Tech Lead, Yoto
Player Experience
£95-105k
+ Share option programme
1+ day a week in office
Interactive audio platform for kids
Posted today
Interactive audio platform for kids
101-200 employees
Posted today
£95-105k
+ Share option programme
1+ day a week in office
101-200 employees
Company mission
To help parents inspire the next generation of independent, creative minds.
Role
Who you are
- Broad technical leadership experience across embedded systems, backend services, and mobile applications
- A strong understanding of how firmware fits into a wider platform – and how to keep it lightweight, maintainable, and scalable
- A commitment to maintaining a healthy codebase – with a pragmatic approach to balancing technical debt, bug fixing, and feature work
- Proven ability to lead and grow engineers across cross-functional teams, bringing clarity and focus to complex technical challenges
- Solid understanding of audio systems, Bluetooth/Wi-Fi connectivity, and systems-level optimisation
- Skilled at aligning teams around technical direction, encouraging consensus, and translating strategy into focused execution
- Hands-on approach to mentoring, debugging, and contributing directly to the codebase when needed
- Experience fostering a culture of regular, high-quality releases that deliver meaningful customer value
- Strong collaboration skills – especially in remote and async environments – with the ability to work closely with product and platform teams
- Experience driving operational excellence through tooling, monitoring, and incident response practices
- Nice to have: Experience in consumer electronics, IoT platforms, or building child-focused tech
What the job involves
- We’re looking for a Tech Lead to join our team to help shape the future of the Yoto Player experience – leading the technical direction across our stack, mentoring a cross-functional team, and ensuring we deliver reliable, joyful, and high-quality features that families love
- At Yoto, our Engineering organisation is structured into mission-driven clusters, each made up of cross-functional teams that include engineering, product, design, and other key disciplines
- These clusters focus on different areas of our platform and products to help us move faster, stay aligned, and build with purpose
- The Player Experience team, under the Player cluster, is focused on features that shape the user experience on the player — covering OS quality, content downloads, apps on the device, device settings and setup, new OS features, and routines
- PLEX owns the quality of these user-facing experiences, ensuring they work reliably and feel polished
- Provide hands-on technical leadership across the full Yoto stack – from firmware to backend to mobile – guiding decisions and setting long-term direction
- Collaborate closely with Product, Design, and Hardware teams to deliver reliable, delightful experiences across Yoto Players, apps, and cloud services
- Drive performance, scalability, and stability across multiple generations of hardware and supporting infrastructure
- Prioritise quality and a healthy codebase – balancing bug fixing and technical debt alongside feature development with the support of the PM
- Make sound technical decisions and foster team-wide consensus, enabling confident, aligned delivery
- Promote an environment that delivers regular, high-quality firmware releases that add customer value
- Work with the Yoto OS team to define and maintain a clear boundary between low-level services and player experience features
- Lead and mentor a cross-functional team of engineers, fostering a collaborative, high-performing environment with clear goals and accountability
- Champion engineering best practices, participate in technical reviews, and support delivery of large, strategic projects
- Roll up your sleeves to write code, troubleshoot complex issues, and lead by example in technical execution
- Implement strong operational processes, such as incident management and uptime monitoring, to support growth at scale
- Contribute to hiring and onboarding, and support ongoing development through coaching and feedback
Salary benchmarks
Our take
A key development in the last 5 years has been a move towards screen-based kids entertainment like apps and streaming services. However, more recently there have been concerns that excessive screen time for children can be damaging to health and development. So, many consumers are looking for alternative products which will expose children to modernity without the drawbacks of many modern devices. This is the demand which Yoto is setting out to capitalise on.
Yoto's product - a screen-free audio platform - enables children to access features such as audiobooks, podcasts, and soundscapes via physical cards inserted into the device. The Yoto Player has received considerable early praise from consumers and from investors also, who granted Yoto considerable funding.
Perhaps the most difficult challenge for a business operating in the highly competitive children's toys market is keeping its product current. However, Yoto's software is fully customisable, meaning that alongside its library of content, parents can add their own audio files to the device to suit the interests of their children. This imbibes Yoto with a customisability that gives it an edge, especially as children's tastes change with age.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Meet the team
11 people
Niamh Power, Tech Lead Manager
Our mission
Looking after Yoto's native iOS & Android apps, which allow parents to control and manage their players, their library and discovering new contentInsights
Company
Employee endorsements
Flexible working
"At Yoto I'm treated as an adult, and given the autonomy to get on with what I need to get done at work while also getting done what I need to in my..."
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Jun 2024
$23m
ANGEL
May 2021
$17m
SERIES A
Total funding: $43.4m
Company benefits
- Your birthday off
- Choice-based approach to where you work - we encourage everyone to come in to the office minimum once a month
- A Work from Anywhere policy giving you the opportunity to work from a different location for a temporary period
- Yoto player and starter pack of cards
- Company socials and celebrations, including our annual Yoto Fest
- 2x volunteer days a year
- 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
- Family-friendly leave
- 25 days holidays plus bank holidays
- Workplace pension
- Private Medical Insurance or Wellbeing Allowance
- Dental advice and guidance
- Income Protection
- Life Assurance
Company HQ
Somers Town, London, UK
Articles
Leadership
Ben Drury
(Co-Founder & CEO)He has extensive experience as a Non Executive Director for the likes of Marmalade and Intercede. Since 2016, he has also been a board member and investor for Pimoroni.
Filip Denker
(Co-Founder & CTO)People progressing
Beth is our wonderful Head of Product, she got promoted to the position after 2 years as a Senior Product Manager.
Niamh is our superstar Tech Lead Manager for the iOS team, she got promoted to the position after 18 months as a Senior iOS Engineer.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Yoto
Clemence Strobl (Talent & People Manager)
- At Yoto, we love creating a world where childhood is rich with discovery and joy. We’re also passionate about building a workplace where everyone can thrive - both professionally and personally. We value flexibility and give our team the freedom to balance life and work in ways that suit them.
- We're committed to fostering a safe, diverse, and inclusive environment where all individuals, regardless of their background, feel valued and supported. Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion group holds bi-monthly forums to elevate diverse voices and perspectives, ensuring everyone at Yoto feels heard, respected, and appreciated.
- We don’t just embrace differences - we celebrate them. We share audio content from a vibrant and diverse community of creators, and we are building a team that reflects that same diversity. We invite candidates from all walks of life to explore opportunities with us and join a company that champions flexibility, equity, and inclusion.
Share this job
View 6 more jobs at Yoto