Hiring: Director of Forward Deployed Engineering Company: Vercel Location: San Francisco, CA Job Posted Time: 2026-09-03 11:22:35 Employment Type: Hybrid Target Skills & Keywords : Embedded Systems, JavaScript, LLM, Next.js, Node.js, React, Systems Design, TypeScript, Vercel About the job Experience: •10+ years in software engineering, forward deployed engineering, or technical consulting roles, with at least 5 years leading customer-facing engineering or delivery teams in a high-growth environment. •At least 5 years leading customer-facing engineering or delivery teams in a high-growth environment. Required Skills: •This is an in-person (hybrid) position that will require you to be based in San Francisco, Austin or New York, with a required 3 days per week in office. •Build, lead, and develop the Forward Deployed Engineering team, including hiring standards, training, career development, and compensation. •Define the engagement model: how engagements are scoped, staffed, sequenced, and measured, and which accounts qualify for embedded support. •Own delivery excellence for strategic customer engagements, from discovery and technical scoping through production deployment and stabilization. •Establish the commercial model for professional services, including packaging, pricing, capacity planning, and resource allocation across competing customer priorities. •Stay hands-on where it matters: architecture reviews, system design, and unblocking critical engagements alongside your team. •Define clear handoff protocols between Forward Deployed Engineering, Sales Engineering, Customer Success, and partners. •Codify field learnings into repeatable playbooks, reference architectures, and delivery patterns that scale beyond individual engagements. Qualifications: •Strong background in modern web technologies (JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Next.js, Node.js, cloud infrastructure) with the ability to review code and whiteboard architectures credibly. •Commercial acumen: you have scoped, priced, and delivered technical engagements for enterprise customers and understand utilization, margin, and capacity tradeoffs. •Demonstrated success embedding with customer engineering teams to deliver complex production systems. •Have built with Vercel, Next.js, AI SDK, or v0. •Have led forward deployed or embedded engineering teams at an AI-native or developer platform company. •Have owned a professional services P&L or defined services pricing and packaging from scratch. •Are comfortable representing the function externally at conferences, customer executive briefings, or large-scale events. Compensation: •$240,000 - $300,000 / year •Competitive compensation package, including equity Interested candidates, please apply directly through the job posting on company's career page or try via AI auto apply on this platform. Don't miss this opportunity to join a forward-thinking team!