Video Editor & Motion Designer

Role summary: Owns everything from rough cut to final assembly — cutting narration-driven long-form video, building 2D motion graphics and text animations, and handling music/sound design — for Paper Trail's fraud & scandal documentaries.

Paper Trail is a new narrated documentary channel covering financial fraud and corporate scandal (Ponzi schemes, accounting fraud, cover-ups, market manipulation), in the Hoog / Fern / Jake Tran mold.

What you'll do:

• Assemble rough cuts from a shot list, voice over and editing notes and provided 3D assets into a finished edit.
• Build the 2D side of the Paper Trail visual language: kinetic text animations for on-screen callouts and data points, lower-thirds, and any explainer-style 2D graphics (charts, timelines, maps).
• Handle music selection/mixing and sound design from the channel's licensed library — driving the tension/release pacing the format runs on.
• Sourcing relevant archival b-rolls online.
• Work directly from the script's flagged visual cues and the shot list.
• Take a cut through multiple review rounds, incorporating notes until it's locked for publish.
• Help build reusable templates (title card, lower-third, text-animation presets) as the channel's asset library matures.

What we're looking for:

• Mid-to-senior editor with real narrative pacing sense for narrated long-form documentary, not short-form or vlog editing. Portfolio should show that register.
• Can both cut long-form and build 2D motion graphics in After Effects. This is one combined role, not an editor plus a separate motion person.
• A sound design instinct — using music and SFX to build tension rather than leaning on stock drop-ins.
• Comfortable respecting the channel's visual identity consistently (from an animation to the next, from one video to the next).
• Always eager to improve and learn.

Software knowledge we're looking for:

• Adobe Premiere Pro
• Adobe After Effects
• Frame.io
• Notion