You've sat through the same painful loop we have — five-round interview pipelines, juniors marketed as seniors, agency invoices for work the founder never touched. We thought there had to be a better way to put senior engineers in front of the people who need them. So we built it.
KernelSquad started inside a Saudi mobility marketplace, where one of our founders spent years refactoring monoliths, integrating Temporal.io workflows, and unblocking distributed systems that nobody wanted to touch. We saw the same pattern at every company we worked with: when senior engineers were involved early, things shipped. When juniors were dropped in under pressure, things fell over.
We also noticed something else. The companies struggling hardest weren't the ones without budget — they were the ones being sold the wrong people. Big agencies billed for partners and shipped associates. Cheap freelance platforms sent unvetted CVs in bulk. Local hiring took six months and ended in a counter-offer war.
So we narrowed our scope. Senior engineers only. Hand-picked, not CV-blasted. A 2-week trial so you can replace anyone, no questions asked. And we cover both Europe and the Gulf because that's where we live and that's where the most interesting work happens right now.
We are small on purpose. We'd rather say no to a wrong-fit client than dilute the standard. If you want a body shop, there are great ones — we'll point you to a few. If you want senior engineers who treat your product like their own, that's us.
We do not place juniors with a senior label. Every engineer we send has 5+ years in production systems, and we'd happily hire them ourselves. If we cannot find the right person for your role, we will tell you — and refer you to someone who can.
You get one or two hand-picked profiles, not a shortlist of twelve you have to wade through. We'd rather take three more days and send the right person than burn your hiring loop on near-misses.
Every engagement starts with a 2-week trial. If the chemistry, output, or fit isn't right, we replace the engineer — no termination fees, no awkward conversation, no questions.
First match within 7 days, embedded within 10. Fast enough to matter, slow enough to actually do the matching. We say no to clients we cannot serve well, even when we need the revenue.
We sit in Tunisia and partner across Europe and Saudi Arabia. English, French, and Arabic in the room. Real-time overlap with both ends of the timezone — not async-only, not midnight calls.
We are not a generalist agency. We don't build mobile apps from scratch. We don't do enterprise sales tools. We don't run paid ads. When clients need those, we point them to the right partners — and we have them.
10+
Years building production backends
5+
Years minimum per engineer in our network
3
Languages spoken — EN, FR, AR
2 wks
Trial period on every engagement
7 days
From kickoff to first engineer onboarded
EU/MENA
Timezone overlap with Europe and Gulf
A 30-minute discovery call is the fastest way to find out if we can help — and we will tell you honestly if we cannot.
