Most brands treat short-form video as a cheaper way to make ads. At Gradient we treat it as the media plan. Feel that difference? Then read on.

Gradient builds Growth Systems. We help companies move away from loose campaigns and build something predictable instead: strategy, performance, content, RevOps and media as one whole, with HubSpot as the beating heart. Growth is not an accident here, it is a design.

This role sits in that system, but it points outward in a way most of our work does not. You will work on a diverse client portfolio: from an innovative healthcare proposition, direct to consumer, in a category that is both medically regulated and personally sensitive (they are scaling fast and their content machine still has to be built) to rapid scaling SaaS and international technology players.  

In a feed you can skip, short-form video is the sharpest instrument we have. It is the only format that can build a brand and convert demand inside the same three seconds, and it is also the format where money disappears fastest when you treat it superficially. So we are looking for someone who works broadly across content, but who truly masters short-form. Not as a channel you do on the side, but as a craft.

What you are going to do

• You carry full responsibility for social video at your clients. You start from the growth plan, not from a posting calendar, and translate it into content that earns attention and converts it.
• Short-form is your centre of gravity: strategy, formats, hooks, production and iteration, from the first frame to the conversion.
• You (also) shoot and edit yourself. A significant part of the output is made or determined by you, at the speed the platform demands rather than the speed a production schedule allows.
• You brief and direct what you cannot make alone. Bigger productions, external creators, real customers and medical experts on camera. You write the brief, you are on set, and you protect the idea through post.
• You build a format library instead of one-off videos. Repeatable formats that hold up across hundreds of assets, so the machine keeps running when the first idea gets tired.
• You manage creative fatigue deliberately. You know the difference between a format that is dead and a format that just needs a fresh execution of the same idea.
• You read what the numbers say and change the work because of it. Hook rate, view-through, watch time, and further down the funnel what actually converted. You iterate on evidence, not on taste.
• Across channels you see where attention leaks away, and you connect scattered signals into a direction someone can act on.
• You work with performance, growth and the client's medical and compliance side, so what you make is on brand, on brief and defensible before it goes live instead of after.
• You advise the client with substance: data, platform developments and learning loops.
• You work AI-native on the Gradient Operating System and actively share what works, so successful approaches become scalable for the whole team.

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You report to your Team Lead and are coached in the craft by seasoned Content Creators. 

Short-form is your home turf

Concretely, we expect you to be at home in the following:

• The first two seconds. You brand early and distinctively without killing attention, and you know that a logo dropped on frame one is the worst way to do it. You work with the assets people actually register: sound, character, context, a recognisable scenario.
• Entertainment as a commercial instrument, not a nice-to-have. You can explain why an entertaining ad outperforms a hard-sell one on conversion as well as on brand, and you can hold that argument with a client who wants the offer in the first frame.
• The three creative modes and when to deploy which: creator-led, brand-native, and brand assets repurposed from elsewhere. You know creator content earns more attention and you know what it costs you in return.
• Salesmanship without wrecking the brand. Direct address, fast cuts, product focus, offers. You know these drive action, you know they carry a cost, and you balance the two on purpose rather than by accident.
• Platform behaviour across TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and paid social. Not "we cross-post", but knowing how each one actually behaves.
• Testing on message and offer, not on cosmetics. You start from a hypothesis and you know which variable you are actually isolating.
• Production craft. Camera, lighting, sound, editing, subtitles, sound design, basic motion. Enough to make good work alone, and enough to judge someone else's.

What you bring

• At least 4 years hands-on in social video content, of which at least 2 in a role where you owned the strategy / direction and not only the execution
• Demonstrable D2C or consumer experience. You have made content for real consumers making real purchase decisions. 
• You can read performance data and change your creative because of it. You know your own hook rates, you have killed a favourite idea because the numbers said so, and you can explain a creative decision in commercial terms
• You shoot and edit yourself, at a level you can show us. Send work. A reel, a channel, a folder. We care more about three videos you can defend than about a client list
• You can write a brief. Show us one you wrote for someone else that produced good work. This is the most-faked skill in this field
• Dutch and English at professional level

Also important

• Affinity with a regulated or sensitive category: healthcare, medical, finance, insurance. Not a requirement, but it shortens your first three months considerably
• You have set up a content process or a small studio somewhere before, rather than only working inside one someone else built
• Experience directing creators, influencers or non-professionals on camera
• Comfort with the idea that "make it good" and "make it defensible" are one task here, not two competing ones
• Experience with marketing and CRM platforms is a plus, preferably HubSpot
• You can explain a decision to a client without hiding behind a dashboard

What we offer

• A salary of €3,500 to €5,000 gross per month on a full-time basis. We deliberately pay more than the average agency, for people who are worth it
• Clients with real room to win. Most of the competition is running the same tired playbook, which is exactly what makes this interesting
• An office run by seniors. You work with people who genuinely master the craft, not alongside a layer of juniors working from a template
• Office in Amsterdam, hybrid by design
• Pension, 25 holidays, learning budget, travel allowance, MacBook Pro, a fully equipped home workspace, legendary company trips (sun or snow) and profit sharing

This role is probably not for you if

• You only want to make ‘beautiful’ films. The craft bar here is high, but the work is judged on whether it moved something, not on whether it looked good
• You want to hand production off. You will be shooting and editing yourself, regularly
• You want a brief handed to you. You write the brief
• You would rather run content someone else designed, or you are used to being judged on views and followers
• You are uncomfortable working inside medical and regulatory constraints

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We are looking for someone who sets the direction on his or her clients and takes responsibility for it.