Want to help raise wonder in a wired world?

Creative Director (Digital Play)

Help guide our growing collection of open-ended digital toys for kids. Hybrid, Toronto · Full-time.

About Pok Pok

Pok Pok is on a mission to raise the next generation of creative thinkers.

We’re the team behind the Apple Design Award-winning Montessori app, Pok Pok, and were named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential Companies of 2025. Our award-winning digital toys and videos empower children to think outside the box, dream big, and explore their creativity in a mindful way.

Pok Pok is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion. We encourage people of all races, religions, genders, abilities and sexual orientations to apply. We want the products we develop to reflect the diversity of the world we live in, and it starts with our own team.

About the Role

As Creative Director, you’ll provide hands-on, day-to-day creative direction for the Pok Pok app, designed for kids ages 2–8. You’ll work with artists, designers and developers, report to our VP of Product & Creative Strategy, and partner with a Producer. This is a hybrid role based in our downtown Toronto office, and requires residency in the GTA.

What You’ll Do

Creative Direction

• Guide work from concept to finished toy
• Write briefs and give feedback, and lead creative reviews
• Bring your own ideas to the table

Creative Leadership & Collaboration

• Lead a cross-discipline team of artists, designers and developers
• Give clear, constructive feedback
• Plan work within three-week sprints
• Foster open collaboration

Play, Test & Learn

• Prototype hands-on and playtest with kids
• Use performance data to inform creative decisions
• Support launches and seasonal updates

Who You Are

• 6+ years in games, apps or interactive media, including 2+ years directing a shipped product
• Strong design craft, with a background in illustration, animation, game design, UX or interaction design
• A confident decision-maker who is curious about how young children play
• Familiar with Toon Boom, Figma and Unity
• Able to balance creative instinct with research and data
• Based in the GTA and able to work in the office a couple of days a week

Bonus Points if You Have:

• Experience with children’s apps or games
• Experience with playful interaction design
• Knowledge of Montessori or early childhood learning
• Experience with live products and ongoing releases
• Hands-on use of Unity, Toon Boom or Figma

More About Us

We're a growing team of passionate, experienced creators based in Toronto. We're from all walks of life and are convinced that's our secret sauce. We're a mom-founded company, too!

Other awesome things about this role:

• You'll have the unique opportunity to build, grow and make your mark joining a fast-growing start-up early on
• The option to work from our beautiful brick-and-beam office in the downtown core
• Flexible hybrid working arrangements
• 3 weeks of paid vacation plus a 2-week holiday office closure, because life outside of work matters
• Competitive compensation including employee stock options and health benefits
• We love field trips and playtesting with kids in our community

How to Apply

Apply on our careers page and show us what you've built. Your application should include:

• A portfolio of creatively directed work: what you owned, who you led, what shipped, and what you'd do differently
• A short note on one Pok Pok toy you'd change and why
• An optional short video introduction
• Your resume

A real human will read your application. If we're interested in moving forward, you'll get a very enthusiastic message from us.

Performance Creative Lead

Do you turn ideas into high-performing ad creatives by thinking in hooks, formats, and iterations? Do you thrive on building structure and organization that leads to the next creative wins? If so, then you might be our next Performance Creative Lead!

About Pok Pok

Pok Pok makes thoughtfully designed digital toys for kids. We are a small, mission driven studio raising the next generation of creative thinkers, and our work has been recognised with an Apple Design Award and a place on TIME's 100 Most Influential Companies of 2025. We build open ended play experiences with care, and we hold a high bar for craft.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Performance Creative Lead to build and run the creative engine behind our paid acquisition efforts.

This role is for someone who understands brand and ad psychology in equal measure. You know that a great performance ad does more than look polished: It gets someone to stop, feel something and take action.

You’ll sit at the intersection of creative strategy, production, project management and performance marketing. You’ll bring together customer insight, cultural trends, competitive research and campaign data to develop creative that resonates with parents and drives measurable growth.

You’ll own the performance creative pipeline from the first idea through to testing, analysis and iteration. That means generating concepts, writing briefs, identifying winners, understanding why they worked and building repeatable systems that help us find the next one.

This is a hybrid role based in downtown Toronto, and we’re prioritizing candidates who live in the GTA and are excited to spend a couple of days each week working with us in person.

