Founding Product Designer

Kernel; London (KY); On-site; USD 146,000 - 198,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

London office

Pension plan

Parental leave

Office dinner allowance

Top-spec equipment

Team events

Job summary

Kernel is looking for a Founding Product Designer in London to shape how people experience our platform and to build a product they’ll love to use.

You’ll own core UX end-to-end, run fast discovery, prototype quickly, and ship with engineering and PMs. You’ll help build the design system and set the foundations for scalable product design.

Qualifications

• Founding designer experience preferred but not required.
• Shipped meaningful product work and can explain outcomes.
• Simplifying complexity beyond polishing UI.
• Ability to run discovery independently to uncover truth.
• Fast, clear communication and tight collaboration with engineers.

Responsibilities

• Own core UX end-to-end: flows, IA, interaction design, visual craft.
• Run ground-truth discovery: user interviews, synthesize insights.
• Prototype quickly using Figma or code as needed.
• Ship with engineering + PM: iterate fast with high quality.
• Build the design foundation: principles and a lightweight system.

Skills

Founding designer

Early-stage startup

Product shipped

Simplifying complexity

Independent discovery

Clear communication

Collab with Eng

Job description

About Kernel

Agents are starting to sell, buy and operate on behalf of companies. But before an agent can close a deal, qualify an account, route a lead or assess risk, it has to answer a basic question: which company is this?

Today, that answer is messy, and no one answers it reliably. Business identity lives across CRMs, ERPs and third-party datasets full of duplicates, missing parent companies, stale addresses and incorrect enrichment. The cost shows up across the enterprise: sales teams miss revenue opportunities because they lack the right account context; operations teams take on avoidable exposure because risk signals are fragmented or wrong; and finance teams end up chasing, writing off, or defaulting on bad debt that should have been caught earlier.

Humans have worked around that mess for years. Agents cannot. They need a reliable business identity layer they can trust.

Kernel is building that layer: the business registry for agents. We issue a permanent KERN ID for every business, plus the context an agent needs to act on it. Ops, data and revenue teams at Gong, Legora, Mistral, Canva and Checkout already use Kernel on their own systems. Agents are next, and there will be far more of them.

We have raised $14M from top VCs and operators at Plaid, OpenAI, Slack and others, and we are growing 5x YoY.

The role

You’ll be Kernel’s Founding Product Designer, shaping how people experience Kernel and building a product they’ll love to use.

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

What you’ll 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, code, 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 we’re 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.

• You’ve shipped meaningful product work and can walk through decisions + outcomes.

• You’re 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: £110,000 – £150,000 base + equity

• 24 days holiday per year + bank holidays

• £450 Monthly Office Dinner Allowance

• 2 weeks work-from-anywhere

• Generous parental leave policy

• Pension plan

• Top-spec equipment and central London office

• Team events and dinners

• Work directly with the founders to scale the systems that power enterprise AI

• High-autonomy, high-trust environment with a small team shipping at pace

Visas & Relocation

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

Interview Process

Stage 1: Introductory Call with Stefan (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.