About the role

Help New Zealanders build long-term wealth by transforming regulated financial data into trusted insights and predictive product features. This role is a cornerstone of Kernel’s data strategy, as our first Data Analyst, you'll lead analytics and internal data analytics, while also developing practical models that support outcomes across each of our financial products.

Kernel is growing, and we’re aiming to launch and build a mobile app next year. This role will play a key part in shaping the data foundations that support that growth, from customer insights to product features.

You’ll also build and deploy models that support customer engagement/retention, while helping set up our data practice and uncovering actionable customer insights. At times you’ll do reporting for the Senior Leadership Team, our Board, and Product. You’ll strengthen our analytics foundations by refining Mixpanel instrumentation, event taxonomy, and KPI definitions.

This role defines how Kernel approaches metrics and models, from how they’re created and tested to how they evolve. You’ll work closely with Product, Engineering, and other teams to ensure insights are not only accurate but also actionable and aligned with Kernel’s mission and vision.

About Kernel

We're a 100% Kiwi owned and operated fintech on a mission to make wealth accessible for every Kiwi. Our investment platform takes the guesswork out of investing – offering KiwiSaver, Managed Funds, US shares & ETFs, and Smart Saver accounts, all in one place with some of the lowest fees in the market.

We're at an exciting stage. Scaling fast, expanding our team of globally experienced financial professionals, and building the foundations for what's next. Our culture is collaborative, hands-on and ambitious – built on trust, innovation and saying it like it is. We value diverse perspectives, empower individuality, and believe the best ideas come from thinking together.

Things move quickly here, and every person plays a key role in shaping our future.

What you’ll do

• This role blends hands-on analytics with strategic influence, you’ll shape how Kernel uses data to make decisions, build products, and meet regulatory obligations. You’ll lead reporting, elevate product analytics, and lay the groundwork for scalable, trustworthy insights that power our Save, Invest, and KiwiSaver experiences.
• Analytics and reporting
  • Help Kernel tell better stories with data, stories that clarify what’s happening, why it matters, and what to do next.
  • Work across multiple data domains, from customer behaviour and financial metrics to compliance and operational reporting.
  • Own Power BI datasets, DAX models to support both customer insights and internal reporting
  • Translate complex data requirements into clear, reliable metrics and performant data models with row-level security
  • Write robust SQL (Aurora Postgres) using views, CTEs, and window functions, with a focus on performance, documentation, and lineage
  • Partner with Compliance and Risk to define controls, thresholds, and alerting; embed data QA checks and reconciliations
  • Improve product analytics with Mixpanel, shape event taxonomy, identity resolution, and governance; build funnels, cohorts, retention, activation, and product KPIs
  • Support experimentation through test design, guardrails, analysis, and decision readouts grounded in product impact
• Foundations and enablement
  • Align definitions across databases and APIs; improve cross-system ID mapping
  • Contribute to analytics standards, including tests, data contracts, reconciliations, documentation, and reproducible query patterns
  • Collaborate with Engineering as DBT and Airflow are rolled out; help select data science tooling that fits Kernel’s scale
  • Lift data literacy across teams and improve self-serve access, while keeping regulatory accuracy front and centre

You’ll be great if you bring

• Proven data analysis capability with a strong mix of technical depth, analytical thinking, and stakeholder fluency.

• Confident SQL skills on relational warehouses like Aurora Postgres, you know your way around complex joins, window functions, and performance-aware queries

• Power BI fluency or something equivalent, from shaping data models and writing DAX measures to building dashboards that are both reliable and easy to navigate

• Sharp analytical thinking and clear communication, you can break down messy problems, weigh trade-offs, and tell a crisp story with data

• A solid grasp of experimentation, you understand how to design tests, set guardrails, interpret results, and explain what they mean for the product

• Domain knowledge and learning agility, you pick up new business contexts quickly and translate data into meaningful narratives for different audiences

Bonus things you could bring along to the role

• Deep Mixpanel experience, you’ve worked with event modelling, funnels, cohorts, retention analysis, experiment readouts, and workspace governance

• Strong data QA instincts, you understand validation rules, reconciliations, and dbt-style testing to keep data clean and trustworthy

• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and modern data stacks like dbt, Airflow, Spark/Databricks, and Snowflake/BigQuery/Redshift

• Exposure to finance or wealth, you understand KiwiSaver, funds, or registries, and bring a mindset focused on explainability and privacy-by-design

Why You’ll Love it at Kernel

• Create, shape, and establish Kernel’s data strategy, defining how data is collected, validated, and used across the business. From regulatory reporting to customer-facing features, you’ll build the foundations that turn raw data into trusted insights and scalable product outcomes.
• Shape investment products in a way no other fintech in New Zealand is approaching, connecting everyday financial goals with intuitive and customer centric design.

• Contribute to a platform trusted by tens of thousands of Kiwis, helping them feel more confident and in control of their money.

• Join a team built on trust, collaboration, and flexibility, where feedback is constructive and everyone has a voice.
• Competitive compensation package

• Flexible hybrid work and support for remote setups

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

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

Join our team

Not sure you meet every requirement? We encourage you to apply. We value growth, impact, and mindset just as much as specific experience. If this opportunity sounds like you, send us your cover letter explaining why you’re excited about the role and working at Kernel, along with your CV.

Visit our careers page for more on working at Kernel and follow us on LinkedIn & Instagram. to stay connected.