Director - Creative Design Lab (Games)
Netflix is one of the world's leading entertainment services, with over 300 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, films and games across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can play, pause and resume watching as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, and can change their plans at any time.
The Director, Creative Design Lab, plays a pivotal role responsible for shaping the artistic and experiential landscape of our gaming initiatives and ensuring that our designs align with the broader Netflix service. You will work closely with our world-class Netflix creative, technical, and production teams to enable the creation of exceptional games and transmedia experiences.
In this leadership role, you will collaborate with internal and external game development teams to assess and validate milestone progress, creatively guide them to quality, and integrate and expand our intellectual properties into engaging gaming experiences. Your role will ensure that these partnerships maintain the integrity and vision of our brand while delivering innovative and captivating content. By building strong relationships and facilitating seamless collaboration, you will help drive the success of our licensed projects and external game development efforts.
Internally, your team will be at the forefront of pioneering and validating innovative designs and experiences unique to the Netflix platform. Your strategic oversight will guide our teams to explore new creative frontiers and evaluate the potential of emerging design and interaction trends. By fostering a culture of creativity and artistic excellence, you will ensure that these initiatives contribute significantly to the advancement and success of our gaming platform.
Key Responsibilities
Manage, mentor, and inspire a central team of designers by fostering a culture of excellence, experimentation, and player empathy.
Evaluate and validate milestones and provide external developers with design, art, audio, and narrative feedback to ensure we are reaching the highest quality with second and third-party development.
Lead creative design and development of game concepts, transmedia initiatives, and experimental prototypes to validate and steer Netflix game innovation.
Work with external partners to ensure that Netflix IP is authentically represented in game adaptations, including tone, audience, and creative considerations.
Evaluate and improve game pitches and proposals to reach their maximum potential while keeping budget and developer capabilities in mind.
Collaborate with leadership across production, product and technology, content acquisition, and marketing teams to shape roadmap decisions and long-term bets.
Review the creative and design capabilities of second and third party teams, as well as M&A opportunities.
Represent design thinking at the leadership level and across the broader games organization.
Qualifications
A deep passion for gaming and a strong understanding of the gaming industry, coupled with a commitment to driving significant business value through design.
A minimum of 10 years of design experience in the gaming industry, including at least 5 years in design leadership/management roles.
Experience in leading geographically distributed and/or global teams.
Experience with licensed IP games development.
Extensive knowledge of game design principles, user experience, and design tools.
Strong organizational and communication skills, with the ability to manage relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.
A collaborative, creative, and entrepreneurial spirit, with a proven track record of leading design teams to success.
Our compensation structure consists solely of an annual salary; we do not have bonuses. You choose each year how much of your compensation you want in salary versus stock options. To determine your personal top of market compensation, we rely on market indicators and consider your specific job family, background, skills, and experience to determine your compensation in the market range. The range for this role is $320,000 - $640,000.
Netflix provides comprehensive benefits including Health Plans, Mental Health support, a 401(k) Retirement Plan with employer match, Stock Option Program, Disability Programs, Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts, Family-forming benefits, and Life and Serious Injury Benefits. We also offer paid leave of absence programs. Full-time hourly employees accrue 35 days annually for paid time off to be used for vacation, holidays, and sick paid time off. Full-time salaried employees are immediately entitled to flexible time off. See more detail about our Benefits here.
Inclusion is a Netflix value and we strive to host a meaningful interview experience for all candidates. If you want an accommodation/adjustment for a disability or any other reason during the hiring process, please send a request to your recruiting partner.
We are an equal-opportunity employer and celebrate diversity, recognizing that diversity builds stronger teams. We approach diversity and inclusion seriously and thoughtfully. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.
Job is open for no less than 7 days and will be removed when the position is filled.
About the job
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Director - Creative Design Lab (Games)
Netflix is one of the world's leading entertainment services, with over 300 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, films and games across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can play, pause and resume watching as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, and can change their plans at any time.
The Director, Creative Design Lab, plays a pivotal role responsible for shaping the artistic and experiential landscape of our gaming initiatives and ensuring that our designs align with the broader Netflix service. You will work closely with our world-class Netflix creative, technical, and production teams to enable the creation of exceptional games and transmedia experiences.
In this leadership role, you will collaborate with internal and external game development teams to assess and validate milestone progress, creatively guide them to quality, and integrate and expand our intellectual properties into engaging gaming experiences. Your role will ensure that these partnerships maintain the integrity and vision of our brand while delivering innovative and captivating content. By building strong relationships and facilitating seamless collaboration, you will help drive the success of our licensed projects and external game development efforts.
Internally, your team will be at the forefront of pioneering and validating innovative designs and experiences unique to the Netflix platform. Your strategic oversight will guide our teams to explore new creative frontiers and evaluate the potential of emerging design and interaction trends. By fostering a culture of creativity and artistic excellence, you will ensure that these initiatives contribute significantly to the advancement and success of our gaming platform.
Key Responsibilities
Manage, mentor, and inspire a central team of designers by fostering a culture of excellence, experimentation, and player empathy.
Evaluate and validate milestones and provide external developers with design, art, audio, and narrative feedback to ensure we are reaching the highest quality with second and third-party development.
Lead creative design and development of game concepts, transmedia initiatives, and experimental prototypes to validate and steer Netflix game innovation.
Work with external partners to ensure that Netflix IP is authentically represented in game adaptations, including tone, audience, and creative considerations.
Evaluate and improve game pitches and proposals to reach their maximum potential while keeping budget and developer capabilities in mind.
Collaborate with leadership across production, product and technology, content acquisition, and marketing teams to shape roadmap decisions and long-term bets.
Review the creative and design capabilities of second and third party teams, as well as M&A opportunities.
Represent design thinking at the leadership level and across the broader games organization.
Qualifications
A deep passion for gaming and a strong understanding of the gaming industry, coupled with a commitment to driving significant business value through design.
A minimum of 10 years of design experience in the gaming industry, including at least 5 years in design leadership/management roles.
Experience in leading geographically distributed and/or global teams.
Experience with licensed IP games development.
Extensive knowledge of game design principles, user experience, and design tools.
Strong organizational and communication skills, with the ability to manage relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.
A collaborative, creative, and entrepreneurial spirit, with a proven track record of leading design teams to success.
Our compensation structure consists solely of an annual salary; we do not have bonuses. You choose each year how much of your compensation you want in salary versus stock options. To determine your personal top of market compensation, we rely on market indicators and consider your specific job family, background, skills, and experience to determine your compensation in the market range. The range for this role is $320,000 - $640,000.
Netflix provides comprehensive benefits including Health Plans, Mental Health support, a 401(k) Retirement Plan with employer match, Stock Option Program, Disability Programs, Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts, Family-forming benefits, and Life and Serious Injury Benefits. We also offer paid leave of absence programs. Full-time hourly employees accrue 35 days annually for paid time off to be used for vacation, holidays, and sick paid time off. Full-time salaried employees are immediately entitled to flexible time off. See more detail about our Benefits here.
Inclusion is a Netflix value and we strive to host a meaningful interview experience for all candidates. If you want an accommodation/adjustment for a disability or any other reason during the hiring process, please send a request to your recruiting partner.
We are an equal-opportunity employer and celebrate diversity, recognizing that diversity builds stronger teams. We approach diversity and inclusion seriously and thoughtfully. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.
Job is open for no less than 7 days and will be removed when the position is filled.