kernel - Engineering Leader

• 8+ years software engineering experience • Track record of hiring and developing strong engineers • Strong production systems background - you've built and scaled things that matter, and you’ve done something hard and lived to tell the tale • Proven experience in distributed systems • Experience operating autonomously in small, high-velocity environments - ideally in a startup • Experience working in a data-focused company or closely alongside a data engineering/ML team - data is core to what we're building at Kernel, and you will play a key role in shaping how we grow that capability • Scaled an engineering team through a growth phase (5 → 20+ engineers), or from Series A to Series C • Technical depth across the stack: NodeJS, Postgres, TypeScript, Kubernetes AI-driven or data-heavy product experience • Understanding of LLMs (e.g., RAG, prompt engineering, evals) • CRM data models or workflow automation knowledge • Hands-on Data Engineering or ML Engineering experience - as data becomes an increasingly large part of what we do, this would be a great asset for us to have • ⚠️ THIS ROLE MAY NOT BE FOR YOU IF YOU: • Insist on shipping pixel-perfect code • Prefer managing from a distance without technical involvement • Need extensive process and structure before making decisions • ❌ THIS ROLE IS DEFINITELY NOT FOR YOU: • If you over-rely on AI coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code) to the point where you don’t read or understand your own code • If you on the other hand don’t understand how these tools (Cursor, Claude Code, etc.) can be force multipliers for senior engineers if used correctly • If you prefer fully remote work • If you don’t like early-stage startup pace • If you’re seeking a purely ‘hands-off’ role • Backend: AWS, NodeJS, TypeScript, Postgres, Clickhouse, Kubernetes • Frontend: NextJS, TypeScript, Tailwind • You don't need to know everything, but you should be comfortable diving into any part of the stack.