About this Backend Engineer role at Kernel
About Kernel
Kernel is crazy fast, open source browser infrastructure for AI agents. We handle autoscaling, observability, and the messy details of web interaction, so developers can focus on what their agents do instead of how they do it.
Teams at Cash App, Rye, and 3000+ others use Kernel for deep research, QA automation, and real-time web analysis. We've raised $22M from Accel, YC, and Vercel.
If you're interested in building critical infrastructure for agents on the web, we'd love to chat.
About the role
As a Backend Engineer at Kernel, you’ll architect and build the core systems that power our AI agent platform end-to-end. You’ll own critical developer-focused products from conception to production, working with bleeding edge tech that needs to be both reliable and low latency. You’ll also play a foundational role in how we build Kernel’s culture.
What you’ll do
Design, develop, and scale new our product suite of developer tools, CLIs, and APIs
Set direction for critical technical surface areas, enabling us to stay ahead of rapid growth
Shape Kernel’s hiring decisions and culture as we grow
What we’re looking for
Experience building extensible APIs, SDKs, and databases designed for scale and high throughput
>=1 year of experience at a company with <50 people
Technical excellence: we’re building core infrastructure that’s default open source. As a developer tool, our technical decisions are the product, and the details matter a lot.
Low ego, high impact: you care more about building something meaningful than who gets credit
Start-up ready: early stage sometimes means figuring it out as we go, and that energizes rather than drains you
Excited to crush it: we’re moving fast and looking for people excited about high velocity, high impact work, and having fun along the way.
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 one meeting 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!
