Infrastructure Engineer at Kernel (San Francisco, CA)
Kernel· San Francisco, CA·
Role details
Job description
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 an Infrastructure Engineer at Kernel, you’ll architect and build the core systems that power our AI agent platform end-to-end. You’ll own critical infrastructure 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 product infrastructure, developer tools, 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 scaling and designing distributed systems
- Interest or experience in microVMs / unikernels and developer tools
- >=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!
Why work at Kernel
- Early-stage impact: Join a well-funded Series A startup (15 employees) backed by top-tier investors – opportunity to shape the product and culture from an early stage
- Founding team pedigree: Work alongside founders who have built and exited a $500M company (Clever) and led engineering at Cash App
- Technical challenges: Build cutting-edge infrastructure for AI agents – browser virtualization, stealth proxies, serverless compute, and observability at scale
- Open-source culture: 61 public repos, active community engagement, and commitment to transparent development
- Work environment: In-office culture based in San Francisco (4 locations in the US), with a focus on well-designed tooling and developer experience
- Perks: Competitive compensation at a well-funded startup; perks and benefits typical of an early-stage YC company (details available on Built In)
- Current openings: Infrastructure Engineer, Product Engineer, Backend Engineer, DevRel Engineer, Solutions Engineer, Customer Engineer – indicating strong growth and diverse team needs