diff --git a/runtime/kernel/operator_registry.cpp b/runtime/kernel/operator_registry.cpp
index d7e7b298c10..d5c9a982d6d 100644
--- a/runtime/kernel/operator_registry.cpp
+++ b/runtime/kernel/operator_registry.cpp
@@ -35,9 +35,12 @@ constexpr uint32_t kMaxRegisteredKernels = kMaxOperators * kMaxKernelsPerOp;
 // require constructing them at init time. Since we don't care about the values
 // until we add each entry to the table, allocate static zeroed memory instead
 // and point the table at it.
+struct alignas(Kernel) KernelBuffer {
+  uint8_t data[sizeof(Kernel)];
+};
+
 // @lint-ignore CLANGTIDY facebook-hte-CArray
-alignas(sizeof(Kernel)) uint8_t
-    registered_kernels_data[kMaxRegisteredKernels * sizeof(Kernel)];
+KernelBuffer registered_kernels_data[kMaxRegisteredKernels];
 
 /// Global table of registered kernels.
 Kernel* registered_kernels = reinterpret_cast<Kernel*>(registered_kernels_data);
diff --git a/runtime/kernel/operator_registry.h b/runtime/kernel/operator_registry.h
index f7a62208dd8..9bd6318676c 100644
--- a/runtime/kernel/operator_registry.h
+++ b/runtime/kernel/operator_registry.h
@@ -123,7 +123,7 @@ struct KernelKey {
    * for all input tensor dtypes and dim orders if the specialized kernel is not
    * registered.
    */
-  KernelKey() : is_fallback_(true) {}
+  KernelKey() = default;
 
   /**
    * Creates a specialized (non-fallback) kernel key that matches a specific
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ struct KernelKey {
    * expected format of `kernel_key_data`.
    */
   /* implicit */ KernelKey(const char* kernel_key_data)
-      : kernel_key_data_(kernel_key_data), is_fallback_(false) {}
+      : kernel_key_data_(kernel_key_data) {}
 
   bool operator==(const KernelKey& other) const {
     return this->equals(other);
@@ -142,17 +142,17 @@ struct KernelKey {
   }
 
   bool equals(const KernelKey& other) const {
-    if (is_fallback_ != other.is_fallback_) {
+    if (is_fallback() != other.is_fallback()) {
       return false;
     }
-    if (is_fallback_) {
+    if (is_fallback()) {
       return true;
     }
     return strcmp(kernel_key_data_, other.kernel_key_data_) == 0;
   }
 
   bool is_fallback() const {
-    return is_fallback_;
+    return kernel_key_data_ == nullptr;
   }
 
   const char* data() const {
@@ -168,7 +168,6 @@ struct KernelKey {
 
  private:
   const char* kernel_key_data_ = nullptr;
-  bool is_fallback_;
 };
 
 /**