Account Executive
At a glance
Mid-level Account Executive role at Kernel. San Francisco · full-time · $220,000–$265,000 base.
Growth Roles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Generate and qualify opportunities, lead discovery, negotiate terms, and take deals through signature
- Build relationships with developers, engineering leaders, and other technical buyers considering production use
- Coordinate with solutions, customer success, engineering, and product teams to resolve technical questions
- Keep pipeline and deal updates accurate while sharing customer, market, and competitor insight internally
- Help create a repeatable sales process and playbook for the team
What you bring
- At least four years closing sales, preferably with technical or developer-oriented products
- You can discuss architecture, APIs, and product usage credibly with technical buyers without needing to code
- You have managed complete deals from initial lead engagement through negotiation and completion
- You use AI every day and can operate comfortably when customers and processes lack an established playbook
Who this fits
This role suits a mid-level, technically oriented account executive who can sell to developers and engineering leaders while building the sales process. It is an onsite full-time position in San Francisco. The stated annual salary is $220,000 to $265,000, and relocation assistance is available.
From the employer
About Kernel
Kernel is crazy fast, open source browser infrastructure for AI agents. We handle autoscaling, observability, and the messy details of web interaction, so developers can focus on what their agents do instead of how they do it.
Teams at Cash App, Rye, and 5000+ others use Kernel for deep research, QA automation, and real-time web analysis. We've raised $22M from Accel, YC, and Vercel.
If you're interested in building critical infrastructure for agents on the web, we'd love to chat.
About the role
You'll be one of the first members of a lean sales team. You'll own the full sales cycle for Kernel, from initial conversation to closed deal. That means prospecting and qualifying the right accounts, running discovery that gets to the real problems a customer is solving, and building relationships with the developers and technical leaders who'll rely on Kernel for their production systems.
This is a technical-leaning AE role. You'll spend time understanding prospects' technical requirements, not just running a deck, and you'll lean on customer success & solutions, engineering, and product team members to keep technical questions from slowing down a deal.
What you'll do
Own your pipeline end-to-end: prospecting, qualification, discovery, negotiation, and close
Build and manage relationships with developers, engineering leaders, and technical decision-makers evaluating Kernel for production use
Partner with solutions engineering, customer engineering/success, and engineering as needed to scope technical requirements and keep deals moving from demo to signed contract
Give the team an accurate, up-to-date read on your pipeline and deal status
Represent the voice of the customer internally, feeding market and competitive intelligence back into product and go-to-market strategy
Help define what a repeatable sales motion looks like at Kernel — you're building the playbook, not just running one
What we're looking for
4+ years of closing experience in a sales role, ideally selling technical or developer-facing products
Comfortable selling to technical buyers: you don't need to write code, but you can hold your own in a conversation about architecture, APIs, and how a product actually gets used
Experience running a full-cycle sales process, from outbound or inbound lead through negotiation and close
High tolerance for ambiguity — most of our customers are building things that don't have a playbook yet
You use AI daily in your own workflow, and are excited to be in an AI-native space
Excellent written and verbal communication, with the judgment to know when to loop in teammates versus close on your own
Even better:
Experience selling developer tools, infrastructure, or API-first products
Familiarity with AI agents, browser automation, or the broader agent tooling landscape
Prior experience at an early-stage startup where you helped build the sales process, not just execute one
What you can expect as a Kernel
Industry-competitive salary
Above market equity
Premium medical + dental and vision coverage + dependent coverage
Small, trusting team of experienced GTM and engineering staff
Default async with minimal bureaucracy
Daily lunches on us
Unlimited PTO
401k + company match
Relocation assistance
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