix. Do not answer about targeting, audience, budget, or the offer — we only want what is wrong in the cut.
Before a shoot happens, what do you do to make sure the footage you get back is actually editable into something that performs? Walk us through how you write or shape the hook at the script stage, and what specifically you ask the shooter or on-camera talent to capture so you have options in the edit. Then give us one real example — the video, the hook line you wrote or pushed for, and what you asked to be captured that you would not have gotten if you hadn't asked.

If you have only ever received footage after the fact with no input before the shoot, type FOOTAGE ONLY and explain how you make weak footage work.

Tell me about a single top performer. What made it work? Give the 3-second hold rate, hook rate, or thumb-stop rate.
Please provide a link to your work. It can be an account you created the content for but specify when you started and stopped the edits.

Work Location: In person