Accountabilities

• Own the performance creative pipeline end-to-end, including concept development, creative briefs, production workflows, testing plans, iteration and analysis.
• Build and maintain structured, repeatable systems for developing and iterating on winning creatives.
• Analyze and obsess over ad performance and creative workflows to identify winners, rising stars, insights, gaps, and next testing opportunities across angles, formats, messaging, and creators.
• Deeply understand competitors, consumer behavior, and trends to fuel new creative ideas.
• Maintain clear documentation of creative tests, iterations, trackers, and assets.

You Have

• 3-5+ years of experience leading performance creative for paid acquisition across major platforms (Meta, TikTok, Google, YouTube, etc).
• A strong track record of turning performance data and customer insight into creative wins at scale.
• A deep understanding of creative performance, including hooks, formats, messaging, testing and iteration strategy.
• A strong grasp of creative performance fluency in metrics such as CTR, CVR, CPC and CPA, and the ability to turn those numbers into clear creative decisions.
• Strong project management and organizational skills with creative workflow experience.
• Proven ability in turning performance data and user insights into creative wins at scale.
• You are creative obsessed. You dig deep to understand how to better them through copy, design, music and format-swapping.
• A great eye for thumb-stopping designs that make people click to know more.
• You are comfortable adopting AI tools and emerging creative technologies to improve efficiency.
• The ability to move quickly, learn from imperfect tests and keep the creative pipeline moving without sacrificing quality.

Nice to have:

• Strong copywriting skills to iterate on successful creative copy.
• A good eye for design.
• Knowledge of the kids’ product ecosystem.
• Comfort creating and filming ad content to support rapid iteration.

More About Pok Pok

We’re a small team of passionate, experienced creators based in Toronto. We love dogs, music, travel, video games, kids, cooking, yoga, building robots, going to museums, talking about things we’re watching right now and playing with old toys. We’re from all walks of life and are convinced that’s our secret sauce. We’re a female-founded company, too!

A few more awesome things about this role:

• You'll have the unique opportunity to build, grow and make your mark joining a fast-growing start-up early on.
• Flexible hybrid working arrangements, with the option to work from our beautiful brick-and-beam office in the downtown core within walking distance to the Eaton Centre, St. Lawrence Market and Union Station.
• 3 weeks of paid vacation plus a 2-week holiday office closure, because life outside of work matters.
• We love field trips, playtesting with kids in our community, toy research, science centres and museums. We have no fun at all.

Our Hiring Process

Apply here and share with us what you've built. Your application should include:

• Resume / CV
• An example ad brief (or case study) for a campaign that went into production
• Something interesting about yourself that isn’t on your resume

Creative Director, YouTube

We’re looking for our foundational Creative Director for Studio Pok Pok! If you’re a creative visionary who can turn that vision into YouTube production excellence, we want to meet you!

About Pok Pok

Pok Pok is on a mission to raise the next generation of creative thinkers.

We’re the team behind the Apple Design Award-winning Montessori app, Pok Pok, and were named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential Companies of 2025. Our award-winning digital toys and videos empower children to think outside the box, dream big, and explore their creativity in a mindful way. We believe screen time can be thoughtful, educational, and just as imaginative as the toys we grew up playing with on the floors of our living rooms.

Cue YouTube. The channel doesn't exist at scale yet. That means YOU get to build it from the ground up. That's either terrifying or the most exciting thing you've ever heard. If it's the second one, you might be our person!

Pok Pok is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion. We encourage people of all races, religions, genders, abilities and sexual orientations to apply. We want the products we develop to reflect the diversity of the world we live in, and it starts with our own team.

About the Role

We’re building out a core, in-studio YouTube team to run our YouTube channel’s creative and production workflows in-person from our Toronto office. Being a director is very hands-on, so this is an in-person role that requires you to be in our downtown studio 3-5 days per week. The Creative Director holds the creative vision for every video: Shaping stories with the YouTube team, directing and performing on set, and giving feedback through to the final edit.

What You’ll Do

Creative Vision & Story

• Own the creative vision and collaborate closely with the brand team to translate Pok Pok’s voice into every video.
• Own the content strategy — which videos, which stories, which topics — based on channel insights.
• Read and give feedback on new story ideas and scripts.
• Set visual direction — mood, staging, framing, pacing — for each shoot.

On Set

• “Act” with the puppets — bring characters to life on camera.
• Build and dress sets and backdrops for each shoot.
• Hand-craft new props or assets when a scene calls for them, in keeping with our all-handmade, no-AI approach.
• Keep track of shot lists and operate the camera, with the Producer jumping in as a second pair of hands when needed.

Post-Production & Publishing

• Review edited cuts and give feedback to keep story, pacing and tone on-brand
• Take care of packaging: thumbnails, SEO, and uploads.

