Full-Time YouTube Thumbnail Designer — Graphic Design / Photoshop / Canva — Leadership Track

We're a fast-growing YouTube network running channels across explainer, gaming lore, and dark-story formats, producing new videos daily. We're hiring a **YouTube thumbnail designer** to join full-time — think:
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We're adding channels constantly and design capacity is our current bottleneck — which means real opportunity for the right person. This role has a genuine path to becoming our **Design Manager**, leading a team of designers as we scale, not just producing files forever.

**What you'll actually be doing:**
Producing up to 10 YouTube thumbnails a day using Adobe Photoshop, Canva, or Illustrator, adapting between clean/minimalist explainer-style graphic design, high-drama dark-reveal thumbnails, and story-recap illustrated thumbnails depending on the channel. Variety, not repetition.

**Hours:** 6 days/week, roughly 25-30 hours/week total. We don't micromanage clock time — we care about hitting daily output and quality bar.

**Compensation:**
- $400/month base
- **Real performance bonuses** — thumbnail design is 80%+ psychology, and we track click-through rate closely. If your thumbnails perform, you get paid for it.
- First real shot at a management seat as we scale past our current channel count — we're actively looking for who that person is right now.

**What separates a candidate we hire from one we filter out immediately:** we don't want someone who can just "make it look nice." A thumbnail either creates a curiosity gap that forces a click, or it doesn't. If you understand *why* a face, an arrow, or a piece of text moves the needle, you're who we want. If you can only describe your work in terms of colors and fonts, this isn't your role.

**To apply:**
1. Subject line must read: **"CURIOSITY GAP"** — non-negotiable filter.
2. Attach your **3-4 strongest thumbnails or graphic design pieces.**
3. Short psychology breakdown for each — what's the hook, what gap is it opening, why does someone stop scrolling for it.
4. 1-2 sentences: what's the single biggest mistake you see other designers make with thumbnails?

We move fast on strong applicants who get the psychology.