Roku announces new offices in Manchester's Oxford Road Corridor

Roku has announced the opening of its Manchester office in the heart of Manchester's newest tech hub, off Oxford Road. Located in Bruntwood SciTech’s No.1 Circle Square, Manchester is Roku’s fourth UK office, following London, Cambridge and Cardiff. The strategic move to the northern tech capital positions Roku next to world-leading academic institutions, such as the University of Manchester, as well as a network of equally renowned digital innovators based in the Circle Square neighbourhood.

Roku is America’s No. 1 TV streaming platform by hours streamed (Hypothesis Group, October 2021). Roku’s platform serves more than 56 million active accounts worldwide as of Q3 2021, and was founded by CEO Anthony Wood, who was born in Manchester.

The Manchester-based team will now be recruiting for 50+ engineering roles before the end of 2022, as well as offering three-month paid internships to the region’s budding software engineers.

Alastair McGeoch, Director of Software Engineering, Roku said on the Manchester office opening: “Roku was founded on the belief that all TV will be streamed. We are looking for the right talent to continue to change how the world watches television. Manchester is a city steeped in engineering history and famed for its cultural impact on the world, so it is a natural fit for us. In Manchester, we will primarily focus on recruiting software engineering roles in 2022, with the ambition to increase the size of our team there in the next four years.

“Manchester is Roku’s fourth UK office, following London, Cambridge and Cardiff and has an incredible talent pool. Roku is proud to be joining the city’s newest neighbourhood and growing tech sector.”

Bradley Topps, Commercial Director, Bruntwood SciTech said: “From conception, our ambition for Circle Square was to create a must-see and must-be-in destination that would bolster Manchester’s knowledge economy and the scale of this deal truly realises that vision.  
“It’s fantastic news for the region that Roku has identified the unique opportunity that a home in the heart of Manchester’s Oxford Road Corridor provides; with its accessibility to emerging talent, university research, and potential funding. We’re pleased to welcome Roku to Manchester’s thriving science and technology ecosystem and look forward to working closely with the team as they settle into the city.”

Tim Newns, Chief Executive of MIDAS, Greater Manchester’s Inward Investment Agency said: “It is incredibly exciting to have one of the world’s leading content streaming technology companies investing at such scale in Manchester. They join a wider software supply chain around content streaming that includes the likes of BBC iPlayer and Disney Streaming Services (formerly Cake Solutions) which makes this a growing area of specialism for the city region and at a time of extreme growth in that sector globally.”

“We’re looking forward to seeing how Roku can leverage Greater Manchester’s innovation strengths in the technology and media sectors, alongside the existing ecosystem and academia, to take their product offering on to the next level.”