See 🚩 Candidate Hard Gates & Red Flags for company-wide eligibility rules (NSFW baseline, compensation-expectations screening, cultural-fit guidance). What follows is specific to this role, including two explicit exceptions to that page's defaults: the mandatory AI-generation requirement, and a higher NSFW bar for MPC / Companion Mode work.
⛔️ Top Requirements
- Active AI video-generation workflow — hard requirement.
- Strong cinematic/video storytelling ability.
- Hands-on generation/prompting, not traditional editing alone.
- Ability to create coherent stories/sequences using AI-generated material.
- Strong visual judgment and creative execution.
- Portfolio/work evidence demonstrating the above.
🎯 What We Are Hiring For
We are not hiring a traditional video editor, a motion designer who occasionally experiments with AI, or someone who only assembles footage generated by others. We need a hands-on AI-native cinematic creator/editor who uses current AI-generation tools directly and turns generated material into compelling narrative video — contributing across concept/story, generation, prompting, iteration, shot/sequence selection, editing, pacing, narrative coherence, and final creative execution.
Embedded in R&D, working on Candy.ai's content pipeline (MPC / Companion Mode) — a deeply technical creative role, not a standard editing position, with high autonomy on execution and technical decisions. Full end-to-end production ownership from concept and prompting through editing, compositing, and final delivery. Iteration culture: test, fail, refine, improve, and share learnings with the team.
Engagement: starting as a full-time freelancer, then converting to full-time B2B. Level is determined by portfolio strength, years of relevant experience, and depth of AI pipeline expertise, not format specialization — cinematic-only, short-form-only, and hybrid backgrounds are all welcome.
⛔️ Screening Criteria
- AI-native creation — currently uses AI-generation tools as a meaningful, regular part of their creative workflow. Look for evidence of tools actually used, prompting/generation ownership, frequency of use, what they personally generate, how they iterate, and how they solve consistency/quality problems. Occasional experimentation with AI is not equivalent to an AI-native workflow.
- Generation ownership — personally generates the source material, rather than mainly editing assets created by someone else.
- Storytelling — constructs an actual story, not just attractive individual shots: narrative progression, character consistency, pacing, shot selection, continuity, emotional/creative intent.
- Visual/cinematic judgment — beyond technical polish: composition, shot choice, movement, pacing, consistency, atmosphere, and the ability to select and improve generated material.
- End-to-end ownership — can identify what they personally did across concept, writing/story, prompting, generation, editing, sound where relevant, and final assembly. Avoid giving full credit where personal contribution is unclear.
- Portfolio — must include AI-driven video work. Minimum ~4 years in video production, VFX, or digital art.
Portfolio evidence to establish: is this actually AI-generated work? What did the candidate personally create? Did they generate the source material and write/develop the story themselves? Which tools were used, and how much iteration did it take? Can they explain the workflow? Is the work coherent across multiple shots — storytelling, not isolated visual experiments?
Also confirms NSFW comfort — 100% dealbreaker if absent, with a hardcore NSFW bar (uncensored models, adult narratives) specifically for MPC / Companion Mode candidates. See the shared Candidate Hard Gates & Red Flags guide for the general framework.
🚩 Red Flags
- Traditional editor with little/no meaningful AI-generation experience; no recent AI-driven portfolio work.
- AI use is occasional experimentation rather than a real, regular workflow.
- Edits AI-generated footage but does not personally generate it.
- Cannot explain their prompts, workflow, or tools.
- Reel is cinematic-only with no narrative structure, or no demonstrated character/style consistency across sequences.
- Cannot distinguish personal contribution from collaborators' work.
- Needs another specialist (colourist, compositor) to deliver a finished sequence, or needs heavy direction rather than working independently from concept to delivery.
- Visually polished work but weak narrative judgment, or relies heavily on templates/presets without demonstrating creative ownership.
Low openness to feedback is a signal to explore during screening, not an automatic reject — see the shared Candidate Hard Gates & Red Flags page for company-wide cultural-fit guidance.
💬 Recruiter Screening Questions
Use these questions during your screening call. Include a summary of the candidate's answers in your submission notes in Ashby.
- What are you doing currently, and why are you considering a move?
- Walk me through your current workflow — what does a typical production look like from brief to delivery?
- Which AI video generation tools are you actively using right now, and what are you using them for?
- Do you personally prompt and generate the material yourself, or mainly edit footage generated by someone else?
- Share a piece of AI-generated long-form content you're proud of — what were the technical and creative challenges?
- What did you personally create — concept, story, prompting, generation, editing? Which tools did you use, and how much iteration did it take?
- How do you maintain character and scene consistency across a longer AI-generated narrative sequence?
- Have you tried Candy.ai? Our product operates in the adult AI companionship space — are you fully comfortable working with explicit NSFW content on a daily basis?
- Do you have previous experience working in the adult space?
- Do you use ComfyUI? If yes, walk me through a workflow you've built. (Bonus signal — not a filter.)
- If you were able to create anything you wanted without budget constraints or rules, but simply for your pleasure, what would it be?
- Location / compensation expectations / notice period / engagement (freelancer-to-B2B)?
- What questions do you have for me?
🎯 Strong Signals / Sourcing Guidance
Positive signals — not automatic hard gates:
- Repeated character/scene consistency; narrative mini-series / episodic storytelling.
- Strong prompting/generation depth; daily use of modern AI creative tools.
- Strong independent story development; cinematic visual language.
- Fast experimentation/iteration; ability to combine multiple AI tools effectively.
- Evidence of shipping significant creative volume without losing quality.
Traditional film/video experience can be useful, but it does not substitute for the AI-generation requirement above.
📁 Sourcing Guidance
Ideal backgrounds: AI-native video studios, generative content agencies, or AI filmmaking projects; VFX houses or post-production studios that have moved into generative AI workflows; independent creators with a strong AI video / Stable Diffusion track record; adult content production companies with AI-integrated pipelines (strong bonus).
No approved target-company list yet. Source based on the profile above. For adult content production companies, screen carefully against the Off-Limits Companies list before naming any. Confirm with Michael before treating any specific company list as validated. Target companies are a sourcing aid only — a candidate from an unlisted company is assessed on the same bar.
🔄 Interview Process
Role-specific exception to the shared default (see ⏳ Hiring Process): no dedicated Hiring Manager stage and no references. A portfolio review can happen as pre-screening, ahead of the recruiter call — it is not a formal interview stage. The case study is a paid assignment; duration is set per candidate.