Director of Photography / Post-Production Lead - The Heist

Job description

**Who We Are** Hi! We’re The Heist, the motion design, live action, and post-production studio within Thinkingbox, the Brief-to-Built agency. We’re a crew of directors, cinematographers, editors, designers, animators, and technologists making work that moves. Brand films. Broadcast spots. Social content. Experiential. Whatever the format, we bring craft, curiosity, and the right people to the table. Collaboration is real, feedback is open, and culture matters. We take the work seriously. Ourselves, a little less so. **The Opportunity** We’re looking for a Director of Photography / Post-Production Lead who can move comfortably from set to edit suite, helping shape how we shoot the work and how we finish it. This is a hybrid live action and post-production role. You’ll serve as a hands-on cinematographer and camera operator for content productions while helping lead our editors and small post team. You do not need to be a commercial director. You do need a strong visual point of view, deep production instincts, and the ability to translate a creative idea into smart camera, lighting, crew, and post decisions. You’ll partner with directors, creatives, producers, editors, and clients from pre-production through delivery, keeping the whole process connected and the craft bar high. ### What You’ll Be Doing - Help lead the day-to-day work, growth, quality, and workflow of The Heist’s editing and post-production team. - Serve as director of photography and camera operator on branded content and other live action productions. - Partner with directors and creatives in pre-production to shape the visual approach, camera packages, lighting, crew, and shoot plans. - Make confident creative and technical decisions on set while keeping the crew moving and the work aligned with the idea. - Collaborate with producers to scope production and post needs, timelines, budgets, resources, and workflows. - Guide projects from ingest and offline edit through color, sound, VFX, finishing, versioning, and final delivery. - Review edits and provide clear, actionable feedback to internal editors, freelancers, and post partners. - Keep production and post connected by making camera, codec, color, media, and handoff decisions with the finish in mind. - Coordinate editors, colorists, sound partners, VFX artists, and other specialists across projects. - Help determine what we can handle in-house and when to bring in the right outside collaborator. - Build and maintain a trusted network of camera crew, editors, colorists, sound partners, VFX artists, and other production and post talent. - Improve production-to-post pipelines, including capture specs, color workflow, media management, review, and delivery standards. - Stay current on cameras, lenses, lighting, production tools, post technology, and AI-enabled workflows. - Mentor our post-production talent, help the team grow, and ensure finished work meets creative expectations, technical specifications, budgets, timelines, and delivery requirements. ### What You'll Bring - Significant experience across live action production and post-production, ideally within an agency, production company, post house, or creative studio. - A portfolio or reel that demonstrates strong cinematography and a clear understanding of how footage becomes a polished final piece. - Professional camera operating experience, with a strong command of camera systems, lenses, lighting, exposure, movement, composition, and on-set workflow. - Experience serving as a director of photography on branded, commercial, or other professional content productions. - A deep understanding of modern post-production pipelines, from ingest and offline edit through color, sound, VFX, finishing, and final master delivery. - Working knowledge of tools such as Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve, plus familiarity with the wider VFX, motion, finishing, and delivery toolset. - A strong creative eye with excellent attention to story, composition, lighting, camera movement, edit, color, pacing, and final polish. - Experience leading editors, freelancers, vendors, and small multidisciplinary post-production teams. - The ability to translate a creative idea into a practical production and post plan, then help carry it through. - The ability to balance creative ambition with budgets, timelines, technical requirements, and production realities. - Clear, confident communication skills and the ability to work directly with directors, creatives, producers, clients, crew, and senior leadership. - Comfort moving between set, edit suite, and team leadership depending on what the project needs. ### Additional Info - Monday - Thursday in office (Fridays are remote optional) - Flexible time off, including paid vacation and sick days - Consistent culture and team-building events - Employee recognition and incentive programs - Seasonal celebrations and gatherings throughout the year - Office lunches - Branded company swag - Access to industry events, learning opportunities, and non-profit outreaches - Dog-friendly offices - Unlimited coffee, drinks, and snacks - Flex work and travel options - Comprehensive extended health benefits