Animation Technical Director Jobs in Chicago, IL

Netflix Animation Studios is on a mission to entertain the world with bold, immersive animated films that are timeless and impactful.

We are paving the way for the future of animation by building a community of amazing artists and talent across three vibrant locations globally.

We are seeking a Director, Development Production to lead the operational and financial strategy for our early-stage slate of animated films.

This key leadership position within the Netflix Animation Studios (NAS) team bridges the gap between creative vision and physical production reality.

Collaborating across departments, you will oversee a fast-moving, high-volume portfolio of 15+ simultaneous projects, ensuring they are strategically planned, budgeted, and resourced to transition successfully into greenlight and full production.

What You’ll DoSlate Strategy & Leadership

Partner with production and Creative Leadership to define and execute the operational strategy for early-stage animated features across a high-volume slate of 15+ concurrent projects.

Stakeholder Diplomacy

Foster honest, transparent, and collaborative relationships with Filmmakers, Content and Production Executives, and broader leadership; serve as a trusted, objective resource for exploring viable solutions and providing constructive observations and feedback on development talent and project challenges.

Milestone Support & Problem Solving

Partner with Content Leads to support, nurture, and guide projects to reach key milestones in the development process, leveraging bespoke approaches and offering highly creative solutions to key production and pipeline challenges.

Team Growth & Culture

Manage, mentor, and guide the Manager and Coordinator of Development Production. Hold regular team meetings to assess the health of the floor, fostering a supportive environment that values diverse perspectives, cascades critical studio information, provides purposeful work, and proactively addresses performance management and professional development.

Financial Planning & Execution

Budgeting & Cost Reporting – Partner regularly with Finance and Production Accounting to build, maintain, and actualize development phase budgets and monthly cost reports, ensuring updates are communicated dynamically to relevant teams.

Workflow & Schedule Oversight

Oversee the Development Production team’s workflows to achieve overall studio objectives, including customizing, maintaining, and supervising development milestone schedules.

Executive Reporting

Track and communicate key milestones to provide bi-weekly project trajectory updates directly to the Content Team, COO, and Head of Production.

Resource Projections & Talent Optimization

Build comprehensive staffing projections by identifying exact deliverable needs required to reach crucial development milestones. Partner closely with Artist Management to leverage internal studio talent as a primary source for fulfilling development needs, supporting our end-to-end studio model.

Freelance & Short-Term Hiring

Partner with the Talent Acquisition team to address short-term and freelance hiring needs for development projects, including reviewing and approving deal terms and hires.

Studio Tech & Workflows

Studio Technology Incubation – Partner with Studio Technology and R&D teams to serve as a primary incubator and testing ground for new operational tools and technological initiatives (e.g., pipeline upgrades, enterprise database migrations) before full studio rollout.

Studio Agility – Maintain flexibility and openness to take on unique, specialized projects as necessary or assigned by senior leadership.

What You’ll Bring

• Deep Feature Animation Expertise – 10+ years of feature animation production experience, including 5+ years in a senior leadership role (e.g., Director of Production, Head of Production, or equivalent).
• Development-to-Production Track Record – Demonstrated experience successfully transitioning at least 3 to 5 major CG animated features from early-stage concept/development into active, full production.
• High-Volume Slate Management – Proven experience managing a fast-moving portfolio of 15+ concurrent projects while strategically balancing studio capacity, resource sharing, and schedule alignment across a multi-year timeline.
• Strategic Financial Modeling – Expert-level modeling skills in Microsoft Excel/Google Sheets. Proven ability to build highly accurate, ground-up production models ($5M to $50M+) based solely on scripts, treatments, or high-level visual concepts.
• Advanced CG Pipeline & Tech Proficiency – 5+ years of hands‑on experience using ShotGrid (Flow Production Tracking) or equivalent enterprise databases to build custom views and executive dashboards. Deep technical understanding of modern 3D/CG feature pipelines, layout/vis, and asset construction, with insight into how early-stage creative choices downstream‑impact multi‑million dollar schedules.
• People Leadership & Diplomacy – 5+ years of experience directly managing, mentoring, and scaling production management teams. Exceptional track record of managing relationships and building consensus with high‑profile Filmmakers, Creative Executives, and cross‑functional studio partners.

Compensation & Benefits

The overall market range for this role is typically $251,000 – $373,000, reflecting total compensation; bonuses are not part of the package.

In addition to compensation, this role offers the following benefits: medical, dental, and vision plans; mental health support; retirement programs; Stock Option Program; family‑forming benefits; paid leave of absence programs; and paid time away programs for vacation and sick time. For more detail on our benefits, please refer to the benefits information provided during the hiring process.

Equal Opportunity Employment

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.