What you Bring

• A joyful, playful, hands-on creative energy — you love making things with your hands.
• A real feel for children’s storytelling — pacing, tone, what holds (and doesn’t overstimulate) a young viewer — or a strong eagerness to learn it deeply.
• A deep understanding of what families are looking for on YouTube.
• Comfort moving between directing a scene and performing within it.
• A maker’s instinct: handy with building sets, props and backdrops by hand.
• A strong, considered eye for visual composition and mood.
• Ease sharing the “on set” role with a Producer counterpart — this is a two-person creative partnership, not a solo show.
• Enough organization to run a shoot day solo — shot lists, basic camera operation — when a second pair of hands isn’t needed.

Bonus Points If You Have

• Background in animation, filmmaking, or children’s media.
• Illustration, prop-making, or set-building experience.
• Familiarity with Montessori or early-childhood approaches to play.
• Comfort with YouTube analytics, SEO, or channel growth.

More About Us

We’re a small team of passionate, experienced creators based in Toronto. We love pets, music, travel, video games, kids, cooking, yoga, building robots, going to museums, talking about things we’re watching right now and playing with old toys. We’re from all walks of life and are convinced that’s our secret sauce. We’re a female-founded company, too!

Other Awesome Things About This Role:

• You'll have the unique opportunity to build, grow and make your mark joining a fast-growing start-up early on.
• Work from our beautiful brick-and-beam office in the downtown core within walking distance to the Eaton Centre, St. Lawrence Market and Union Station.
• Flexible hybrid working arrangements.
• 3 weeks of paid vacation plus a 2-week holiday office closure, because life outside of work matters.
• Competitive compensation including employee stock options and health benefits.
• We love field trips, playtesting with kids in our community, toy research, science centres and museums. We have no fun at all.

Our Hiring Process

Apply here and share with us what you've built. Your application should include:

• The projects or channels that you’ve worked on.
• A short video introduction sharing something interesting about yourself that we can’t find on your resume. If you include a short video intro, we guarantee we’ll watch it!
• Your resume.

Channel Producer (YouTube)

Most kids’ content on YouTube is designed to keep kids watching at any cost. We want to make something that inspires them to go play!

Pok Pok is building a new kind of YouTube channel for kids: low-stimulation, imaginative, beautifully made content designed to spark creativity rather than endless consumption. We’re looking for an experienced Channel Producer to help us bring that vision to life.

About Pok Pok

Pok Pok is on a mission to raise the next generation of creative thinkers.

We’re the team behind the Apple Design Award-winning Montessori app, Pok Pok, and were named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential Companies of 2025. Our award-winning digital toys and videos empower children to think outside the box, dream big, and explore their creativity in a mindful way. We believe screen time can be thoughtful, educational, and just as imaginative as the toys we grew up playing with on the floors of our living rooms.

Cue YouTube. The channel doesn't exist at scale yet. That means YOU get to build it from the ground up. That's either terrifying or the most exciting thing you've ever heard. If it's the second one, you might be our person!

Pok Pok is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion. We encourage people of all races, religions, genders, abilities and sexual orientations to apply. We want the products we develop to reflect the diversity of the world we live in, and it starts with our own team.

About the Role

We’re looking for a highly organized, hands-on Channel Producer to own the day-to-day production engine behind Pok Pok’s YouTube channel. You’ll be the person who takes a creative idea and figures out how to actually make it happen from script to shoot to edit to final delivery.

This role sits at the centre of our creative team, working closely with our Director, Writer, Editor and broader Pok Pok team to keep productions moving, solve problems before they become problems, and make sure great ideas turn into great videos.

You should be equally comfortable building a production plan, coordinating a shoot, giving an editor what they need, and picking up a camera yourself.

This is a full-time role with a crucial in-person component—you must be able to work from our downtown Toronto studio regularly as recording schedules require.

