Staff Engineer

Kernel Wealth Limited; Auckland; On-site; NZD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Parental leave top-up

Professional development support

Extra staff holidays

Office snacks and coffee

Dog-friendly environment

Hybrid work setup

Job summary

Kernel Wealth Limited is seeking a Staff Engineer to provide technical leadership across engineering teams while remaining hands-on in architecture, design and development. You’ll guide complex technical decisions and help scale a platform serving thousands of investors across New Zealand.

You’ll collaborate with the CTO and Engineering Manager to raise engineering standards, drive security and reliability, and shape the direction of product and planning decisions.

Qualifications

• Strong C#/.NET backend development experience.
• Experience building solutions in AWS serverless architectures.
• Excellent API design and distributed systems experience.
• Experience with DynamoDB or other NoSQL databases.
• Solid software design principles and engineering best practices.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity and drive technical decisions.
• Excellent communication and the ability to influence without formal authority.
• Mentoring others and lifting engineering capability.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership across multiple engineering teams without direct people management.
• Design and build features end-to-end, from backend services to frontend integration.
• Drive API design and platform architecture for web and mobile experiences.
• Tackle complex technical challenges spanning teams and domains.
• Champion engineering quality, security, performance and reliability.
• Act as the technical bridge between architecture, product and engineering execution.
• Lead design reviews, code reviews and technical discussions.
• Mentor engineers and elevate engineering standards across the business.
• Contribute to technical strategy and influence product planning decisions.

Skills

C#/.NET

Backend development

AWS serverless

API design

NoSQL/DynamoDB

Software design principles

Ambiguity navigation

Communication

Mentoring

F# (bonus)

TypeScript

CI/CD

Infrastructure as Code

Job description

Kernel is one of New Zealand's fastest growing investment platforms, helping thousands of Kiwis build long term wealth through a simple, technology driven experience.
As we continue to scale, we're looking for a Staff Engineer to provide technical leadership across our engineering teams and play a pivotal role in how we build, deliver and evolve our platform.
This is not a people management role. Instead, you'll be the technical leader that engineers turn to for guidance, helping shape decisions, solve complex problems and raise the bar across the wider engineering function. You'll partner closely with the CTO and Engineering Manager to drive engineering excellence and deliver high quality solutions at scale.

About the role

As Staff Engineer, you'll sit at the centre of Engineering, helping guide technical execution across multiple teams while remaining hands on with architecture, design and development. You'll be trusted to tackle the most complex technical challenges, influence engineering direction, and ensure the team delivers robust, scalable solutions that support thousands of investors across New Zealand. You'll help shape the platform that supports thousands of Kiwi investors, ensuring we continue to scale securely, reliably and efficiently as the business grows.
This is an opportunity to have significant impact without moving away from the craft of engineering.

What you’ll be doing

• Providing technical leadership across multiple engineering teams, driving alignment and engineering quality without direct management responsibility

• Designing and building features end to end, from backend services through to frontend integration

• Driving API design and platform architecture that supports both web and mobile experiences

• Solving complex technical challenges that span teams and domains

• Championing engineering quality, security, performance and reliability

• Acting as the technical bridge between architecture, product and engineering execution, ensuring teams can deliver effectively at scale

• Leading design reviews, code reviews and technical discussions

• Mentoring engineers and helping elevate engineering standards across the business

• Contributing to technical strategy and influencing product and planning decisions

About you

You'll be a naturally curious engineer who enjoys solving difficult problems, navigating ambiguity and helping others succeed. You're equally comfortable diving deep into code, facilitating a technical discussion, or helping a team align around the best path forward.
We're interested in experienced engineers who thrive in highly collaborative environments and enjoy combining hands on development with technical leadership.

You’ll be great if you bring

• Strong commercial experience with C#/.NET and backend service development

• Deep experience building solutions within AWS, ideally using serverless architectures

• Strong API design and distributed systems experience

• Experience working with DynamoDB or other NoSQL databases

• A strong understanding of software design principles and engineering best practice

• The ability to navigate ambiguity and lead technical decision making

• Excellent communication skills and the ability to influence without formal authority

• A passion for mentoring others and lifting engineering capability

Bonus things you could bring along to the role

• Exposure to F# or functional programming concepts would be highly advantageous. We're particularly interested in engineers who enjoy writing clean, composable code and are excited by modern engineering approaches.

• Experience with TypeScript, CI/CD and Infrastructure as Code would also be beneficial.

Why Kernel?

• Join one of New Zealand's most exciting fintech success stories

• Influence the technical direction of a rapidly growing platform

• Have a genuine impact on how engineering is practiced and scaled across the business

• Join a high performing engineering team where technical excellence and continuous improvement are valued

• Solve meaningful problems that help New Zealanders build wealth

• Maintain hands on technical depth while operating at Staff Engineer level

• Competitive compensation package

• Enjoy the best of both worlds with a flexible hybrid setup, connect in person while keeping the freedom to work from home up to couple of days each week (minimum 3 days/week in the office).

• Health insurance, parental leave top-up, and professional development support

• Extra staff holidays, office snacks, coffee, and a dog-friendly environment