Senior Product Manager - Direct Investing

Role Overview

As the Senior Product Manager for Direct Investing at Kernel, you will take full ownership of the strategy, development roadmap, and customer outcomes for Kernel’s Direct investing offerings. Your initial focus will be enhancing our US Shares & ETFs product, enriching customer engagement and value. Subsequently, you will explore market expansion within local regions and identify innovative direct ownership opportunities for investment products.

You will operate at the crossroads of customer experience, investment domain knowledge, technology, and financial infrastructure. This involves understanding customer needs deeply and mastering the integration of brokerage, custody, foreign exchange, payment flows, market data, and regulatory compliance to create outstanding investing experiences.

Collaborating closely with Engineering, Design, Investments, Operations, Compliance, GTM teams, and external partners, you will convert ambiguous opportunities into structured initiatives, executing trade-offs and advancing solutions from concept to delivery.

About Kernel

Kernel is among New Zealand’s fastest-growing fintech firms, dedicated to helping Kiwis build sustainable wealth through Kiwisaver, managed funds, savings instruments, and investment products. The company combines extensive financial expertise with modern tech to develop products that genuinely enhance financial wellbeing. Kernel values ownership, pragmatism, collaboration, and high standards, investing actively in technology and talent growth as the company expands.

Key Responsibilities

• Direct product strategy and multi-quarter planning for Kernel’s Direct investing segment.
• Drive evolution of the Shares & ETFs product to improve user experience and value proposition.
• Evaluate local market entry and uncover new direct investing opportunities.
• Develop rich customer insights and market understanding to inform product priorities.
• Navigate complex financial infrastructure to deliver simplified customer journeys involving brokerage, custody, FX, payments, and money movement.
• Lead rigorous product discovery to validate customer problems, business assumptions, and potential solutions.
• Formulate strong business cases incorporating customer benefits, commercial viability, operational challenges, regulatory constraints, and strategic alignment.
• Set clear success metrics and leverage data and market insights for continuous product refinement.
• Translate strategies into precise product briefs and requirements aligning Design, Engineering, and stakeholders.
• Collaborate with Investments, Operations, Compliance, Marketing, and Customer Service to launch new investments and features.
• Establish and manage productive relationships with external technology and financial service partners.
• Balance priorities including speed, user experience, commercial returns, risk management, and scalability in compliance with regulatory frameworks.
• Contribute to Kernel’s overarching product strategy and uplift organizational product thinking standards.

Candidate Profile

• Experience managing customer-centric digital products, preferably in fintech, investing, wealth management, brokerage, payments, or regulated sectors.
• Proven ability to lead product areas end-to-end from discovery to launch and iterative improvement.
• Strong commercial acumen to evaluate opportunities against customer value, economics, complexity, and strategy.
• Expertise in product discovery to clarify ambiguous challenges into actionable insights and decisions.
• Proficiency with data-driven product success metrics and analytics.
• Capability to grasp complex systems while simplifying user experiences.
• Adept at engaging and aligning diverse teams including Engineering, Design, Operations, Compliance, and commercial units.
• Experience coordinating with external partners amid technical, operational, and business dependencies.
• Exercising sound judgment, high ownership, and rapid yet careful decision-making respecting risk and quality.
• Passionate about investing and facilitating customers’ long-term wealth growth.

Additional Valuable Qualifications

• Background in brokerage, investing, or trading product development.
• Familiarity with US, New Zealand, or Australian securities markets.
• Knowledge of brokerage, custody, settlement, foreign exchange, market data, or investment operations.
• Experience launching financial products in new markets or jurisdictions.
• Understanding New Zealand’s wealth management and regulatory context.
• Hands-on experience utilizing APIs and financial infrastructure services.
• Track record of taking new propositions from early commercial assessment through launch and scaling.
• Awareness of emerging financial technologies such as tokenisation, stablecoins, digital assets, and their influence on investment and money movement.

Why Join Kernel?

• Steer a principal growth area by defining the future of Direct Investing at Kernel.
• Contribute to market-leading investment products blending contemporary technology and deep financial expertise.
• Pioneer new market entries and product innovations shaping Kernel’s strategic direction.
• Work on customer-impacting products designed to help New Zealanders enhance their financial security.
• Address compelling challenges encompassing customer experience, investing, brokerage, FX, payments, and financial systems.
• Become part of a driven team valuing ownership, trust, cooperation, and continuous learning.
• Enjoy a flexible hybrid work environment with at least three days per week onsite, plus work-from-home options.
• Benefit from health insurance, parental leave top-up, professional development, additional holidays, complimentary office snacks, coffee, and a pet-friendly workspace.

Application Process

If you are enthusiastic about shaping the future of investing and eager to take ownership of a growing product area, we encourage you to apply. Submit your CV and cover letter detailing your motivation, relevant experience, and what excites you about this opportunity.