Director of Forward Deployed Engineering

Overview

Director of Forward Deployed Engineering to build and lead Vercel’s Forward Deployed Engineering and Professional Services function, embedding with strategic customers to take projects from prototype to production rollout on Vercel.

What you'll do

• Build, lead, and develop the Forward Deployed Engineering team, including hiring standards and career development.
• Define the engagement model (scoping, staffing, sequencing, and measurement) and qualify accounts for embedded support.
• Own delivery excellence for strategic customer engagements from discovery and technical scoping through deployment and stabilization.
• Establish the professional services commercial model (packaging, pricing, capacity planning, and resource allocation).
• Stay hands-on with architecture reviews, system design, and unblocking critical engagements.
• Define handoff protocols between Forward Deployed Engineering, Sales Engineering, Customer Success, and partners.

What you'll need

• 10+ years in software engineering, forward deployed engineering, or technical consulting.
• At least 5 years leading customer-facing engineering or delivery teams in a high-growth environment.
• Experience building a team/function/service line from zero, including hiring and operating model.
• Strong background in modern web technologies including JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Next.js, Node.js, and cloud infrastructure.
• Ability to review code and whiteboard architectures.
• Experience building or deploying LLM-powered applications and understanding model behavior impact.
• Commercial acumen for scoping, pricing, and delivering enterprise technical engagements.

Details

• In-person (hybrid) position requiring 3 days per week in office.
• Must be based in San Francisco, Austin, or New York.