Design Director, Games Studio

Job Description

ABOUT OUR TEAM

We're a group of developers, artists, and storytellers that make games full of wonder, danger, and humor. Everyone at our studio, whether an industry vet or new voice impacts each game through collaborative feedback, mutual respect, and creative empowerment. If you want to make games leave a meaningful impact on players: we want to hear from you.

We're looking for new teammates who deeply care about the work they do, the stories they tell, and the people they create with. As part of the Netflix team, we strive to hire the best and value integrity, excellence, respect, inclusion, and collaboration.

Learn how our story-loving game people came to join Netflix's team of game-loving story people.

DESIGN AT NIGHT SCHOOL

At Night School designers invent new ways to play with interactive stories. Our studio's goal is to create world-class narrative games, and this all begins with the design. The building blocks of our games are the storytelling mechanics – designers define what they are, and how they all fit together.

ABOUT THE JOB

We're looking for a creative and highly-skilled Studio Design Director to help us forge the design vision on Night School's upcoming projects. As Studio Design Director, you will manage and inspire a team of game designers, drive macro and micro level game design vision, and collaborate with world class storytellers, artists, and developers to let audiences interact with narrative in brand new ways.

You will oversee the vision and experiential direction for the studio's games from the concept phase, through production, launch, and beyond. The right candidate will bring industry-leading craft expertise and attention to detail to generate the design vision for games that are high quality, emotionally resonant and iconic.

Responsibilities:
• Develop, champion and continuously improve and iterate on the core design vision for our studio's games with your team of talented game designers
• Own the development of core game features from initial concept, through spec and prototype, to full implementation, along with your team
• Collaborate with studio leadership (Art, Writing, Audio, Editorial, PD) to develop structure, plans, and process to realize the vision for the game
• Deeply understanding, and then synthesizing all the unique advantages and opportunities that will be provided by the Netflix Games platform into a cohesive vision for massively successful games
• Develop, with Art and Writing, worlds and experiences that are worthy of a Netflix film/TV series
• Focus on rapid prototyping to quickly iterate to ''find the fun''
• Collaborating closely with game teams to develop concepts into a prototype that builds conviction in the vision
• Collaborate with teammates by providing and receiving creative/team feedback, improving others' creative contributions, and providing clear creative goals

Skills and Experience
• At least 10 years of game design experience, including experience as a Creative Director, Game Director, or comparable design leadership role
• Shipped content that is directly the result of the candidate's work that can be reviewed - level designs, gameplay mechanics, metagame features, etc.
• Can balance innovation with what is tried and true to develop a game that can appeal to 10's or 100's of millions of players around the world
• Proven track record of delivering clear and consistent creative feedback that elevates other team members' work

About You:
• Passionate about the intersection of player agency and immersive, broadly appealing storytelling
• Thrives as a member of a cross-functional multidisciplinary team
• Communicates with authenticity, intention, and curiosity
• Proven track record of empowering their team to make decisions and implement initiatives with limited oversight
• Gets excited by learning new skills, dashing to pitch in, even if this means flexing beyond this role's core responsibilities if it can help us win

At Netflix, we carefully consider a wide range of compensation factors to determine your personal top of market. We rely on market indicators to determine compensation and consider your specific job family, background, skills, and experience to get it right. These considerations can cause your compensation to vary and will also be dependent on your location.

The overall market range for roles in this area of Netflix is typically $100,000 - $300,000This market range is based on total compensation (vs. only base salary), which is in line with our compensation philosophy. Netflix is a unique culture and environment. Learn more here.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-d2p0p7-18-191-223-123-42 in your application.