About the role

Turn complex ideas into creative people want to engage with.

Kernel is looking for a hands on Graphic & Content Designer to bring our brand to life across social media, campaigns, digital advertising, email, events, presentations and print.

This is a varied role for a strong all round designer who understands what works on social and can add movement and energy to content. You could be turning investment data into an engaging infographic one day, developing event creative the next, then adapting a campaign across paid social, email and web.

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

• Design polished creative across digital, social, email, events, presentations and print

• Create social-first content for Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn

• Turn complex or data-heavy information into clear, engaging visual stories

• Adapt campaign ideas across different audiences, channels and formats

• Add lightweight motion, animated typography, graphs, transitions, captions and branded overlays

• Edit existing footage into short form content when needed

• Create digital advertising variations that support testing and optimisation

• Maintain and improve Figma templates, components and asset libraries

• Bring ideas to the table and recommend what will work best for the audience and channel

You’ll work across Kernel’s marketing team, supporting customer acquisition, organic content, campaigns, events and customer communications. You’ll have plenty of variety and see your work used throughout the customer journey.

You’ll be great if you bring

• Around 3 - 5 years of relevant design experience

• Strong typography, layout, composition and visual storytelling skills

• A portfolio showing polished work across multiple channels

• Experience designing content specifically for social platforms

• The ability to make complex information and dry data interesting

• Confidence taking a brief from initial idea through to final delivery

• Practical Figma experience, including components, libraries and auto layout

• Some motion or animation experience using After Effects, Lottie, Figma or similar

• Clear communication and confidence to explain your creative decisions

• The ability to manage multiple briefs and collaborate with different stakeholders

• Curiosity about what great brands are doing locally and globally, with an interest in design, social and content trends

What will make you stand out

We’d particularly like to see work that shows how you have:

• Taken a strong idea across several channels

• Made complex information or data easy and interesting to understand

• Created thoughtful, platform relevant social content

• Worked with a modern, premium or design-led brand

• Owned a project from an open brief through to final delivery

You might currently work in house for a technology, software, consumer or high growth brand, or within a creative or integrated agency. Wealth management experience is not essential. What matters is your curiosity, your ability to understand a new audience or category, and your confidence bringing fresh ideas to the work.

Why You’ll Love it at Kernel

• This is a newly created role with real variety, visibility and creative ownership.

• You'll join a collaborative marketing team and play a key role in how the Kernel brand comes to life across social content, campaigns, events, digital advertising, email and customer communications.

• Fantastic opportunity to contribute your own ideas, work across a wide range of channels and see what you create being used in the real world!

• Competitive compensation package including bonus

• 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

Join our team

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 and portfolio. Your portfolio should demonstrate strong graphic design fundamentals, breadth across different channels and the thinking behind your work.

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