Product Engineer
- Salary
- $175K - $250K
- Level
- Mid
- Work type
- On-site · San Francisco
Not stated in the posting: visa.
Open. First seen 2 October 2026.
About the role
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
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
Kernel's standard text
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!
What this role asks for
In most of Kernel's ads
LLM · Vercel
Named in most of its open postings, whatever the role.
96% of this description is written for the role. The rest is Kernel's standard text, folded away below.
Read against Kernel's other open postings on this site.
The team: Engineering
This role is one of 7 open in Engineering.
WHAT THE TEAM WORKS WITH, ACROSS ITS POSTINGS
Vercel (7 of 7), LLM (6 of 7), Docker (3 of 7), GitHub (3 of 7), Sentry (3 of 7), Supabase (2 of 7)
OTHER ROLES ON THIS TEAM
- Technical Content Engineer posted Sep 17
- Solutions Engineer posted Sep 8
- Browser Security Engineer posted Aug 13
- Developer Advocate posted Jun 8
- DevRel Engineer posted Jun 6
- Infrastructure Engineer posted Dec 4
From the team and dates on Kernel's own job board.
Salary context
74 other open postings titled Product Engineer state a salary: median USD 150,000 to USD 220,000 a year.
Similar jobs
- Full-Stack Engineer at JeffreyM Consulting
Shares 2 skills: Vercel, LLM · same seniority · same city - Solutions Engineer, Enterprise at Serval
Shares 2 skills: Vercel, LLM · same seniority · same city - Site Reliability Engineer, Provider Operations at OpenRouter
Shares 2 skills: Vercel, LLM · same seniority · same country - Solution Engineer at Ottimate
Shares 2 skills: Vercel, LLM · same seniority · same country - Machine Learning Engineer, Trust & Safety at Vercel
Shares 2 skills: Vercel, LLM · same city - Developer Advocate at Kernel
Also at this company
Is this your posting and you want it taken down? Email info@careerholo.com.