Lead/Principal User Researcher

We’re looking for a Lead/Principal User Researcher to join our Product Design team and establish, lead, and champion research at Yoto across both hardware and software.

This is a senior, high-impact role for someone who wants to define what great research looks like in a growing, product-led company, not inherit a mature function. As Yoto’s first dedicated researcher, you’ll shape how research fits into product development, how decisions are informed, and how insight compounds over time.

You’ll operate as a practice leader and hands-on researcher, working closely with designers, product managers, engineers, and a Research Ops partner. You’ll help teams ask better questions, make better trade-offs, and build confidence in evidence, while keeping pace with a fast-moving, ambitious organisation.

This role is critical to helping Yoto create products that genuinely support creative play, learning, and independence for children.

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 BrainBots.

• Voted the 14th fastest-growing private software technology company in Britain in The Sunday Times 100 Tech 2025; and named the 94th fastest-growing company in Europe in the prestigious FT1000.
• 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.
• Featured in Bloomberg’s 25 UK startups to watch in 2023; and ranked second fastest growing tech company in the UK in the Deloitte Fast50.
• Named one of TIME Magazine’s Top 100 Inventions of 2020.
• We’re over 200 employees spread across the world.. 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!

Yoto’s Product Design Team

Product Design at Yoto exists to deeply understand children and families and translate those insights into thoughtful, trusted, screen-free experiences across hardware, software, and content.

As Yoto grows and our products become more complex, building a strong, credible research practice is a key priority. Research at Yoto is already fairly democratised, with designers actively involved in learning from customers. This role builds on that foundation, raising the bar for quality, judgement, and impact, while preserving team ownership and momentum.

What you’ll be doing:

• Establishing and owning the research practice at Yoto, defining principles, standards, and ways of working that balance rigour with the pace of a fast-moving product organisation
• Taking accountability for research impact, ensuring insights meaningfully shape product direction, prioritisation, and roadmap decisions, not just inform them
• Leading strategic, discovery-focused research to inform major initiatives such as the future of our physical hardware, Yoto Club, content discovery, and the evolution of our app and services
• Designing and running a wide range of studies, from in-home and ethnographic research with families, to usability testing, interviews, diary studies, surveys, and mixed-method work for both software and hardware products
• Partnering closely with designers, product managers, and engineers, helping teams frame the right questions, choose appropriate methods, and apply research at the right moments
• Supporting and upskilling designers to plan and conduct effective research themselves, raising the overall research capability of the Product Design team
• Synthesising complex findings into clear, compelling narratives, tailored to different audiences, including senior leaders, to drive alignment and action

What you’ll bring:

• Essential
• Significant experience leading user research in a product-led organisation, with responsibility for shaping research direction, not just executing studies
• Strong expertise across both qualitative and quantitative research methods, with sound judgement about when to go deep, when to go broad, and when to move fast
• Proven experience working as a sole or lead researcher, managing competing priorities, stakeholders, and expectations independently
• Confidence influencing senior stakeholders, including challenging assumptions and navigating disagreement with credibility and empathy
• Ability to balance a long-term vision for research with pragmatic, actionable steps that deliver value quickly
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to turn insight into clear direction

• Nice to have
• Experience researching products for children, families, or education

Salary: £80,000 - £90,000 based on experience

What you can expect from Yoto:

• Flexibility: Hybrid working - expectation of 1 day a week on average in our London office, but you are welcome to come in more than this. How you meet the minimum expectation is up to you, to ensure you're happy and productive in your role whilst also getting that vital face time with your colleagues. 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: 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.

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.

Please only apply or engage with Yoto jobs posted on our careers page (careers.yotoplay.com or careers.yotoplay.com/en). All correspondence from our Talent team will only come through Teamtailor, our application tracking system.