i went through the Netflix EM interview loop about two months ago. i'm a manager with 15+ years of experience and have done EM loops at Google, Meta, and Amazon for reference points. Netflix was distinct.
the loop structure for senior EM: recruiter screen + phone screen with hiring manager + 5-round virtual onsite.
what the onsite covered: technical depth round: yes, as an EM they still test technical depth. not coding, but a system design-adjacent conversation. i was given a scenario: a team i just inherited has a reliability problem. production incidents are up 40%, and the team's on-call rotation is burning people out. what do you do in the first 90 days? this is engineering judgment, not whiteboarding. people leadership (x2): two full rounds on managing people. very Netflix-specific. they want examples of applying the 'keeper test' - literally, have you had to let someone go who wasn't in the wrong but also wasn't a stunning colleague? they will probe performance management stories more than any other company i've encountered. cross-functional influence: how do you partner with product, how do you push back, how do you align stakeholders when eng and product disagree on priority. standard but went deeper than usual. strategy / hiring: how you build a team, your hiring bar, how you've changed a team's trajectory. culture contribution: same format as IC. your values, your stories, multiple layers.
the thing that surprised me most: Netflix EMs are expected to maintain genuine technical credibility while also being full people managers. they do not have a strong TLM track - the EM is supposed to be both. if you've drifted significantly from technical decision-making, you need to honestly assess whether the Netflix EM role fits. some of the questions required me to have real opinions on architecture, not just 'i trust my team.'
comp: i was targeting director-adjacent levels. the cash-heavy model is real and meaningful. my offer was around 550k TC which was higher base cash than equivalent Meta/Google offers because of how they weight RSUs vs cash.
overall: the best-run EM loop i've been through. clear rubric, respectful interviewers, fast feedback. would recommend regardless of outcome.