Director of Forward Deployed Engineering
$240,000–$300,000 year
HybridSan Francisco, California, United States
Job Summary
Build and lead Vercel's Forward Deployed Engineering and Professional Services function, embedding with strategic customers to design, build, and ship production applications using Next.js, AI SDK, and v0. Define the engagement model, delivery methodology, and commercial structure while owning delivery excellence from discovery through stabilization. Establish pricing, capacity planning, and handoff protocols across Sales Engineering and Customer Success, then codify field learnings into scalable playbooks and reference architectures. Synthesize customer insights into product feedback and report delivery outcomes to executive leadership. This hybrid role reports to the VP of Field Engineering, based in San Francisco, Austin, or New York with three days in-office weekly.
Required Qualifications
- 10+ years in software engineering, forward deployed engineering, or technical consulting roles
- at least 5 years leading customer-facing engineering or delivery teams in a high-growth environment
- Experience building a team, function, or service line from zero, including hiring, methodology, and operating model
- Strong background in modern web technologies (JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Next.js, Node.js, cloud infrastructure)
- ability to review code and whiteboard architectures credibly
- Experience building or deploying LLM-powered applications
- understanding of how model behavior shapes product decisions
- Commercial acumen: you have scoped, priced, and delivered technical engagements for enterprise customers
- understanding of utilization, margin, and capacity tradeoffs
- Demonstrated success embedding with customer engineering teams to deliver complex production systems
- required 3 days per week in office
Desired Qualifications
- 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
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