Freelance Senior Community Manager/ YouTube Specialist

We are looking for a Freelance Senior Community Manager / YouTube Specialist to join our Community team in London.

The 1000heads Community team is a proud, powerful collective of social media obsessives, driven by the desire to deliver world-class editorial and social conversation to some of the world's most impressive brands. You will work closely with a whole host of departmental specialists—from Insights, to Design, to Strategy—to deliver transformational social-first work for our clients.

This role requires not only a passion for community building, but also senior-level expertise in YouTube strategy, channel management, and optimisation. You'll be responsible for shaping and delivering strategies that drive measurable growth, applying SEO best practice, and leading the way on how clients succeed on YouTube. You will be expected to craft and own holistic YouTube strategies that cover channel growth, audience development, creative optimisation, and long-term content planning.

Role

• Lead and deliver YouTube strategies across multiple clients, driving channel growth, audience development, and creative optimisation.
• Develop and implement YouTube-first approaches that align with brand goals and broader social strategies.
• Craft and optimise SEO-rich titles, descriptions, metadata, and tags to ensure maximum discoverability and search ranking performance.
• Establish, champion, and continuously refine YouTube best practices across publishing, content optimisation, and community engagement.
• Provide senior editorial leadership by guiding ideation, creative briefing, and content planning with internal creative teams.
• Deliver platform-specific copywriting with attention to brand voice, audience resonance, and keyword optimisation.
• Oversee community engagement, ensuring on-the-pulse moderation and meaningful conversation management.
• Manage the day-to-day delivery of editorial calendars and creative campaigns, ensuring deadlines and quality are consistently met.
• Partner with creative and production teams to ensure YouTube content is designed for success, from thumbnails and titles to scripting.
• Analyse performance data and deliver senior-level insights, growth recommendations, and strategic reporting to clients.
• Research platform trends, algorithm updates, and emerging tools, and proactively apply innovations to client work.
• Build trusted client relationships, contributing senior-level strategic thinking, creative leadership, and commercial awareness.
• Mentor and develop junior team members, elevating the team's expertise in YouTube and community management.

Requirements

• Proven ability to lead YouTube strategy for major brands or publishers, with demonstrable results in channel growth, engagement, and optimisation.
• Strong expertise in YouTube SEO, metadata, and analytics, with a track record of applying best practice to achieve measurable performance improvements.
• Senior-level experience in copywriting for YouTube and social platforms, balancing creativity, brand voice, and keyword optimisation.
• Solid understanding of social platforms more broadly, with fluency in the nuances of video-first formats (YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok).
• Exceptional client-facing skills, with experience building relationships and presenting strategies and results at a senior level.
• Excellent organisational, time management, and leadership skills, with experience managing projects and teams under pressure.
• Proficiency in YouTube Studio, Creator Studio tools, and wider analytics/SEO platforms.
• A strategic, creative, and analytical mindset, with the ability to identify opportunities, solve problems, and inspire innovation.
  Passion for social culture, with the curiosity to stay ahead of trends and the confidence to challenge and innovate.

About 1000heads

1000heads is a Social Transformation company.

We combine expertise in data & analytics, strategy, technology and creativity to help the world's best businesses build Social Age brands.

1000heads delivers social-first insight, consultancy, and creative services to clients around the world including The North Face, Google, Diageo, Wella, Snap, Meta, Amazon and the United Nations.

We have offices around the world in London, Berlin, New York, LA, Miami, Sydney and Melbourne.

1000heads is an Equal Opportunities Employer, we are passionately committed to working together to promote an inclusive environment which celebrates and promotes diversity. We are committed to our belief that diversity in our team generates better and bolder ideas, creativity, understanding and respect. We welcome applicants irrespective of age, sex, race, ethnicity, disability and other factors that have no bearing on an individual's ability to perform their job.

For more information on 1000heads, visit