Talent & People Lead

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 & People Lead to help us scale. Your north star will be driving growth by bringing exceptional talent into the business and building a world-class people foundation.

You’ll own the full recruitment lifecycle and implement scalable hiring strategies, while also laying down the first pillars of People Ops — onboarding, feedback, and employee experience.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Own end-to-end recruiting for a range of roles across the company

• Build and maintain pipelines of high-quality candidates

• Partner with hiring managers and leadership on role definitions and process

• Build Kernel’s employer brand through content and events

• Design onboarding and early performance processes

• Support creation of people policies and the employee handbook

• Help define our feedback and growth frameworks

What You Bring

• 3–7 years of talent acquisition experience in a fast-paced environment

• Strong sourcing and recruiting skills using modern tools (LinkedIn, Cord, Ashby)

• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills

• Ability to balance hands-on recruiting with building scalable HR processes

• Passion for diversity, inclusion, and building high-performing teams

Nice to have:

• Experience in a startup environment

• Exposure to People Ops or Business Operations

• Familiarity with HR systems and performance tools

⚠️ This role may not be for you if you:

• Need lots of structure or narrow focus

• Prefer large-company environments

• Don’t enjoy multitasking or ambiguity

❌ 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 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 are unable to sponsor visas or offer relocation for this position. Candidates must have the right to work in the UK.

Interview Process

Stage 1 – 30-minute intro call with Sandi. Overview of Kernel and your experience.

Stage 2 – Case-based interview focused on talent and people strategy.

Final Stage – Founders interview with Anders (CEO) and Marcus to assess cultural fit and values alignment.

If there is mutual fit, we move to references and offer.