YouTube Video Editor & Motion Designer (Founding Team)

Remote; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 115,000; Full time

Job summary

ProPublica seeks a video editor and motion designer to own postproduction for multiple YouTube videos per month, building workflows and a visual identity for the platform. You’ll collaborate with reporters and editors and help shape a scalable YouTube pipeline that meets editorial standards.

This temporary two-year role reports to the director of multiplatform audience strategy and sits within the audience team, with flexibility for remote work and occasional travel.

Qualifications

• Four or more years of professional video editing and motion design experience in a newsroom, media organization or production studio.
• High proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite, with expert proficiency in both After Effects and Premiere Pro.
• A portfolio that highlights videos you have edited specifically for YouTube, including hosted, vlog-style and/or explainer formats.
• Experience building tension in hooks, controlling pacing and navigating tonal shifts in video storytelling.
• You are energized by the opportunity of being part of a founding team and creating something from scratch — establishing formats, defining visual languages and building efficient workflows.
• You thrive while collaborating, seeking input from others and iterating your work based on feedback.
• Experience being part of a founding YouTube team or launching a new project initiative.
• Experience in on-site production, including shooting on professional camera equipment and knowledge of lighting and audio setups.
• Experience with digital asset management and video archival workflows.
• Proficiency in Figma and Google Workspace.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with producers to create videos — and related promo cuts — that are grounded in ethical journalistic principles, standards and practices.
• Use editorial judgment to translate investigations and video scripts with the sensitivity, care and appropriate tone they require.
• Own the creative and technical postproduction for videos — editing, motion graphic design and animation, color grading and sound design — ensuring projects are shaped and paced for a YouTube-first audience.
• Own end-to-end motion design workflows, including creating storyboards, animatics and the polished final products for videos.
• Establish and maintain a central motion design library of MOGRTs, templates, toolkits and other reusable visual assets for teamwide use.
• Maintain ProPublica’s brand standards and overall design system, collaborating with the design and graphics teams, among others, to ensure visual cohesiveness in videos.
• Communicate proactively with the team regarding project status and timelines and directly collaborate with producers on scoping and delivering videos on schedule.
• Manage multiple projects in various stages of production, sometimes meeting tight deadlines.

Skills

Video editing

Motion design

After Effects

Premiere Pro

YouTube formats

Storytelling pacing

Tools

Adobe After Effects

Premiere Pro

Figma

Google Workspace

Job description

ProPublica seeks a video editor and motion designer to own postproduction for multiple YouTube videos per month, building workflows and a visual identity for the platform. You’ll collaborate with reporters and editors and help shape a scalable YouTube pipeline that meets editorial standards.

This temporary two-year role reports to the director of multiplatform audience strategy and sits within the audience team, with flexibility for remote work and occasional travel.