Creative Director

YAP MEDIA NYC is hiring a full-time, Austin-based Creative Director to own the creative direction, production quality, and growth engine for Hala Taha’s content ecosystem, including Young and Profiting Podcast, Hala’s personal brand, YouTube, social video content, studio production, and related brand content. This is not a traditional podcast producer role. This is a senior creative leadership role for someone who can think like a showrunner, executive producer, content strategist, and brand operator at the same time. The right person will help scale Young and Profiting podcast from a top business and self-development podcast into a category-defining media brand. They will shape the story, structure, packaging, creative direction, and final quality of Hala’s content across platforms. They will know how to turn a long‑form conversation into a compelling episode, a high‑retention YouTube video, a strong trailer, viral short‑form moments, sharp titles, standout thumbnails, sponsor stories, and social content that grows the brand. In this role, you will work directly with Hala Taha and production leadership to raise the creative bar, build stronger systems, and make every piece of content feel intentional, premium, and built for growth. The Creative Director will be the creative owner for Hala’s show and brand ecosystem. You will sit at the intersection of content strategy, production, editing, storytelling, YouTube growth, social growth, creative direction, and executive communication. You will be responsible for making sure Hala’s content is not just produced on time, but produced with a clear point of view, a strong hook, a clean structure, and a growth strategy behind every asset. This person must be strategic enough to see the larger brand and growth opportunity, creative enough to know what will capture attention, and operational enough to make sure the work actually gets done at a high standard. Responsibilities Creative Direction & Brand Ownership Own the creative direction for Hala’s brands across podcast, YouTube, social, short‑form video, trailers, newsletters, sponsor integrations, and related brand content. Build a clear creative point of view for each episode, series, and content campaign so every asset ladders up to the same story, promise, and audience takeaway. Protect and elevate Hala’s voice, positioning, and reputation across all content touchpoints. Turn Hala’s ideas, interviews, and brand goals into sharp creative concepts that are compelling, useful, and platform‑native. Raise the overall quality bar so Hala’s content feels premium, distinctive, and intentional across every platform. Showrunning & Executive Production Act as the showrunner for Young and Profiting and related Hala‑led formats, owning the creative quality from pre‑production through publishing. Shape episodes after recording by tightening structure, identifying the strongest story arc, improving flow, and making sure each episode is strong enough to publish. Lead the creative direction for intros, teasers, trailers, outros, episode structures, and audience retention moments. Ensure each episode has a clear hook, a strong opening, a compelling promise, and a clean transition into the main content. Partner with production leadership to improve the full production pipeline from recording to editing, QA, publishing, and performance review. Support identifying unique and high performing guests for the podcast. Create and oversee compelling YouTube titles, episode titles, thumbnail titles, descriptions, and packaging angles that are built for discovery, retention, and shares. Think beyond “what is the episode about?” and identify the sharpest audience‑facing promise: why someone should click, watch, listen, and share. Work with YouTube, thumbnail, social, and production teams to align creative packaging with audience data and growth goals. Review performance insights and turn them into better creative decisions for future episodes, clips, titles, formats, and campaigns. Help evolve Young and Profiting’s YouTube presence from a podcast mirror into a strong video‑first growth channel. Short‑Form, Trailers & Social Creative Identify the strongest short‑form moments from every episode, prioritizing clips with strong hooks, emotional pull, practical value, controversy, clarity, and viral potential. Give clear creative direction to video editors on what the clip should accomplish, where the hook is, what the viewer should feel, and how the edit should land. Oversee episode trailers that make the audience want to watch or listen to the full episode. Help the team test and improve short‑form formats across Instagram, YouTube Shorts, TikTok, X, and LinkedIn. Make sure short‑form content supports both audience growth and the larger Hala/YAP brand strategy. Test and identify viral short form formats beyond podcast clips to grow brand awareness. Writing, Scripting & Storytelling Write and oversee story‑driven show notes, intros, outros, episode scripts, sponsor messages, creative briefs, and other copy tied to Hala’s content. Make scripts and sponsor integrations feel natural, personal, and compelling rather than generic or overly templated. Translate guest insights, business ideas, and personal‑development concepts into clear audience‑facing language. Know when to follow SOPs closely and when to improve the creative approach because the content demands it. Maintain high standards for clarity, syntax, judgment, and voice in all written work. Attend interviews to monitor production quality and support with scripting intros and outros in real‑time. Support in‑person recordings in Austin, including studio readiness, sound checks, guest/host preparation, recording flow, and on‑site production quality. Spot audio, video, lighting, framing, and production issues quickly and coordinate fixes before they affect final content. Help Hala prepare for recordings by surfacing strong questions, content angles, and possible moments for short‑form or social follow‑up. Work closely with production, video, creative, guest outreach, social, YouTube, sponsorship, and leadership teams to keep Hala’s content engine moving. Communicate clearly and quickly through Slack, email, and live meetings so priorities, blockers, and decisions are never unclear. Results Hala’s content has a sharper creative direction, stronger hooks, cleaner episode structures, and more compelling packaging across platforms within the first 60 days. Young and Profiting episodes are produced with a clear story arc, strong intros, polished trailers, strong titles, and high‑quality supporting assets within the first 30 days. YouTube, short‑form, and social content are no longer treated as afterthoughts; they are planned as part of the creative strategy from the beginning within the first 90 days. Hala’s brand voice is consistent, premium, and growth‑oriented across podcast, YouTube, social, sponsors, and personal‑brand content. The team has clearer creative direction, fewer vague handoffs, stronger feedback loops, and a higher standard for final output. Production boards, creative briefs, publishing assets, and review processes stay accurate and on schedule within the first 30 days. The role helps unlock growth across audience, subscribers, engagement, brand visibility, and content quality within the first 120 days. Requirements 7+ years of experience in podcast production, executive production, creative direction, content strategy, showrunning, or a closely related media role. Proven ability to own a show, content brand, or creative production process from concept through final delivery. Strong editorial judgment and a sharp eye for story, structure, hooks, audience promise, and content quality. Strong understanding of YouTube packaging, titles, thumbnails, retention, short‑form clips, and platform‑specific content strategy. Excellent writing and scripting skills, especially for intros, outros, show notes, creative briefs, sponsor stories, and founder‑led content. Strong production instincts, including the ability to evaluate audio/video quality, spot recording issues, and support in‑person studio production. Highly organized and able to manage many moving pieces across episodes, formats, deadlines, teams, and stakeholders. Comfortable giving clear creative direction to editors, producers, designers, social teams, and cross‑functional partners. Strong executive communication skills and excellent written judgment in Slack, email, documents, and meetings. Austin‑based and available to work on site several days per week for studio production, creative working sessions, and close collaboration with Hala. The Ideal Candidate The ideal candidate is a creative operator with high standards. They can walk into a messy content workflow, find the story, clarify the creative direction, and make the final output better. They are not just a task manager. They are not just an editor. They are not just a producer. They are the person who understands what makes people click, what makes them stay, what makes a story memorable, and what makes a founder‑led media brand feel world‑class. They are strategic, but hands‑on. Creative, but organized. Opinionated, but collaborative. Fast‑moving, but detail‑oriented. They know how to protect quality while still getting things done. Salary & Benefits $75,000 - $85,000 per year Flexible PTO Medical benefits Employee growth plans Personal development reimbursement for books, courses, and learning Paid maternity leave Direct interaction with company owners and executive leadership #J-18808-Ljbffr YAP Media