If you grew up anywhere near the Jersey Shore, you probably know Fort Monmouth. Maybe your dad worked there. Maybe your grandmother talked about the Army days. Or maybe you just drove past it on Route 35 and wondered what was going to happen to all that empty land after the military packed up and left in 2011.
For over a decade, that stretch of Monmouth County sat in a kind of limbo — too important to ignore, too complicated to easily redevelop. There were plans and proposals, community meetings and false starts. People in Eatontown, Oceanport, and Tinton Falls waited. And waited.
Well, the waiting just took a very real, very tangible step forward. Many may have heard that Netflix is officially moving in, but today it all became even more real.
Netflix quietly posted two job listings — its first-ever production-related hires for the Fort Monmouth campus.
Two Jobs. Two Very Big Signals.
The positions are Manager of Studio Sites and Services and Director of Studio Operations.
The first pays somewhere between $181,000 and $323,000. The second? Between $420,000 and $790,000. It is almost like they know how expensive NJ is!
These aren’t entry-level gigs though. These are the people who will literally keep the lights on and the cameras rolling at what Netflix is calling its “East Coast flagship hub.”
The site manager role is all about the day-to-day facility operations, engineering, maintenance, safety. The kind of person who makes sure a billion-dollar campus actually works.
The director role sits above that, overseeing the broader operational strategy for the entire studio complex.
Two positions. But they represent something much bigger than a couple of job listings on a careers page.
A Billion-Dollar Bet on New Jersey
Netflix isn’t just renting some office space in Monmouth County. They’re pouring roughly $1 billion into transforming the old Army base into a world-class production facility.
This will include 12 full-scale soundstages, production support buildings, and all the infrastructure that goes with running a studio campus of that size.
The company broke ground last May on their 292-acre piece of the property. The plan is to open the first phase of soundstages by 2027, with the full facility up and running by 2028.
New Jersey has backed the project with significant incentives. The state approved $387 million in Aspire tax credits in late 2024, and Netflix was designated a “Studio Partner” by the Murphy administration — meaning they’re eligible for a 40% tax credit on production expenses for films and shows made in-state, as long as they stick around for at least 10 years.
That’s a serious commitment on both sides.
What This Means for the Shore
Back in 2023, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos estimated the Fort Monmouth campus would eventually create around 1,500 permanent jobs in the film industry.
That number doesn’t even account for all the ripple effects — the restaurants, the hotels, the dry cleaners and hardware stores and coffee shops that spring up around a major employer.
Even housing could see a boom! With 1,500 new jobs just at Netflix, these employees will need housing. So, this could benefit those in the area looking to make a change. While areas like Eatontown, Shrewsbury, Red Bank and the surrounding areas may benefit the most – it is expected towns further north like Marlboro, Colts Neck, Holmdel and more will see a positive effect.
Why It Feels Personal
There’s something about Fort Monmouth that hits differently for people from this part of New Jersey. The base was a fixture for 94 years. Generations of families had ties to it. When it closed, it left a hole — not just economically, but in the identity of the area.
For a long time, the question of “what happens to Fort Monmouth?” felt like it might never get a satisfying answer. And now, seeing actual job postings go up — real positions, with real salaries, for a real production facility that’s actively being built — it starts to feel less like a press release and more like a future you can actually picture.
Nobody’s claiming two job listings solve everything. The construction timeline stretches years into the future, and there will inevitably be bumps along the way. But after more than a decade of waiting for something meaningful to happen on that land, this is the kind of news that makes you think: okay, this is actually happening.
Fort Monmouth served this country for nearly a century. Now it’s getting a second act. And honestly? That feels pretty good.
