VP of Engineering

We’re looking for a hands-on VP of Engineering to lead Kerno’s engineering team through our next phase of growth: scaling the team, building an enterprise-grade product, and preparing the tech org for a US fundraise in 2026. This role is ideal for a technical leader who’s grown engineering functions from early-stage chaos to structured scale without losing the desire (or ability) to roll up their sleeves and build alongside the team.

As VP of Engineering, you’ll shape everything from product delivery and architecture to hiring, culture, and org design. You'll be responsible for building a world-class remote engineering team, instilling modern best practices, and delivering a product that becomes the default developer runtime context platform used by thousands of engineers across Europe and North America.

• Lead and scale our distributed engineering team from 9 to 20+ over the next 12 months.
• Define and implement delivery processes that balance speed with technical excellence.
• Partner with the CEO on strategy, hiring, and roadmap prioritisation.
• Own the engineering budget and team resourcing across initiatives.
• Collaborate closely with Product to ship functionality quickly and reliably.
• Stay hands-on when needed - architecture reviews, prototypes, technical direction.
• Foster a high-performing, remote-first culture where engineers do the best work of their careers.
• Prepare the org for scale as we move toward a 2026 US fundraise and enterprise go-to-market.

• A people-first leader who’s built, motivated, and scaled high-performing engineering teams.

• Proven experience scaling a startup from early product to enterprise-readiness.

• Comfortable in ambiguity, thrives in fast-paced environments, and knows when to be scrappy.

• Strong technical background; ideally familiar with Kotlin, JavaScript, AWS, Kubernetes, and modern AI tooling.

• Experience working with distributed teams; exceptional communicator and culture builder.

• Experience in building developer and/or infra products that have a product led growth backbone.

• A builder’s mindset with a strong product and customer orientation.

• A blend of strategic and tactical, able to zoom out or dive deep as needed.

• Backed by top-tier investors
• Remote-first, async-friendly culture
• Competitive salary + generous equity
• Work from anywhere (UK, Ireland or Madrid preferred)
• Huge ownership, huge impact

At Kerno, we’re building the #1 Developer Runtime Context Engineering Platform - a once-in-a-generation opportunity at the intersection of Graph, AI, and Kernel-level insights. If you’re looking to shape the next frontier in developer tooling, this is your chance to build the team, tech, and product from the ground up.