Sarah Smith

About Kernel Kernel gives enterprise RevOps teams confidence in their CRM data. We've raised a $14M Series A from top VCs and operators at Plaid, OpenAI, Slack and others to build the AI-native alternative to Dun & Bradstreet's entity and hierarchy data. RevOps teams at Gong, Navan, Zip, Remote and GoCardless use Kernel to clean, enrich and complete their CRM data at enterprise scale, eliminating duplicates, fixing hierarchies and restoring trust in the foundation that powers forecasting, territory planning and AI initiatives. Our platform combines entity-level intelligence with mass-action tooling to give RevOps teams the data quality and control needed to plan confidently and deploy AI successfully. The Role We're looking for our foundational Talent Acquisition Lead to help us scale from 30 to 60+ employees. Your north star will be driving growth by bringing exceptional talent into the business, with a specific emphasis on raising the bar for our technical teams and building a world-class people foundation. You will be the sole owner of the recruitment lifecycle but also have the opportunity to broaden your scope. As we scale, this role offers a clear path to owning the wider People Operations function (onboarding, culture, performance, and retention). What You'll Be Doing Full-Cycle Recruiting: Own end-to-end recruiting for all roles, acting as a true partner to the business rather than just a resume screener Technical Depth: Partner deeply with Engineering leadership (AI, Product, Backend, Platform) to decode complex technical requirements and build pipelines of passive engineering talent Sourcing Strategy: Move beyond inbound applicants. You will hunt for high-quality candidates using creative sourcing strategies, specifically for hard-to-fill technical and GTM profiles Process Excellence: Build and refine a data-driven hiring machine (scorecards, interview training, pipeline velocity) that ensures a high bar for talent and a great candidate experience Employer Brand: Act as the face of Kernel in the market, helping us articulate our engineering culture and commercial ambition to attract top-tier talent What You Bring 3-7 years of experience: You have a track record in a fast-paced environment (agency or in-house), ideally within high-growth tech Technical Fluency: You speak "Engineer." You understand the nuances between different tech stacks, can calibrate seniority effectively, and gain credibility with technical hiring managers Sourcing Mastery: You are expert at using modern tools (LinkedIn Recruiter, Ashby, Metaview, Juicebox) and boolean logic to find candidates who aren't looking Operational Mindset: You don't just "do" recruiting; you build processes. You care about the channels, conversion rates, time-to-hire Ambition: You want to build a world-class talent function from scratch Nice to have: Experience in a startup environment Experience scaling an engineering team from Previous exposure to People Ops, HR compliance, or visa processes ️ This role may not be for you if you: Need lots of structure or a large team to delegate sourcing to. Prefer large-company environments with slow hiring cycles. Don't enjoy the "hunt" of outbound sourcing. This role is definitely not for you if you: Prefer remote work (requires 4+ days a week in London office). Don't enjoy the pace of early-stage startups. Have side projects or want to manage a team immediately instead of build. 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: £60,000 - £90,000 + equity ️ 24 days holiday per year + bank holidays ️ 2 weeks work-from-anywhere Pension plan Top-spec equipment and central London office ️ Free dinner at the office Team events and dinners Work directly with the founders to scale the systems that power enterprise AI Visas & Relocation We generally require candidates to have the right to work in the UK. However, for exceptional candidates, we may offer visa sponsorship. Interview Process Stage 1 - Intro Call with Arvin (Head of Finance and Operations). Overview of Kernel, your recruitment philosophy, and operational fit. Stage 2 - Case-Based Interview: A deep dive into your sourcing strategy, focused on how you would tackle a specific technical role at Kernel. Stage 3 - Calibration & Roleplay with Fara (Head of Engineering). Assessing your ability to partner with technical leadership and screen engineering profiles. Final Stage - Founder Interview with Anders (CEO) and Marcus to assess cultural fit and values alignment. If there is mutual fit, we move to references and offer.