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we're hiring two lead story analysts to serve as the developmental backbone of the incubator. you will work with 3–5 writers per cohort from treatment through final draft, helping them build screenplays that are structurally sound, emotionally precise, and ready for a greenlight conversation.

this is script doctoring work. it is surgical, patient, and painstaking. you are not giving notes from a coverage template. you are sitting inside a screenplay's architecture and diagnosing why act two collapses, why the antagonist's motivation doesn't track, why the set piece in the midpoint is doing thematic work the writer hasn't recognized yet. and then you are helping the writer see it for themselves. the goal isn't to fix the script. the goal is to build the writer.

provide detailed structural and thematic analysis for each project you supervise across the 8-month cycle. conduct regular one-on-one development sessions with your writers — working through outlines, beat sheets, drafts, and revisions. prepare development dossiers for our distribution partner at key milestones. participate in the in-person retreat as a core mentor. collaborate with the curriculum designer and fellow lead story analyst to ensure the cohort is progressing as a whole, not just as individual projects.

you are part analyst, part dramaturg, part creative mentor. you need to be able to tell a writer their second act doesn't work and then spend two hours helping them rebuild it — without writing it for them.

you are obsessive about story structure. not in a formulaic way — you're not running save the cat beats on every script. you understand why kishōtenketsu works differently than three-act structure. you know what robert mckee gets right and where john truby pushes further. you've read erta lien on eastern narrative frameworks and linda aronson on non-linear screenwriting. you can talk about rasa theory and then pivot to explaining why the heist mechanics in a crime thriller aren't generating enough reversals. you have range.

you have a mentoring instinct. you derive satisfaction from watching a writer arrive at the answer you could have just given them. you understand that development is teaching, and teaching is patience.

you are not allergic to genre. you take horror, heist, dark comedy, revenge, and speculative fiction as seriously as any prestige work because you understand that genre is structure, and structure is what you do.

you have some relationship with non-western storytelling traditions. maybe you studied them. maybe you grew up inside one. maybe you've spent years reading, watching, and working across cultures and have developed an instinct for when a western structural framework is the wrong lens. however you got there, you understand that "universal story structure" is often code for "european and american story structure," and you know how to work with writers whose narrative instincts come from elsewhere.

bachelor's degree required. master's or phd in a relevant field — comparative literature, film studies, narratology, dramaturgy, creative writing, cultural studies — is a significant plus but not mandatory. what matters more than the degree is the depth and specificity of your knowledge.

5+ years of professional experience in script development, story analysis, dramaturgy, or a closely related field. this can include development roles at production companies, studios, or agencies; story analysis or script consulting; editorial work in book publishing with a narrative focus; academic work in narrative structure with applied or industry-facing components. we are open to non-traditional backgrounds if the analytical depth and mentoring ability are demonstrably there.

fluency in english required. additional language fluency is a meaningful advantage given the markets we serve.

this is not a coverage job. you are not writing two-page synopses and a recommend / consider / pass. this is not a studio development executive role where you manage a slate from a distance. you are inside the work.

if you came up reading scripts on an agent's desk and you're looking for the next version of that, this isn't it. if you came up studying how stories work, caring about why they fail, and wanting to help writers who have something extraordinary to say find the structure to say it — we want to hear from you.

send the following to jobs@palmtrees.dev

a cover letter that tells us how you think about story structure — not what you've read about it, but how you actually work with it when you're inside a script.

your cv.

a development memo on a produced film you believe has significant structural problems. not coverage — a memo. diagnose the issue, explain why it exists at the script level, and propose how you would have worked with the writer to address it. no more than two pages.

you are the operational backbone of the incubator. you keep the program running so that the creative team can focus on the work and the writers can focus on writing. this role reports directly to the ceo and coo.

we are a small, fast-moving team building something new. this is not a role where you inherit systems — you build them.

manage comprehensive records on each writer in the program — from application through completion. serve as the single source of truth on where every person and every project stands at any given moment.

coordinate scheduling across the creative team, writers, and external partners — often across multiple time zones. track program milestones and deliverables. flag delays before they become problems.

prepare, format, and distribute materials for internal reviews and partner-facing meetings. manage the application pipeline during open call periods — tracking, organizing, and routing submissions for review.

lead logistics for the annual in-person retreat — travel, accommodation, venue coordination, daily programming support, and on-the-ground problem-solving for a multi-week international gathering.

manage shared drives, document organization, and version control. when someone on the team needs a file, they should find it in under thirty seconds because of how you've built the system.

handle vendor relationships, subscriptions, expense tracking, and basic budget monitoring. assist with press coordination and social media scheduling around key program moments. draft routine correspondence and meeting notes on behalf of leadership.

you build the spreadsheet before anyone asks for it. you see a process being managed in someone's head and your instinct is to systematize it — create the tracker, build the template, write the sop.

you are calm under logistical complexity. coordinating travel and schedules for people across multiple countries with varying visa requirements does not rattle you.

you are tech-forward. fluent in spreadsheet logic — formulas, pivot tables, conditional formatting, dashboards. you have strong instincts for which tool solves which problem and you're comfortable with or quick to learn platforms like notion, airtable, google workspace, slack, and whatever comes next.

you are detail-oriented to the point that people have commented on it. you catch the misspelled name before the email goes out. you notice the scheduling conflict before it happens.

you are warm and professional in communication. you will be a primary point of contact for writers who may be navigating an international professional environment for the first time. you don't need to be their mentor, but you need to be someone they feel comfortable reaching out to.

you can context-switch. in a single morning you might update a budget tracker, send a scheduling poll across four time zones, draft a logistics brief, and hop on a call with a writer who needs help with travel documents. this energizes you.

bachelor's degree required. 2–4 years of experience in program coordination, operations, project management, or executive assistance — ideally in a creative, media, nonprofit, or startup environment where you were building systems, not inheriting them.

advanced proficiency in excel / google sheets required. experience with project management tools (notion, airtable, asana, or equivalent) required. experience coordinating events, international travel, or multi-day programs is a significant plus. additional language fluency — particularly french, arabic, portuguese, or spanish — is a meaningful advantage.

send the following to roles@palmtrees.dev

a one-page cover letter. tell us about a time you built an operational system or process from scratch that made a team or program run better. what was the problem, what did you build, and what changed.

your cv.