Director of Field Engineering & Strategic Deployments

Webhosting; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 240,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Vercel seeks a Director of Forward Deployed Engineering to build and lead its Forward Deployed Engineering and Professional Services function. This role embeds with strategic customers to design, build, and ship production apps using Next.js, AI SDK, and v0, from prototype to production rollout.

You will define engagement, delivery, commercial models, and team structure. You will report to the VP of Field Engineering.

Responsibilities

• 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.
• Synthesize customer insights into product feedback for Engineering and Product, and report delivery outcomes and customer impact to Field Engineering and executive leadership.

Job description

Vercel seeks a Director of Forward Deployed Engineering to build and lead its Forward Deployed Engineering and Professional Services function. This role embeds with strategic customers to design, build, and ship production apps using Next.js, AI SDK, and v0, from prototype to production rollout.

You will define engagement, delivery, commercial models, and team structure. You will report to the VP of Field Engineering.