Assistant Director (Remote - Freelance)

Monks; India; On-site; INR 250,000 - 450,000; Full time

Job summary

Monks is seeking an experienced Assistant Director to lead social-first content creation for two major brands. You will own ideas from concept to final output, shooting, editing, and delivering platform-ready pieces with strong hooks and pacing.

The role requires a hands-on maker with a deep editorial bag of tricks and the ability to turn sharp ideas into polished content quickly. Candidates should demonstrate a robust portfolio and proficiency with Premiere Pro.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on experience creating social video, branded content, digital comedy, creator-led work, or an equivalent portfolio.
• Strong portfolio showing your personal role in shooting, directing, and editing short-form content.
• Chronically online with an understanding of organic social and how a brand should show up on social.
• Strong conceptual instincts with the ability to generate multiple ideas quickly in response to briefs or trends.
• Fluency in short-form storytelling with hooks, pacing, comedic timing, and platform-native edits.
• Proficiency with compact camera systems or phones, clean audio, basic lighting, and lean production.
• Advanced editing skills in Premiere Pro or equivalent platform with motion and transitions.
• Experience self-producing small shoots: casting, props, locations, releases, schedules, file management.
• Ability to direct actors, creators, and non-professional talent while keeping performances natural.
• Self-sufficient, organized, and collaborative, able to handle multiple deliverables.

Responsibilities

• Concept social-first ideas and formats for quick-hit content built for social platforms.
• Own end-to-end creation: scripting, storyboarding, casting, production planning, shooting, editing, and delivery.
• Shoot and edit independently with strong hooks, pacing, and platform-native techniques.
• Create sketch and creator-led content across formats like interview, day-in-the-life, and reactions.
• Direct talent and real people, shaping performances that feel natural and entertaining.
• Capture events and cultural moments and turn around timely edits and recaps.
• Translate brand needs into entertaining content with clear hooks and rewards.
• Stay native to platforms, tracking trends and editorial styles.
• Present work, iterate with feedback, and manage tight timelines.

Job description

Please note that we will never request payment or bank account information at any stage of the recruitment process. As we continue to grow our teams, we urge you to be cautious of fraudulent job postings or recruitment activities that misuse our company name and information. Please protect your personal information during any recruitment process. While Monks may contact potential candidates via LinkedIn, all applications must be submitted through our official website (monks.com/careers).

As an Assistant Director, you’ll be an integral part of a nimble creative team developing organic and paid social content for two major brands in the social media and telco.You’ll own a meaningful portion of the social-first creative development, then turn around and produce, shoot, and edit the work yourself. This is a hands‑on role from first idea to final export: developing quick‑hit concepts, sketches, recurring formats, and creator‑led ideas, then shaping them into platform‑ready content. Reporting into a Creative Director, you’ll collaborate closely with other conceptual creatives, strategists, producers, and account partners while taking clear ownership of both the idea and its execution. We’re looking for an eager maker with strong creative instincts, a deep editorial bag of tricks, and the ability to turn a sharp idea into a finished piece quickly, intentionally, and independently. You’ll also capture events and cultural moments in ways that feel immediate, entertaining, and native to the feed.

Responsibilities

• Concept Social-First Ideas: Generate a steady stream of original, quick-hit concepts, recurring formats, sketches, and cultural responses built for how people actually watch and share content on social.
• Own End-to-End Creation: Take ideas from concept through completion, including scripting or outlining, storyboarding, casting, talent briefs, location scouting, props, lean production planning, camera, sound, lighting, directing, editing, finishing, and final delivery.
• Shoot and Edit Independently: Operate compact camera or phone-based production setups and edit your own work with a strong command of hooks, pacing, comedic timing, music, graphics, transitions, and platform-native editorial techniques. Use in-camera tricks, practical effects, match cuts, seamless transitions, visual gags, and other edit-driven techniques to make simple ideas feel surprising, polished, and native to social.
• Create Sketch and Creator-Led Content: Develop and execute social-native comedy, character, reaction, interview, day-in-the-life, and other personality-forward formats without making the work feel overproduced or overly scripted.
• Direct Talent and Real People: Cast and effectively direct actors, creators, employees, event attendees, or non-professional participants, shaping performances and interactions that feel natural, specific, and entertaining.
• Capture Events and Cultural Moments: Identify the story while it is happening, capture strong footage and interactions in real time, and turn around timely edits, recaps, and social cutdowns efficiently.
• Translate Brand Needs into Entertainment: Respond to briefs and strategic goals with content people would choose to watch, balancing product or brand messaging with a clear hook and a rewarding idea.
• Stay Native to the Platforms: Keep pace with emerging formats, memes, creator behaviors, and editorial styles, using trends selectively when they create a credible role for the brand.
• Present, Iterate, and Deliver: Share ideas and work with internal and client teams, absorb feedback without losing the throughline, and manage multiple pieces of content through tight timelines and changing production needs.

