Matte Painting Supervisor – Netflix Animation Studios

Job Position(s): Matte Painting Supervisor - Netflix Animation Studios

Netflix is hiring a Matte Painting Supervisor at its Animation Studios in Sydney, Australia. This role sits within the environments department, leading a team of digital matte painters to build skies, background environments, set extensions, and full one-off locations that composite cleanly into a feature animation pipeline. It suits an experienced DMP lead who has shipped feature film or high-end VFX work and is ready to own the creative and technical direction of an entire matte painting department.

About the Role

The Matte Painting Supervisor works directly on a specific feature film production at Netflix Animation Studios, partnering with the VFX Supervisor, Head of Environments, Production Designer, and Art Director to define the visual language for every digital environment in the film. Day to day, this means reviewing matte painting work in context, setting the quality bar through personal hero work, shaping DMP workflows alongside pipeline and compositing teams, and keeping the department on schedule across a range of environment types from subtle CG embellishments to complete digital builds.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and cast work across a team of matte painters, balancing creative priorities against production schedules to maintain throughput and quality across the feature animation pipeline.
• Establish visual style and quality standards for all matte painting and environment projections in close coordination with show leadership and the art department.
• Create or refine hero and reference-setting matte paintings personally, particularly complex shots that define the technical and aesthetic approach for the broader team.
• Define DMP workflows and toolsets in collaboration with Environment, Layout, Lighting, Compositing, and Technical Supervisor teams to keep the VFX pipeline efficient and well-documented.
• Track department progress with Production and Environment leadership, providing clear input on shot complexity, timelines, and sequencing priorities.
• Contribute to artist development, evaluate existing show talent, and participate in recruiting and onboarding new matte painters as the production requires.

What You Bring

• Extensive experience in digital matte painting or environment creation for feature animation, VFX, or high-end episodic television, with meaningful time in a Lead or Supervisory role.
• A strong portfolio demonstrating integrated 2D, 2.5D, and CG matte painting work across varied environment types and production scales.
• Proficiency in Photoshop and Nuke, with working knowledge of 3D tools such as Maya, Houdini, or Blender and familiarity with modern rendering workflows.
• Solid command of perspective, parallax, atmospheric depth, lighting, and color theory as they apply to environment creation for animation.
• Demonstrated experience developing and maintaining DMP workflows in coordination with pipeline and technical teams across a full production cycle.

Why This Role

Netflix Animation Studios is building a feature animation division across three global studio locations, with Sydney operating as one of its primary production hubs, which means this role carries real influence over how the department is built and how it works. The Matte Painting Supervisor here is not maintaining an inherited system but helping define the process from an early stage, with access to strong cross-department leadership and a post-production workflow designed around ambitious visual storytelling. This is a hybrid position based in Sydney, New South Wales, requiring a minimum of three days per week on-site.

Apply now for the Matte Painting Supervisor role at Netflix Animation Studios and bring your environment work to a feature animation production built to last.