Product Engineer

About the Role

Product Engineers at Kernel are full-stack engineers who think about the product as much as the code. You know how to translate your strong product instincts into code, from pixel-level UI decisions to backend API design. You don't wait for a spec, you help write it.

You'll work closely with our co-founders to set product direction, ship full-stack features end-to-end, and make Kernel feel as polished as it is powerful.

What You’ll Do

• Own customer outcomes and product metrics
• Execute the full-stack implementation of user-facing product surfaces, including our core product and new product lines
• Shape the product roadmap by synthesizing customer feedback, usage patterns, and your own instincts about what developers need
• Drive DX improvements across our SDK, docs, CLI, and API. The kind of details that make developers say "this just works"
• Ship fast and iterate, from prototype to production with minimal hand-holding
• Help define what it means to build a great developer product at Kernel

What We're Looking for

• You're driven by customer outcomes: you're empathetic to customers, naturally inclined to help them succeed in their goals through KERNEL, and obsessed with metrics that matter to them
• You ship end-to-end: you're comfortable owning a feature from frontend to backend and getting it across the finish line
• You have product taste: you've thought hard about what makes developer tools feel magical vs. frustrating, and that thinking shows up in your work
• Startup experience: you've built fast, worn multiple hats, and figured things out without a playbook
• You build for developers deploying agents into the real world
• You have strong opinions about devEx and API design, and you know how to back them up with shipped work

What You Can Expect as a Kernel

• Industry-competitive salary
• Above market equity
• Premium medical + dental coverage + dependent coverage
• Small, trusting team of senior + staff engineers
• Default async with minimal bureaucracy, only two meetings a week
• $1k / mo budget for LLM usage fees #vibecheck
• Daily lunches on us
• Unlimited PTO
• 401k + company match
• Relocation assistance

Hiring process

We have a simple process focused on real world collaboration and jointly getting to know each other:

• 30-minute intro call with one of Kernel’s co-founders
• 45-minute technical interview (virtual)
• Half-day on-site (virtual or in-person) working with our team on relevant challenges.
• Offer!