Drums lead - Full-time, on location in Los Angeles

Drums education lead - Full-time, on-site in Los Angeles

Company: Pickup Music

Job Location:

Category: Music

Type: Full-Time

Job title: Drums lead - Full-time, on location in Los Angeles

Application period ends: May 31, 2026

Planned start date: July, 2026

Apply directly through Pickup Music's Gusto Job board: https://jobs.gusto.com/boards/pickup-music-2e915fe1-5584-4df7-a6cd-83852d89e5aa

I’m Sam Blakelock, co-founder at Pickup Music and I’ll be hiring for this role.

We don’t hire often, so this is a rare opportunity where you’ll be coming in early to help shape drums education at Pickup Music, both in front of and behind the camera.

About us

Pickup Music is a leading music-education company based in Los Angeles that has been growing steadily since 2016. We are the leaders in structured, long form learning with over 40,000 members for guitar, bass, piano, and soon drums. We are an independent, bootstrapped company led by musicians.

You can read more about our company here: https://www.pickupmusic.com/about

About the job

We are looking for a drummer to lead the development of drums lessons, and become the leader of our drums community once it’s launched. This role involves a mix of preparing and teaching lessons on camera, producing other teachers to create lessons, and managing our community of learners.

You’re the right person for the job if you fit the following three requirements:

1. You’re a professional drummer & educator. You have extensive professional performing and recording experience, can sight read fluently, and can play and teach multiple styles at beginner through advanced levels.
2. You’re passionate about creating video lessons to teach beginner to intermediate students.
3. You’re excited to work with a fast-growing music technology company to build something special that helps tens of thousands of people learn music.

Where is it based?

This is a full time role based in Los Angeles. The hours are normal working hours - Monday to Friday. You’ll be in the studio at least 80% of the time, but some of your pre and post production work can be done at home.

What’s the pay?

We normally include salary for jobs but we aren’t listing a salary for this one as we are open to applications of all experience levels. If you’re the world’s best educator with a strong online presence and an existing audience of paid students, we’re happy to talk. If you’re a recent college grad who’s an exceptional player and are looking for an exciting career in education and content, we’d love to talk. If you’re a college professor looking to work in a new work environment, we’d love to talk.

We offer a 401K 4% match, healthcare, 20 days paid leave, sick leave, and parental leave.

What’s the work look like?

At Pickup Music, we respect and allow time for our team members to shut out the noise, and focus on their deep, meaningful work. For you, this deep work will be primarily writing, producing and filming the world’s best drums curriculum.

Here’s what your first 30 days will look like:

• Week 1: onboarding, where you can meet the team, learn our product and plan your first class with me.
• Week 2: teach a course, with me producing you, so you can see what it’s like to do a class end-to-end.
• Week 3: start work on our core curriculum.

Day to day, you’ll be working with our LA production team closely. As well as being on camera, you will direct and produce talent and see classes through to publish.

Not based in Los Angeles? We’ll cover your relocation costs to relocate to LA from within the US.

Not in the US? Unfortunately this job is only available for people legally able to work in the US. We are not sponsoring visas for this role, and it is not a remote job.

How to apply

This application has three parts:

1. Cover letter and CV. A big part of this role is writing curriculum and scripts so your cover letter should be in your own words. I encourage you to write specifically about why you would like this role and your vision for drums education at Pickup Music and how we can get there. Keep it short and sharp and say what matters most to you.
2. A video of you teaching a lesson to camera. The role will have you teaching many of our courses on camera so this is the most important part of your application. Teach directly to camera, rather than a video of you teaching a student. We’re interested in seeing how you present, not the production quality. So a simple laptop or iphone set-up is fine. We’re looking for great teaching and great energy.
3. Links to videos of you playing drums. Please share links to some clips so I can hear you play. Instagram or youtube links are fine.

Interview process

The interview process will follow these steps:

• We are posting this job on April 30, 2026, and closing off applications on May 31, 2026 at 11:59pm PDT. Applications after this time will be considered, while the position is still open.
• We will be doing interviews on a rolling basis as applications come in.
• If you get selected for an interview, there will be three interviews and one paid assignment. You’ll pass each step sequentially, and we will email you about each one if you progress to the next stage:

• Interview 1. Call with me to ask me any questions and for me to get to know you.
• Interview 2. A second longer interview.
• One day paid project in LA
  • We’ll work on a real project together for the day. You’ll be paid $700 for the day.
  • If you are not based in LA, in addition to paying you, we will cover your travel to LA from within the US and 2 nights accommodation.
• Final interview. For the final candidates, you’ll do longer interviews with me and my leadership team.
• Job offer and reference checks. We’ll ask for five references to call including 3 people who have directly managed you, 1 person you have managed, and 1 co-worker.

We aim to make a decision for this role by mid June, 2026.

The job’s planned start date is in July, 2026.

We know this is a lot of work so we appreciate the time you’ve taken to consider this role. We look at every application and consider everyone who applies.

Apply Now