About You

The essentials

• 5+ years of hands-on experience creating social video, branded content, digital comedy, creator-led work, or an equivalent portfolio that demonstrates the same depth of ability.
• A strong portfolio that clearly shows your personal role in shooting, directing, and editing short-form content, including work built around inventive camera techniques, visual tricks, transitions, and edit-led ideas.
• Chronically online, fluent in the microtrends, behaviors, language, and nuances of Organic social — and an understanding of how a brand should show up on social in ways that their audience welcomes and enjoys.
• Strong conceptual instincts and the ability to generate multiple ideas quickly in response to a brief, cultural moment, or platform behavior.
• Fluency in short-form storytelling, including hooks, pacing, comedic or performance timing, and the difference between content made for social and content merely resized for social.
• Proficiency operating compact camera systems or phones, recording clean audio, and creating polished results with basic lighting and lean resources.
• Advanced proficiency in editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro or an equivalent platform, with the motion, effects, and problem-solving skills to execute trick shots, visual transitions, practical effects, and other editorial techniques independently.
• Experience self-producing small shoots, including practical logistics such as casting, props, locations, releases, schedules, and file management.
• Demonstrated ability to direct actors, creators, and non-professional talent while keeping performances natural and platform-appropriate.
• A self-sufficient, organized, and solutions-oriented working style, paired with the ability to collaborate closely and build on feedback.
• The ability to manage several fast-moving deliverables at once without sacrificing the core idea or the quality of the final content.

Not a Must But a Plus

• Comfort appearing on camera occasionally when the idea benefits from it.
• Experience in directing comedy, sketches, improv, character work, or other performance-led formats.
• Experience with event capture, creator interviews, man-on-the-street content, or real-time social coverage.
• Advanced motion graphics, animation, compositing, or sound-design skills.
• Experience creating both organic and paid social content for established brands.

At Monks, we believe in fostering an environment where a diversity of perspectives can thrive. We proactively work to design hiring processes that promote equity and inclusion while mitigating bias. We celebrate diversity and are committed to building a team that reflects the communities we serve. We welcome and encourage qualified applicants, from all backgrounds, who are excited to contribute to our mission.

About Monks

Monks is the global, digital-first, data-driven, unitary operating brand of S4 Capital plc. With a legacy of innovation and specialized expertise, Monks combines an extraordinary range of global Marketing and Technology Services to redefine how brands interact with the world. Through Monks.Flow, its flagship AI ecosystem for marketing orchestration, Monks transforms marketing into a growth engine, collapsing timelines and connecting brands to culture in real time. By deploying bespoke intelligent agents across disciplines and delivering culturally relevant, high-impact creative and digital solutions, Monks solves key critical business challenges across the entire brand enterprise to help brands sustain long-term impact.

Monks was named a Contender in The Forrester Wave: Global Marketing Services, ranks among Cannes Lions' Top 10 Creative Companies (2022-25) and remains the only partner featured in AdExchangers Programmatic Power Players list every year (2020-24). Named Adwicks first AI Agency of the Year (2023) and The One Shows inaugural AI Pioneer Organization, Monks was also awarded Business Intelligence Groups 2025 Excellence in Artificial Intelligence Award in both the Organizational and AI Product categories. As a trusted partner to cutting-edge innovators in tech, Monks earned titles such as Optimizely Experimentation Partner of the Year (2025), runner-up for the Adobe Firefly Partner Award (2024), and Workatos AI Visionary Customer Impact Award (2024). Additionally, Monks achieved a record-breaking number of FWAs and continues to hold the most of any partner.

We are an equal-opportunity employer committed to building a respectful and empowering work environment for all people to freely express themselves amongst colleagues who embrace diversity in all respects. Including fresh voices and unique points of view in all aspects of our business not only creates an environment where we can all grow and thrive but also increases our potential to produce work that better represents- and resonates with- the world around us.