Content Systems Builder / Editor at Roame | Y Combinator

Open menuAboutWhat Happens at YC?ApplyYC Interview GuideFAQPeopleYC BlogCompaniesStartup DirectoryFounder DirectoryLaunch YCLibraryPartnersResourcesStartup SchoolNewsletterRequests for StartupsFor InvestorsVerify FoundersHacker NewsBookfaceSAFEFind a Co-FounderEventsStartup JobsLog inApplyRoameFlight search engine using credit card points and milesContent Systems Builder / Editor$40K - $80K•US / Remote (US)Job typeContractRoleMarketingExperienceAny (new grads ok)VisaUS citizen/visa onlyConnect directly with founders of the best YC-funded startups.Apply to role ›Zi LiuFounderZi LiuFounderAbout the roleAbout Roame
Roame is a flight and hotel search engine for points and miles.
Booking business or first class with points instead of cash saves travelers thousands of dollars on a single trip. The hard part is finding the seats. Award space is scattered across dozens of airline and hotel programs, it moves constantly, and the best deals get taken. Doing it by hand means hours across a dozen browser tabs, and often days.
Roame finds those deals in seconds. Members also book hotels through us and get our commission rebated back to them immediately. Roame was founded by Tim and Zi. Tim spent the previous decade covering consumer and travel companies on the hedge fund side. Zi ran data encryption systems at Airbnb.
We started Roame after losing dozens of hours hunting for first class award space to Asia across a dozen browser tabs. Award travel is a data problem. Humans shouldn't have to solve it by hand.

About the Role
We're hiring a Content Editor to build and run the machine that produces our video content — not just to edit clips.
The distinction matters. We're not looking for someone who takes a brief, opens Premiere, and disappears for two days. We're looking for someone who designs a repeatable template for a content format, figures out which parts of it a machine can produce (b-roll, motion graphics, screen recordings, captions, voice, variants, cutdowns) and which parts need a real human on camera or on mic, and then assembles those two halves into something that doesn't feel assembled.
If you've ever looked at your own editing workflow and thought "I'm doing this same 40 minutes of work every single time, I should systematize it" — this is that job.
One thing to be upfront about: we're in the business of extremely informative, time-sensitive content. A transfer bonus, a mistake fare, an award chart devaluation — these are worth a lot on day one and nothing by day four. Speed is everything. Good and out today beats perfect next week, every time. If what you want is a deeper artistic vision and the runway to chase it, this is not the right role and you'll be frustrated here.
Ideally, you also know how to grow an audience. We want someone with real instincts for what goes viral and how a channel compounds — not just clean edits, but follower growth, reach, and the kind of content that gets shared. We're starting this as a contract engagement, but the intent is that the right person grows into a full-time, key member of the team who owns Roame's audience end to end.
What You'll Own
Build the templates. Define repeatable formats for our recurring content: deal breakdowns, route explainers, product walkthroughs, founder/creator talking-head pieces, UGC-style ads. Each format gets a documented structure — hook patterns, pacing, caption style, motion system, asset library, project template — so episode #40 takes a fraction of the time episode #1 did.
Run the AI layer. Use generative tools for the tedious 70%: b-roll and stock replacement, generated visuals, voice cleanup and synthesis, auto-transcription and subtitling, silence removal, rough cuts from transcript, variant generation for ad testing. You should be opinionated about which tools are actually good and ruthless about which ones produce slop.
Stitch in the human parts. Coach and capture the human-recorded pieces — talking head, VO, screen recordings, phone footage — and blend them with generated material so the seams don't show. Knowing when not to use AI is as much of this job as knowing when to.
Shoot on location. We make destination content — hotels, lounges, cabins, cities. You may be asked to go on trips to shoot it, and to be on camera yourself. This isn't a behind-the-lens-only role: we're looking for someone comfortable being a personality in the content, not just the person cutting it. Travel and hotels are covered.
Produce the volume. Ship short-form for Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts, plus longer YouTube pieces and paid social creative. Multiple pieces a week, not a month.
Close the loop. Watch retention curves and ad performance, find where people drop, and feed that back into the templates. Hooks get iterated, not guessed at.
Keep the system usable by others. Document workflows, maintain the asset and preset library, and build things anyone on the team can pick up — so the machine doesn't stop when you're on vacation.
What We're Looking For

