Creative Design Manager – Remote Position at Netflix

The Role

As Netflix’s business expands, the company is continually exploring new ways to serve its global audience. This includes not only evolving how best-in-class entertainment content is delivered but also adapting to new formats, such as games and live events. As a global entity, it’s crucial to present a visually cohesive, thoughtful and emotionally impactful experience that emanates from a shared, unified voice and brand identity.

To facilitate this vision, Netflix seeks a highly creative and visually-oriented design leader or manager. This individual must possess an exceptional aesthetic sensibility and attention to detail, combined with the ability to influence, collaborate and guide cross-functional product teams toward a common vision. This hybrid role will encompass both creative direction and the management of a small, multidisciplinary SWAT team comprising visual, motion and sound designers.

This position calls for a leader who is an egoless creative visionary, a product design mentor and someone with extensive experience in leveraging and evolving design within complex product ecosystems.

Responsibilities

• Team Management: Lead a focused, multidisciplinary team to establish a unified user experience (UX) strategy, a systems framework and a design language that can be applied across various product experiences. This entails setting quality standards and ensuring a cohesive look and feel that reflects Netflix’s identity and desired perception.
• Collaboration and Creative Vision: Foster collaboration and creative alignment among diverse stakeholders, ensuring that quality is maintained while engaging and uniting them around shared approaches, priorities and execution plans.
• Brand-Driven Creative Principles: Guide the team in defining and articulating brand-driven creative principles and guidelines that anchor the visual, motion, audio and behavioral expressions of the design language.
• Partnership with Systems Designers: Work in tandem with systems designers to scale creative decisions through the design system. This includes defining adaptable UX guidelines and components that enhance user experience.
• Creative Direction: Direct the creation of visual elements, iconography, illustrations, imagery, typography, color palettes, motion graphics and audio elements. Collaborate with product leaders and individual contributors across the organization to develop successful, aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly products at scale.
• Influence Product Roadmaps: Help shape both short-term and long-term product roadmaps to align with creative and user experience goals.

Experience and Soft Skill Requirements

• Demonstrated Impact: Candidates must showcase real-world examples of their influence, detailing how product experiences improved due to their involvement and the resultant business impact.
• Redesign Leadership: A proven history of leading large-scale redesigns and contributing to the evolution of design language systems for intricate, consumer-facing products is essential.
• Proactive Leadership: Candidates should illustrate instances of proactive leadership on significant initiatives requiring clarity, direction and influence in complex and ambiguous environments.
• Relationship Building: The ability to cultivate strong, trusting partnerships is vital for guiding and supporting efforts. Candidates must demonstrate collaboration, curiosity, optimism and a positive attitude.
• Communication Skills: Exceptional verbal and visual communication abilities are crucial. Candidates must effectively convey diverse and complex ideas in a clear, compelling and business-aligned manner.
• Adaptability and Quality: Candidates should thrive in fast-paced, multi-project settings and feel comfortable with context-switching. They should inspire creativity and maintain high-quality standards in their work.

Technical and Hard Skill Requirements

• Experience in Team Management: At least 5 years of experience managing an interdisciplinary team is required.
• Strong Portfolio: A solid portfolio that showcases exceptional taste and a high-quality standard in craft, execution and decision-making across various UX/UI applications is necessary.
• Design Expertise: A profound understanding and expertise in interaction, visual, motion and audio design is essential.
• Product Design Proficiency: Strong product design and development skills are necessary, along with the ability to communicate effectively at all organizational levels.
• Cross-Disciplinary Experience: Experience at the intersection of product, brand and marketing, with insights into how these elements combine to influence perception or behavior through creative work, is important.
• Brand Strategy Integration: Familiarity with developing or integrating brand strategies and translating brand attributes into product experiences is a plus.
• Technical Aptitude: Strong technical understanding and aptitude, particularly regarding design systems, are required.

Compensation Range

Netflix’s compensation structure primarily consists of an annual salary, as the company does not offer bonuses. Each year, employees have the option to choose how much of their compensation they wish to receive in salary versus stock options. To establish competitive compensation, Netflix relies on market indicators while considering individual job families, backgrounds, skills and experience. The salary range for this role is between $270,000 and $700,000.

Benefits

Netflix offers a comprehensive array of benefits, including health plans, mental health support, a 401(k) retirement plan with employer matching, a stock option program, disability benefits, health savings and flexible spending accounts, family-forming benefits and life and serious injury benefits. Paid leave programs are also available. Full-time hourly employees accrue 35 days of paid time off annually, which can be utilized for vacation, holidays or sick leave, while full-time salaried employees enjoy flexible time off from the outset. For more details about these benefits, you can explore Netflix’s offerings further.

Company Culture and Diversity Commitment

Netflix prides itself on its unique culture and work environment. The company values diversity and recognizes that a variety of perspectives and backgrounds strengthens teams. Netflix approaches diversity and inclusion with seriousness and thoughtfulness, ensuring no discrimination based on race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status or military service.

How does this role collaborate with other departments?

The design leader will collaborate closely with product leaders, individual contributors and systems designers to ensure that design principles are effectively integrated into product roadmaps and that creative decisions align with the overall brand strategy.

What is the work environment like at Netflix?

Netflix offers a dynamic and fast-paced work environment that encourages creativity and innovation. Employees are expected to thrive amidst ambiguity and manage multiple projects simultaneously while maintaining high standards of quality.

How does Netflix approach diversity and inclusion within the design team?

Netflix values diversity and believes that varied perspectives strengthen teams. The company actively promotes an inclusive culture where all employees are treated equitably, regardless of their background.

What are the potential career growth opportunities in this role?

The design leader can expect to influence product direction significantly and may have opportunities for advancement within the organization, including higher leadership positions or specialized roles in design strategy.

What kind of projects would the design leader work on?

The design leader will work on a variety of projects that enhance Netflix’s product offerings, including visual elements, design systems and user experiences for new formats, such as games and live events.

What is the compensation range for this role?

The compensation range for the design leader role at Netflix is typically between $270,000 and $700,000 annually, depending on the candidate’s experience, skills and market conditions.