Short Film Director Jobs (NOW HIRING)

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About the Role
As a Senior Content Creator you'll create organic and paid social content across motion and stills for two major consumer brands with distinct visual worlds. You'll bring the eye, taste, and visual authorship of an elevated fashion or editorial filmmaker, paired with the independence and resourcefulness of a hands-on maker. Depending on the project, you may shoot and edit independently, work with a lean team, or lead a larger crew - while remaining closely involved from the initial idea through final delivery. Reporting into a Creative Director, you'll help own the visual development of the work and find inventive ways to make every production feel rich, intentional, and effortlessly cool. We're looking for someone with a distinctive point of view, the range to adapt it across different brands, a deep awareness of culture, fashion, music, nightlife, art, and design, and the practical skill to make beautiful work at a range of production scales.
Responsibilities:

• Own the Visual Development: Play an integral role in creative development, shaping concepts, visual treatments, references, shot approaches, and production ideas from the brief onward - not simply joining once an idea is ready to shoot.
• Direct, Shoot, and Create: Lead motion and stills work from concept through capture, operating camera yourself when appropriate and moving comfortably between independent shoots, lean teams, and larger crew-based productions.
• Make Lean Production Feel Elevated: Use framing, lighting, lenses, locations, casting, styling, art direction, camera movement, sound, editing, and color to make limited budgets feel considered, polished, and expensive.
• Build Distinctive Brand Worlds: Create work with the polish of fashion, luxury, and editorial imagery while adapting your approach to different brand voices and keeping the content current, human, and native to social.
• Work Across Motion and Stills: Move fluidly between short-form films, portraits, lifestyle imagery, product and tabletop content, behind-the-scenes moments, and other organic and paid social formats without treating photography as an afterthought.
• Direct Talent with Ease: Demonstrate the ability to guide models, actors, creators, artists, and real people toward performances and images that feel confident, natural, and culturally credible rather than overly posed or commercial.
• Own a Hands-On Production Process: Collaborate with agency producers while taking practical ownership of the production approach - including scouting, gear and crew recommendations, casting input, shot planning, department direction, and on-set problem solving across both lean and crew-based shoots.
• Edit and Finish the Work: Edit the content you create for lean, always-on assignments, bringing a strong sense of rhythm, music, sound, color, and finishing to the final piece. On larger productions, collaborate closely with editors and post-production partners while protecting the visual intention through final delivery.
• Stay Close to Culture: Maintain an active point of view on emerging photographers, filmmakers, artists, designers, musicians, venues, style movements, and visual references, particularly within New York culture.
• Present and Protect the Work: Communicate your creative rationale clearly, respond to feedback thoughtfully, and find solutions that meet brand and business needs without flattening the visual point of view.
• Deliver Consistently: Manage multiple assignments across two fast-moving brands, changing priorities, and quick timelines with strong organization, dependable communication, and a consistently high bar for craft.

About You
The essentials:

• 5+ years of experience as a director, photographer, filmmaker, cinematographer, or multidisciplinary visual creator, with a portfolio that demonstrates a strong and recognizable point of view.
• New York City-based or within a commutable distance preferred. Los Angeles-based candidates will also be considered.
• A portfolio with exceptional motion and stills work in fashion, luxury, beauty, music, editorial, lifestyle, hospitality, or adjacent culturally driven categories, alongside enough range to work across distinct brand worlds.
• Deep hands-on proficiency with camera, lenses, lighting, composition, and compact production setups, with the judgment to choose the simplest approach that will still produce elevated work.
• Strong hands-on editing and post-production skills, with the ability to independently take social video from footage through final delivery, supported by a sophisticated sense of rhythm, music, sound, color, image selection, and finishing.
• The ability to concept visually, create persuasive treatments or mood boards, and translate an idea into a focused, achievable shooting approach.
• Proven ability to work nimbly and scale up: Experience creating premium work on very lean budgets, often shooting independently or with little to no crew, while also being able to lead a large production team when the work and budget call for it.
• Demonstrated ability to direct talent and real people, with a strong eye for casting, styling, performance, gesture, and the small details that make an image feel effortless.
• Experience capturing cultural events, artist collaborations, or live moments while maintaining a premium visual standard.
• A current and informed connection to culture, with taste that extends beyond advertising into fashion, art, photography, film, music, nightlife, design, and publishing.
• A collaborative, low-ego working style and the ability to take meaningful ownership within creative development rather than joining only after an idea has been approved.
• Strong organization, communication, and self-management across overlapping shoots, edits, reviews, and deliverables.

Not a must, but a plus:

• Experience working with premium consumer, hospitality, nightlife, fashion, beauty, celebrity, or music brands.
• Experience balancing the needs of organic social, paid social, campaign extensions, and broader brand storytelling across more than one account or visual system.
• Advanced retouching, color grading, or experimental in-camera techniques.

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.
This role is subject to our Return to Office (RTO) policy. If you reside within a commutable distance of one of our office locations, you will be expected to work from the office a set number of days per week. The specific details, including the number of required office days, will be in accordance with the company's then-current RTO policy, which is subject to change from time to time.
#LI-hybrid #LI-MJ1 GH12150
What We Offer
Benefits

• Excellent, full coverage medical, dental, and vision insurance - more about our coverage here!
• Generous PTO and 15 company-wide holidays
• 401k with company contribution
• Paid parental leave
• Work-life balance with an emphasis on personal well-being
• Career growth in a disruptor space & entrepreneurial opportunities within the Monks network
• A globally diverse & inclusive culture with employee resource groups such as S4 Melanin, Pride.Monks, Cultura.Monks, and more!
• Authentic commitment to DEI efforts and sustainable growth. (Why Sir Martin Sorrell signed The Climate Pledge here!)

This role is subject to our Return to Office (RTO) policy. If you reside within a commutable distance of one of our office locations, you will be expected to work from the office a set number of days per week. The specific details, including the number of required office days, will be in accordance with the company's then-current RTO policy, which is subject to change from time to time.
Monks has provided a compensation range that represents its good faith estimate of what Monks may pay for the position at the time of posting. Monks may ultimately pay more or less than the posted compensation range. The salary offered to the selected candidate will be determined based on job-related factors, but not based on a candidate's sex or any other protected status.
Salary Range:
$95,000-$115,000 USD
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 AdExchanger's Programmatic Power Players list every year (2020-24). Named Adweek's first AI Agency of the Year (2023) and The One Show's inaugural AI Pioneer Organization, Monks was also awarded Business Intelligence Group's 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 Workato's 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.