You're fast, and you ship. Same-day turnarounds are normal here. You know when a piece is good enough to go out and you don't sit on it.
You build systems, not just files. You think in templates, presets, naming conventions, and reusable components. You get visibly annoyed by repeated manual work.
Real editing chops. Premiere / Final Cut / DaVinci / CapCut — whatever you use, the output has to be sharp. Motion and animation ability (After Effects or equivalent) is a big plus.
Fluent with AI video tooling. Generative video and image, AI voice, transcript-based editing, auto-captioning, upscaling, cleanup. You've already built at least one workflow that chains several of these together.
Taste, specifically for short-form. You can watch a cut and say exactly where it loses people and why. You understand hooks, pacing, retention, and what makes something feel native to a feed vs. like an ad.
Real shooting sense. Framing, lighting, audio. You can travel light, set up a clean creator rig in a hotel room, and come home with usable footage without a crew.
A growth instinct. You understand what makes something spread, and you've got a point of view on how to take an account from where it is to where it should be. Bonus if you've done it before, for yourself or someone else.
Comfortable on camera. Or willing to get there fast.
Ownership. Small team, fast pace. You'll pick the format, make the call, ship it, and report on it — nobody is going to hand you a shot list.

Nice to Have

You already care about points, miles, or travel (or you're the kind of person who will go deep on it in week one)
Experience editing UGC and direct-response ad creative, not just brand pieces
Design system fluency — you can hold a consistent visual language across dozens of pieces
Light scripting or automation (batch processing, ffmpeg, API-driven pipelines, agent tooling)
You've grown an account of your own and know what actually moved it

How to Apply

Three pieces of work you're proud of. Links, not attachments.
One workflow teardown. Pick something you've made that mixed AI-generated and human-recorded material. Walk us through the template: what was generated, what was shot, what tools, how long it took, and how long it would take you on the tenth one.
A one-liner on why Roame.

About the interviewwe’ll have a trial on a new channel or handle, you should have artistic vision and business logic; direct the founders who can be your actors to create a piece of informative video
About RoameRoame is Google Flights for your credit card points and miles. We search across airlines to find the best flight redemptions to help users maximize their points.
RoameFounded:2023Batch:S23Team Size:2Status:ActiveLocation:San Francisco   FoundersZi Liu FounderZi Liu FounderTim Qin FounderTim Qin FounderFooterY CombinatorMake something people want.ProgramsYC ProgramStartup SchoolWork at a StartupCo-Founder MatchingResourcesStartup DirectoryStartup LibraryInvestorsDemo DaySAFEHacker NewsLaunch YCYC DealsCompanyYC BlogContactPressPeopleCareersPrivacy PolicyNotice at CollectionSecurityTerms of UseTwitterTwitterFacebookFacebookInstagramInstagramLinkedInLinkedInYoutubeYouTube© 2026 Y Combinator

The Content Systems Builder / Editor role at Roame centers on developing and operating a repeatable machine for producing time-sensitive video content, moving beyond traditional editing to focus on systemic efficiency and audience growth. The core objective is to create a scalable process where repeatable formats can be generated rapidly, distinguishing the role from a traditional editor who merely executes a single brief. Success in this position requires the ability to design structured templates for recurring content, documenting everything from hook patterns and pacing to asset libraries, allowing complex episodes to be produced with minimal time investment.

A significant part of the role involves leveraging artificial intelligence to handle the tedious 70 percent of production tasks. This includes using generative tools for creating b-roll and stock replacements, voice synthesis, auto-transcription, subtitling, silence removal, and generating various video variants for ad testing. The human element is critical, requiring the editor to blend these machine-generated outputs with carefully captured human-recorded segments, ensuring the final product is cohesive and avoids an assembled feel. This necessitates a deep understanding of when to employ AI versus when genuine human performance or visual direction is necessary.

The position demands a high level of technical proficiency in video editing software and motion graphics, alongside fluency in emerging AI video tooling. Candidates must be able to establish and manage entire workflows that chain these technologies together effectively. Furthermore, there is an expectation for a sharp understanding of audience behavior, particularly in short-form content, requiring an instinct for what drives virality, optimal pacing, and retention curves, enabling the editor to iterate on content based on performance metrics rather than guesswork.

Beyond technical execution, the role involves experiential content creation, as the team produces destination content in hotels and locations, potentially requiring the editor to be comfortable being on camera or traveling to shoot footage. This implies a need for strong on-location shooting sense regarding framing, lighting, and audio, enabling the capture of usable footage without extensive crew support. Ultimately, the role requires a growth instinct, an understanding of audience acquisition, and an ownership mentality to maintain the entire content system, including documenting workflows and maintaining asset libraries so the machine can function independently.

The ideal candidate is characterized by speed, a systematic mindset, and real editing chops. They must function as a systems designer who can create reusable components, master the integration of AI and human content, and analyze performance data to continuously improve the system. While experience in areas like direct-response advertising or travel is beneficial, the primary requirement is an aptitude for building scalable creative systems, ensuring that the content machine not only produces high-quality, time-sensitive material but also compounds audience reach effectively.