Engineering Manager

Kernel is one of New Zealand's fastest growing fintechs, helping Kiwis build long term wealth through KiwiSaver, managed funds, savings products and investing. Our team combines deep financial services expertise with modern technology to build products that genuinely improve people's financial wellbeing. We value ownership, pragmatism, collaboration and high standards, and we're investing in both our platform and our people as we continue to grow.

As part of this growth, we’re investing in our engineering leadership capability and looking for an Engineering Manager to help build, support and scale a high performing team. This is a people leadership role for someone who has worked in technology and discovered that coaching, developing and taking others with them is where they do their best work. It is an exciting opportunity to shape how engineering grows at Kernel, lift capability and performance, strengthen team rhythms and create the conditions for great people to do their best work on products used by thousands of New Zealanders.

About the role

As Engineering Manager, you’ll lead with and through people. This role is about taking others with you, building trust, creating clarity and helping engineers lift their capability and performance as Kernel continues to scale. You do not need to be hands on in code or deeply technical day to day. You’ll work alongside a technical manager who owns the deeper technical direction, while you focus on supporting people, strengthening team rhythms and creating the conditions for engineers to do their best work.

What you’ll do

• Lead, coach and support a team of engineers across different technical disciplines, which may include back-end, front-end, mobile, data, QA or full stack engineers

• Create a high trust, high-performance environment where engineers know what is expected, feel supported and are able to do their best work

• Run strong people rhythms, including one-on-ones, feedback conversations, development planning, performance support and clear goal setting

• Partner closely with Product, Engineering and senior leaders to support delivery, remove blockers and keep teams focused on meaningful customer outcomes

• Help hire, onboard and grow engineering talent as Kernel continues to scale

• Support engineers to make good technical decisions, lift engineering practices and maintain high standards of quality, reliability and accountability
• Work closely with Product, Design and Engineering teams to deliver meaningful customer outcomes.

You will bring- 7+ years' people management experience, ideally leading engineers or technology teams in a commercial environment

• Experience working in technology environments, with enough technical understanding to support engineering teams, ask good questions and contribute to effective delivery conversations
• A working understanding of C#/.NET environments and modern software engineering practices, so you can confidently support a team working in this space without being deeply hands on in code
• Experience working in agile environments, with the ability to stay across team workflows, understand how work is progressing and identify where people may need support, guidance or clearer priorities.
• Strong delivery oversight, with the confidence to keep work visible, spot blockers early and help engineers stay aligned, accountable and moving at the right pace
• A passion for mentoring others and helping raise the capability of those around you
• A genuine excitement for AI with the curiosity to explore how it can be leveraged in practical ways and the energy to inspire others to embrace it

Why You’ll Love it at Kernel- It's rare in software engineering to work on products you can be a direct customer of - at Kernel, you'll build technology that helps Kiwis like you grow their wealth.

• Help shape one of New Zealand's most ambitious fintech platforms
• Work on products that directly impact the financial futures of thousands of Kiwis
• Influence engineering standards, technical direction and team capability
• Join a high performing team that values ownership, trust and continuous improvement
• Enjoy the best of both worlds with a flexible hybrid setup, connecting in person while keeping the freedom to work from home a couple of days each week, with a minimum of three days per 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 you're an experienced engineering leader who enjoys growing people, creating clarity and building high-quality systems at scale, we'd love to hear from you. Apply now and help us build the future of investing in New Zealand.

To be considered, please submit both your CV and a cover letter outlining your interest in Kernel, your relevant experience, and what excites you about this opportunity.

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