Forward-Deployed Engineer

FDE Times; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 137,000 - 207,000; Full time

Job summary

Vercel is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer on the Professional Services team to work hands-on with strategic enterprise customers, modernizing legacy frontends to Next.js and building production AI agents. You’ll own the work from technical discovery to shipped TypeScript, including moving React apps to App Router and auditing code for performance.

The role has two profiles—Next.js experts and AI builders—and is a hybrid position with 3 in-office days per week in San Francisco, New York City,

Qualifications

• 6+ years of software engineering experience, including 2+ years in a customer-facing technical role.
• Built and deployed web apps or agentic workflows using AI tooling.
• Expert-level TypeScript and React experience shipping production apps.
• Led a legacy frontend migration to Next.js, or shipped a production Next.js app using App Router and Server Components.
• Experience presenting to executives at enterprise customers, with travel as needed.

Responsibilities

• Build production AI agents, MCP servers, and agentic workflows with Vercel’s eve framework, AI SDK, and AI Cloud.
• Lead migrations from legacy React, Vue, and other frameworks to Next.js, including Pages Router to App Router, and automate them where possible
• Audit customer codebases for performance bottlenecks and anti-patterns, and deliver roadmaps with measurable improvements
• Architect Next.js applications with App Router, Server Components, streaming, and ISR for enterprise scale
• Run workshops and pair programming so customer teams can maintain what you ship

Skills

TypeScript

React

Next.js

AI tooling

Customer-facing

Tools

eve framework

AI SDK

AI Cloud

Job description

About Vercel

Vercel is the agentic infrastructure company, freeing people and agents to ship what's next. For more than a decade we've helped builders move from idea to production with speed, security, and exceptional developer experience.

Now we're scaling our products for both agents and people to ship and run software, built in the open and trusted by OpenAI, PayPal, Ramp, Supreme, and millions of developers worldwide.

About the role

As a Forward Deployed Engineer on the Professional Services team, you’ll work hands-on-keyboard inside strategic enterprise customers, modernizing legacy frontends to Next.js and building production AI agents. You’ll own the work from technical discovery to shipped TypeScript, whether that’s moving a React app to App Router, auditing a codebase for performance, or deploying agents with Vercel’s eve framework and AI SDK. The role has two profiles: Next.js experts focus on code optimization, performance audits, and SEO and AEO (answer engine optimization), while AI builders scope, design, and ship agents that prove their value. This is a hybrid role with 3 in-office days per week in San Francisco, New York City, or Austin.

What you’ll do

• Build production AI agents, MCP servers, and agentic workflows with Vercel’s eve framework, AI SDK, and AI Cloud
• Lead migrations from legacy React, Vue, and other frameworks to Next.js, including Pages Router to App Router, and automate them where possible
• Audit customer codebases for performance bottlenecks and anti-patterns, and deliver roadmaps with measurable improvements
• Architect Next.js applications with App Router, Server Components, streaming, and ISR for enterprise scale
• Run workshops and pair programming so customer teams can maintain what you ship

What you need

• 6+ years of software engineering experience, including 2+ years in a customer-facing technical role (consulting, solutions architecture, forward deployed engineering, or technical founder)
• Built and deployed web applications, backend systems, or agentic workflows using AI tooling such as harnesses, skills, and MCP servers
• Expert-level TypeScript and React experience shipping production applications
• Next.js experts: Led a legacy frontend migration to Next.js, or shipped a production Next.js application using App Router and Server Components
• AI builders: Built production LLM agents, including sandbox and filesystem agent patterns and human-in-the-loop flows
• Ran technical discovery and presented to executives at enterprise customers, with occasional travel to customer sites

Bonus if you

• Led an enterprise AI initiative that shipped production agents replacing manual processes or legacy systems
• Diagnosed and fixed LCP, CLS, and INP issues at scale
• Contributed to Next.js, React, or AI SDK open source

The San Francisco, CA base pay range for this role is $137,000.00 - $207,000.00. This salary range is an estimate. Actual salary will be based on job related skills, experience and location. Pay ranges outside San Francisco may be adjusted based on employee location. The total compensation package also includes benefits and equity-based compensation. Your recruiter can share more about the specific pay range for your location during the hiring process.

Disclosures

• Privacy: Please review our Job Applicant Privacy Policy for more information on how we handle your data.
• Equal Opportunity: Vercel is committed to fostering and empowering an inclusive community within our organization. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Vercel encourages everyone to apply for our available positions, even if they don't necessarily check every box on the job description.