Lead Video Editor

Lead Video Editor

CDS Visuals — Fort Mill, SC (hybrid) — Full-time

Tactical video content for blue-collar businesses. That's what we make. Jobsite footage, customer testimonials, brand films, product walkarounds, recruiting and training content, tradeshow coverage — shot on site, in PPE, for construction, manufacturing and equipment dealers. Real jobs. Real crews. Real results.

We're looking for a Lead Editor to own post production for a book of those clients. Not a slice of each project. The whole account, start to finish, with the authority to make the calls that come with it.

The trades deserve better marketing, plain and simple. This is the seat where a lot of that marketing gets made.

The job

Our process has six steps: Strategy, Production, Post Production, Feedback, Distribute, Win Work. You own step three for your accounts. The crew shows up where the work happens and captures it. You turn it into video that wins work and fills crews.

A steady monthly volume across your accounts, each on our standard package: long-form pieces, short-form cut-downs, social posts sized and captioned for every platform, and the still set that ships alongside. The mix shifts month to month with what the crew shot and what the client needs. The footage comes from jobsites, shop floors and show floors. Owners and crews on camera. Machines doing the work. No studio.

You report directly to the Head of Post Production and work alongside him daily. Sub-editors on your accounts report to you: you scope the work, brief it, review it, and answer for what ships.

You own the standard. Once you're up to speed, you run first-pass review on your book and approve work to client yourself. That authority moves to you as fast as you show you can carry it, not on a fixed calendar.

The first 90 days are mapped out before you start: daily time with the Head of Post Production in your first weeks, direct feedback, and a clear ladder of what becomes yours and when. Nobody here gets left to figure out the system alone.

What you'll do

• Cut brand films, jobsite content, testimonials, walkarounds, recruiting and training pieces, and tradeshow hype cuts for a book of recurring clients. To spec, on schedule.
• Find the story in unscripted interview footage. Pull the soundbites, build the throughline, make it land.
• Build and maintain the custom branded motion graphics layer in After Effects: end cards, lower thirds, animated overlays, and the mogrt templates the rest of the team works from.
• Cull, edit and export the still set from each shoot in Lightroom, matched to the look of the footage.
• Run the full post pipeline: ingest and organization, color and audio cleanup, captions, and delivery in every size a client's channels need.
• Scope and assign work to sub-editors, give clear notes, and finish it yourself when that's the faster call.
• Run first-pass review on your book: technical check, then a client-fit check against the brief.
• Keep each client's media library complete. Every final, every select, every photo tagged, searchable, and theirs to keep.
• Talk to clients about their deliverables: status, files, formats, what's next.
• Put AI-assisted tools to work where they save real time, and build the templates that stop us rebuilding the same thing every month.
• Take the occasional unplanned request without letting the month's work slip.

What we're looking for

You'll need

• 3–5 years editing professionally, with a reel of finished client work.
• Strong Premiere Pro and real fluency in After Effects. You'll build and modify motion graphics templates, animate titles and lower thirds, and handle cleanup: tracking, masking, screen replacements, rotoscoping when it comes up. Dropping in someone else's presets isn't enough for this job.
• Basic photo editing in Lightroom. Every package includes a still set. We're not hiring a photographer, but you need to handle stills without a walkthrough.
• Proven ability to build a story from unscripted interview footage. This is what we screen hardest for.
• Solid fundamentals in audio cleanup, color correction, and delivery specs across formats.
• The organization to run multiple projects across a full book of clients without a producer chasing you.

How you work

• Clear in writing. Briefs, review notes and client updates are most of how this job gets done.
• Direct with feedback, both ways. You'll be coached hard early and directing people soon after. Both mean saying the real thing plainly.
• Self-directed. We hand you problems, not instructions, and expect a recommendation back, not a question.
• Steady when a project goes sideways. Footage comes back short, a client reverses after approval, a deadline compresses. Solve it, don't escalate it.
• Reliable on your own deadlines, and early to flag one that's at risk.
• Discreet with client footage, information, and anything you see on a jobsite.

Your setup

• Fort Mill, SC area (or commutable from Charlotte), hybrid, with regular days in our office.
• High-speed internet at home, fiber strongly preferred. You'll be editing directly off cloud storage, so real bandwidth is a working requirement, not a convenience. A slow connection makes this job miserable.
• A proper video-call setup: camera on, quiet space, presentable background, working mic. You'll be on client calls and team meetings regularly, and you represent CDS on them.

Nice to haves

• Experience directing freelancers or junior editors, even informally.
• Hands-on use of AI-assisted editing tools: transcript-based assembly, auto-captioning, batch automation.
• Time around construction, manufacturing or heavy equipment, in any capacity.
• Deeper motion design: 3D, Cinema 4D or Blender, expressions and rigging.
• Videography and Photography experience

Details and how to apply

Employment: Full-time, W2, salaried. Not a contract role.

Location: Hybrid in Fort Mill, SC, just south of Charlotte. You'll have a desk in our office and we expect you in it regularly, especially in your first few months when the coaching is heaviest.

Compensation: $50,000–$60,000 base, depending on experience, plus a performance bonus, health, dental and vision benefits, 401k, and paid time off. We supply everything you need to work: workstation, monitor, Adobe Creative Cloud, DaVinci Resolve Studio. You don't bring your own licenses or gear here.

Growth: Lead Editor is the senior seat in post production under the Head of Post Production. We're a small crew growing fast, and the person in this seat has real say in how post runs here: the tools, the templates, the process, and who we bring on next.

To apply, send us:

• Your reel or portfolio.
• One piece you cut from interview footage, with a sentence or two on how you found the story in it.
• A short note on a project that went sideways and what you did about it.

No cover letter. We care about the work and how you think about it.

Apply through this listing or email with \"Lead Editor\" in the subject.

CDS Visuals is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.