About the role

Kernel continues to grow, with 100% year on year growth over the past five years. That momentum is driven by a clear purpose: making wealth more accessible for every Kiwi through simple, well designed investment products.

We are looking for a Senior Frontend Engineer to join us on a 6 month fixed-term contract, starting in February 2026 at the earliest, with a strong preference for late March 2026. This role suits someone who can quickly embed into a fast-moving product team, raise the quality bar, and help move multiple initiatives forward in parallel.

As a senior, you will play a key role in shaping how our product looks, feels, and behaves. You will push the boundaries of UI quality while moving at speed, ensuring features feel cohesive across the entire system. Your work will directly influence how customers experience Kernel at critical moments in their financial journey.

You will also bring strong communication and leadership through action, helping unite the team around shared standards, clearer decisions, and thoughtful execution.

This is a 6-month fixed-term contract, starting in February 2026 at the earliest, with a strong preference for late March 2026. The role is 40 hours per week, and we're open to any contractors who can commit to Kernel for that time period.

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

• Build, ship, and own complex user facing features using React, TypeScript, and Next.js.

• Elevate UI quality across the product, creating interfaces that feel polished, intentional, and visually distinctive while remaining performant and accessible.

• Navigate and understand the wider frontend and system architecture, ensuring new features integrate cleanly and work harmoniously with existing ones.

• Move multiple features forward at once, balancing local delivery with system level thinking.

• Work closely with product, design, and engineering to take ideas from concept through to high quality release.

• Mentor other engineers through code reviews, pairing, and direction, helping spot issues early and guide solutions in the right direction.

• Contribute to technical decisions, frontend standards, and development practices that improve team effectiveness over time.

• Use AI tools thoughtfully to support delivery while maintaining a deep understanding of the code and systems you work with.

You’ll be great if you bring

• Senior frontend expertise: Deep, hands-on experience building and shipping production frontend systems, with strong capability in React and Next.js. You understand component architecture, state management, performance, and accessibility, and you consistently deliver high quality outcomes.

• Strong product and UI judgement: You know how to make interfaces pop while keeping them usable, coherent, and aligned with product intent. You understand how visual and interaction details shape trust and clarity for customers.

• System level thinking: You quickly build context across the codebase, understand how parts connect, and make decisions that move both individual features and the overall system forward.

• Leadership through collaboration: You communicate clearly, bring people together, and help align engineers, designers, and product partners around shared goals and standards.

• Mentorship mindset: You support junior engineers by spotting issues early, offering guidance, and helping them develop stronger technical judgement.

• Comfort with pace and ambiguity: You make progress in evolving environments, break down complex problems, and balance speed with quality through sound decision making.

Bonus things you could bring along to the role

• Creativity – An interest in animation, motion, or interaction design that lifts the overall experience. You enjoy exploring ideas beyond the brief and applying a design mindset to engineering challenges.

• Experience raising frontend quality standards within a growing product team.

Why You’ll Love it at Kernel

• 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

• 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).

• 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.