What You’ll Do

• Own the end-to-end production pipeline for Pok Pok’s YouTube content, from pre-production through final delivery
• Act as the central point of communication between the Director, Writer, Editor and other collaborators
• Translate scripts and creative concepts into clear, actionable production plans, schedules and beat sheets
• Plan and coordinate shoots, including logistics, equipment, locations, talent and production needs
• Keep timelines on track and make sure handoffs between each stage of production are smooth
• Manage footage, files, edits, revisions and approvals so nothing gets lost in the process
• Create simple, effective systems for production tracking, feedback and asset management
• Support shoots with basic camera work and other hands-on production needs
• Collaborate closely with the creative team on what we make and how we make it
• Continuously improve our production process as the channel grows

You Are:

• Educated or highly experienced in video content production
• Experienced in producing video content from concept through completion
• Exceptionally organized and naturally think a few steps ahead without being asked
• Proactive and comfortable taking ownership rather than waiting for direction
• A clear, thoughtful and kind communicator
• Know how to keep creative projects moving without killing the creativity—a big one!
• Comfortable managing lots of moving pieces, people and deadlines at once
• Great at working with editors, directors, writers and other creative collaborators
• Familiar with basic camera and on-set production skills
• Well-versed in YouTube production—or are excited to learn it deeply, quickly.
• A person who actually cares about making genuinely great content for kids

Bonus points if you have:

• Experience producing for YouTube
• Experience working in the children’s entertainment, education or media industry
• Experience working on a fast-moving creative team

Other awesome things about this role:

• You'll have the unique opportunity to build, grow and make your mark joining a fast-growing start-up early on.
• Work from our beautiful brick-and-beam office in the downtown core within walking distance to the Eaton Centre, St. Lawrence Market and Union Station
• Flexible hybrid working arrangements.
• 3 weeks of paid vacation, plus a 2-week holiday office closure, because life outside of work matters!
• Competitive compensation, including employee stock options and health benefits.
• We love field trips, playtesting with kids in our community, toy research, science centres and museums. We have no fun at all.

Our Hiring Process

Apply on our careers page and show us what you've built. Your application should include:

• A portfolio of production work. If you don’t have that, send us something that demonstrates why you’d be a great producer.
• A short video introduction sharing something interesting about yourself that we can't find on your resume. If you include a short video intro, we'll guarantee Melissa, our CEO, watches it!
• Your resume

A real human will read your application. If we're interested in moving forward, you'll get a very enthusiastic message from us.

Social Media Manager

About Pok Pok

Pok Pok is a play-based app for kids that sparks creativity, curiosity, and independent thinking. We’re reimagining what screen time can look like by creating better screen choices and a parenting culture free from judgment.

Named on the Time100 List of Most Influential Companies 2025, Pok Pok is a brand that parents feel good about, and kids absolutely love.

The Role

We’re looking for a Social Media Manager to own and execute Pok Pok’s social presence end-to-end.

This is a hands-on, creative role for someone who will both manage and execute the content. You’ll concept, shoot, edit and publish content, while also engaging directly with our community.

You should have a strong point of view on what performs, what feels fresh, and what resonates with modern parents — especially in the context of kids, play, and screen habits.

What You’ll Do

Content Creation & Execution

• Concept and create original social content
• Shoot and edit content (iPhone is great!)
• Translate brand and campaign ideas into social-first executions
• Own the full publishing process across primary platforms IG and TikTok

Creative Ideation

• Bring a steady stream of content ideas rooted in trends, insights, and instincts
• Identify opportunities to participate in relevant cultural or parenting conversations
• Collaborate with the broader team on campaigns and launches

Community Management

• Engage with comments and DMs in a way that feels human, thoughtful, and on-brand
• Build relationships with our audience (parents, caregivers, educators)
• Surface insights and feedback from the community back to the team

Performance & Optimization

• Track performance and learn quickly from what works (and what doesn’t)
• Iterate on formats, hooks, and storytelling approaches
• Bring bold ideas for testing and improve content over time

Who You Are

• 3–6+ years in social media content creation, ideally managing accounts for a brand (consumer, parenting, kids, or app experience a plus)
• A true doer — you can take an idea from concept → execution without hand-holding
• Strong creative instincts and taste; you know what feels native vs. forced
• Comfortable behind the camera and in the edit
• Deep understanding of short-form video and platform dynamics
• Experience with community management and audience engagement
• Highly organized and able to manage a consistent content cadence

Bonus (but not required):

• You’re a parent or caregiver, or deeply understand this audience
• Experience with early-stage or growing brands
• Familiarity with kids apps, education, or play-based products

What Success Looks Like

• A consistent, high-quality stream of content that feels distinctly Pok Pok
• Increasing, ever-growing engagement and connection with our audience
• Content that reflects both performance and brand-building
• A social presence that feels alive, relevant, and intentional

Our Hiring Process

Tell us why you think this role is a good fit for you.

Apply here and share something interesting about yourself that we can’t find on your resume.

If we’re interested in moving forward, you’ll get a very enthusiastic message from us to invite you to meet our team and chat more