Mobile Tech Lead, Yoto
£90-100k
1+ day a week in office
Interactive audio platform for kids
Posted today
Interactive audio platform for kids
101-200 employees
Posted today
£90-100k
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
- We’re looking for an App leader who’s as passionate about building brilliant experiences for families as they are about building great teams
- Experienced leading engineers, and a people-first mindset
- Proficient in giving & receiving continuous feedback and running annual performance reviews
- Ability to coach engineers to be the best they can be
- A delivery focused mindset, balancing people, process, technical and product viewpoints
- Stakeholder management
- Strong communication skills both written and verbal
- Proficiency with modern App development & tooling
- Strong experience in native app development, with a solid grasp of app architecture and design patterns (MVVM, MVP, MVC)
- Comfortable working in a fast-paced scale-up environment, where things move quickly
- Confident collaborating across disciplines and communicating your ideas clearly
- A practical, thoughtful approach to delivering high-quality, user-centred features
Desirable
- Cloud based infrastructures (AWS), serverless development
- Experience with popular IoT protocols (RFID/NFC, Bluetooth/BLE, WiFi, MQTT)
- Apple CarPlay, Android Auto
- Understanding responsive design principles, speed optimisation techniques, web standards, accessibility
- Media streaming and audio processing (codecs, live streaming, normalisation, etc)
What the job involves
- This is a hands-on role where you’ll balance delivery with people management and development, guide our app engineering efforts and support a small team of talented engineers as we continue to grow
- Our Core App team is made up of 4 app engineers and one QA across Android and iOS. The app is designed to support parents giving them access to their whole content library, enable them to make their own content, set player settings & remote control the Yoto player, play content on their phone and in the car via Android Auto & Apple CarPlay, and purchase more content via our Discover hub in the app
- Our codebases are written entirely in Kotlin and Swift, and most of our UI is now in Jetpack Compose or SwiftUI. We are constantly looking for ways to improve and modernise these codebases
- Our user base is expanding rapidly, and we aim to grow the team sustainably to scale our codebase and support new features while refining existing work. We are particularly committed to improving performance and stability, as evidenced by our excellent crash-free rate and App Store reviews
- Lead and support a team of app engineers (Core App team), helping them grow and do their best work
- Line management of 4 app engineers and 1 QA
- Work with the Lead Software Engineers and Product Manager to set the direction for the Yoto apps and ensure we’re building scalable, high-quality features
- Work with the Head of Engineering to build and maintain a team aligned to the company’s goals and strategic vision
- Collaborate across teams to shape our roadmap and prioritise the right things for families using Yoto around the world
- Ensure quality through testing (unit, integration, E2E) and robust development practices
- Take part in hiring, onboarding, and shaping how we work as a team
- Contribute to wider technical decisions around architecture, tooling and ways of working
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
$22m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
May 2021
$17m
SERIES A
Total funding: $42.3m
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.
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