Engineering Manager (Embedded Software)

We’re looking for an Engineering Manager to join our Player Experience Cluster to help us level-up our product.

About Yoto

Yoto is a screen-free interactive audio platform for kids. We make carefully connected audio players that kids control, with no microphones, cameras or ads. We have a catalogue of audio that inspires creative play and learning with 1,000+ titles in our card store from top creators, publishers and labels - think Disney, Marvel, Roald Dahl and Universal Music. We also create Yoto Originals like this one.

• Voted the 14th fastest-growing private software technology company in Britain, in The Sunday Times 100 Tech 2025.

• Featured in Bloomberg’s 25 UK startups to watch in 2023.

• Ranked 9th in Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in 2024; and featured in the Sifted 100 fastest-growing startups across the UK&I by revenue growth.

• Second fastest growing tech company in the UK, in the Deloitte Fast50 2023.

• Named one of TIME Magazine’s Top 100 Inventions of 2020.

• We’re 170+ employees spread across the UK, US and France.. and growing!

We’re on a mission to be the soundtrack of childhood, and help families on their own unique adventures. By creating products that inspire independent play, we help families discover and grow with an inspiring world of audio - and we would like you to help us achieve it!

About the Role

We are seeking an Engineering Manager (EM) for our Player Experience Cluster, a team comprising of cross-functional engineers, designers, and product managers (our version of Tribes). As an EM, you will oversee day-to-day engineering operations and support the career development of your reports within the Cluster. In our scale-up phase, we rely on EMs to continually develop and evolve their teams, identify new business needs, and ensure the timely delivery of large-scale initiatives impacting the Cluster.

The Player Experience cluster is focused on ensuring Players work seamlessly for every family around the world. With hundreds of thousands of players out there (and growing every minute) we make sure every child has the content they want to listen to available at their fingertips. We also work to improve the Player and Mini experience with innovative features like our room thermometer, nightlight, and alarms. We’re a passionate, cross-functional group of engineers, product managers, and designers, all focused on keeping a world-class experience for all the families we help.

This role demands strong leadership in a remote-first environment and a proven ability to scale high-caliber engineering teams. The ideal candidate has extensive experience establishing and maintaining effective processes in a distributed setting, alongside a strong track record of driving operational and technical excellence and delivering impactful initiatives aligned with company growth.

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Lead, mentor, and manage a cross-functional engineering Cluster with trust, respect, and empathy, setting clear goals and metrics as needed.

• Establish a collaborative, high-performing engineering culture that thrives in a remote-first setting, fostering accountability, innovation, and ownership.

• Serve as the primary delivery lead for large strategic engineering initiatives, managing timelines, resources, and stakeholder communication.

• Ensure strong collaboration across teams and functions, including product, design, and operations, to deliver projects on time and within scope.

• Drive technical decisions related to the scalability, reliability, and performance of our systems, in alignment with company scale-up objectives.

• Establish and maintain high engineering standards and best practices with clear mechanisms for tracking and reporting.

• Participate actively in technical reviews, providing hands-on support when necessary.

• Lead the team in improving and maintaining critical technical and operational metrics, ensuring product stability and performance as the company scales.

• Implement robust operational processes, such as incident management and uptime monitoring, to support product scalability and growth.

• Support recruitment efforts by identifying and onboarding top talent for the organization.

• Provide leadership through development plans, performance reviews, and constructive feedback grounded in trust and respect.

What You’ll Bring:

• Experience in embedded engineering development. 

• 3+ years in engineering leadership or management in a distributed team environment.

• Knowledge of embedded software architecture design (multiple chipsets, MCU/SoC, dual/triple cpu, etc) with the ability to provide hands-on technical leadership as needed.

• Proven experience managing large-scale technical projects, creating strategic roadmaps and manifesting them into day-to-day tasks, and driving alignment and accountability across multiple teams and stakeholders.

• Demonstrated ability to lead, mentor, and grow engineering teams in fast-scaling organizations.

• Exceptional communication skills, with experience facilitating asynchronous communication and collaboration across time zones.

• Ability to thrive in a rapidly changing, scale-up environment, proactively solving complex technical and operational challenges.

• Experience establishing and driving operational excellence best practices, including dashboards, alarms, and incident response.

What you can expect from Yoto:

• Salary: £90,000 - £110,000 based on experience.
  
• Flexibility: Hybrid working with a choice based approach - we would love you to come into the office as much as possible, with a minimum of once or twice a month. Take advantage of our ‘work from anywhere’ policy to work from a different location for up to 6 weeks every year. Summer Hours policy to use between the months of June and August.
• Financial: Generous share option programme so you’ll be invested in Yoto’s success. Receive Income Protection, covering long term sickness for up to 2 years and company sick pay that increases with length of service. Life Assurance cover from day one of your service. Workplace Pension offering up to to 3% employer contributions, following probation. Generous employee referral bonus scheme.
• Health & Wellness: Private Medical Insurance via Aviva, or a Wellbeing Allowance to be used for memberships, subscriptions, treatment or therapy. Access to 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) through WeCare and unlimited access to Dental advice and guidance via Toothfairy. Bike to work scheme to promote healthier lifestyles.
• Time Off: 25 days of holiday per year, plus bank holidays. On top of this, you also receive your birthday off, plus 1 extra day of holiday for every year worked after you hit your 2 year anniversary, up to 5 extra days. After 4 years of service, you are also eligible for our sabbatical policy offering up to 3 months' of unpaid sabbatical.
• Helping Families: Variety of family-friendly leave, including enhanced maternity, paternity, adoption, fertility, pregnancy loss and carers leave. Unlock savings with our workplace nursery scheme, designed to support parents of preschool-aged children.
• People & Planet: Up to 2 volunteer days a year. A Book Allowance of up to £50 a year to contribute to your professional development.
• Fun Perks: You receive your very own Yoto player and starter pack of cards! Regular company socials and celebrations, including our annual YotoFest!

Equity and Diversity:

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 (check out our DEI selection), 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. Take a look at our website for more information on our approach to People and Planet.