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Kernel are hiring a

Founding Product Designer

About Kernel

Kernel provides enterprise RevOps teams with AI-powered company data for their CRMs. We raised $14M in Series A funding from top VCs and operators at Plaid, OpenAI, and Slack to build an AI-native alternative to Dun & Bradstreets entity and hierarchy data. RevOps teams at Navan, Gong, Mistral, and AlphaSense use Kernel to run their organizations.

At Kernel, we process 7B+ tokens a day and run 1.8M+ agents daily, all on an architecture thats intentionally simple: one database, one queue. Its minimalism built for massive scale (For reference, Wikipedia has 2.3B tokens in the English Wikipedia). Our queue processes a daily volume on par with the entire Visa networks transactions (~365M/day). All of which has been built by a small but mighty team of engineers.

The role

Youll be Kernels Founding Product Designer - a foundational hire with end-to-end ownership of core product UX.

Your mission: simplify complexity. Make a powerful product feel effortless: clearer workflows, sharper mental models, fewer decisions, more confidence.

What youll do

  • Own core UX end-to-end: flows, IA, interaction design, and visual craft.
  • Run ground-truth discovery: lead user interviews, synthesize fast, turn insight into shipped changes.
  • Prototype quickly: use whatever gets to a high-signal prototype (Figma, v0, Figma Make, etc.).
  • Ship with engineering + PM: tight loops, high quality in production, iterate fast.
  • Build the design foundation: principles, patterns, lightweight system - without slowing the team down.
  • 5% “other stuff”: occasional help with decks/narrative when it moves the business.

What were looking for (impact > seniority)

Founding designer experience is a plus, but not a requirement - what matters most is that you have early-stage startup experience and can point to tangible examples of transforming a business through design.

  • Youve shipped meaningful product work and can walk through decisions + outcomes.
  • Youre strong at simplifying complexity (not just polishing UI).
  • You can run discovery independently and get to the truth.
  • You move fast, communicate clearly, and collaborate tightly with engineers.
  • You have taste and execution: prototype → production details.

⚠️ This role may not be for you if you:

  • Need other designers to work best.
  • Need perfect clarity before starting.
  • Prefer long cycles and big “reveals.”
  • Want fully remote work (we move faster in-person).

What We Offer

We will do our best to offer you a ride of a lifetime. It will not be easy, but it will be thrilling.

  • 💰 Salary: £120,000 – £180,000 base + equity
  • 🗓️ 24 days holiday per year + bank holidays
  • ✈️ 2 weeks work-from-anywhere
  • 💼 Pension plan
  • 💻 Top-spec equipment and central London office
  • 🏆 High-autonomy, high-trust environment with a small team shipping at pace
  • 🍽️ Free dinner at the office
  • 🎉 Team events and dinners
  • 🚀 Work directly with the founders to scale the systems that power enterprise AI

🎫 Visas & Relocation

We sponsor visas for exceptional candidates and provide relocation support for those moving to London.

👉 Interview Process

  • Stage 1: Introductory Call with De-Vene (45 minutes)
  • Stage 2: Founding Team Conversation with Marcus (30 min)
  • Stage 3: Take-Home Assessment with Remote Working Session with Stefan & Sam (60 minutes)
  • Final Stage: Founders Interview - A conversation with Anders (CEO) and Marcus (co-founder) focused on values alignment and long-term vision (45 minutes).
  • Following Mutual Fit: Reference checks and offer stage.