Engineering Director, Vercel for Platforms

About the Role

You’ll lead the engineering team responsible for Vercel for Platforms. This product enables companies to build their own platforms on Vercel, from AI app builders and coding agents to SaaS products serving thousands of customers. We provide the infrastructure to programmatically deploy and run their customers’ applications, with custom domains, tenant isolation, and a seamless developer experience. This team is strategic to Vercel’s growth. Winning a platform means powering the applications and businesses built on top of it.

We’re looking for an engineering leader to own this horizontal team. While the team is intentionally small, the scope spans deployment infrastructure, domains, identity, billing, observability, and developer tooling. It’s a deep systems and scale challenge: evolving Vercel to support platforms managing millions of tenants and applications while making that complexity feel simple. This role combines cross-team coordination, technical direction, product judgment, and broad organizational influence to shape a strategic growth engine for Vercel

This position is hybrid based in SF 

What You Will Do:

• Build and grow a high-performing team of engineers through hiring, coaching, mentorship, and thoughtful career development.
• Foster a culture of ownership, collaboration, and high engineering standards while creating an environment where engineers can do their best work.
• Partner closely with Product, Design, and other engineering teams to define roadmap priorities and execute against ambitious product goals.
• Occasionally review and contribute code to stay close to the technology and unblock the team when needed.
• Drive operational excellence through strong engineering processes, incident management, and continuous improvement.
• Balance short-term product delivery with long-term investments in technical quality and platform scalability.

About you: 

• 8+ years building and operating large-scale platforms or multi-tenant systems
• 5+ years managing engineers
• Strong technical foundation. You can review system designs, understand data model challenges, and evaluate infrastructure tradeoffs
• Proven ability to translate business goals into technical strategy and drive cross-org alignment
• Track record establishing trust, psychological safety, and clear expectations; skilled at timely, candid feedback
• Strong facilitator in technical conflict. You listen, synthesize, decide, and bring the team with you
• Clear communicator who sets expectations, gives direct feedback, and builds trust across teams

Benefits & Compensation:

• Competitive compensation package and stock options.
• Comprehensive, inclusive healthcare package.
• Opportunities for mentorship and professional growth, including attendance at industry events.
• Flexible Time Off with a recommended minimum of four weeks per year, plus paid holidays.
• Remote-friendly culture with teammates across multiple time zones.
• Dedicated equipment and work-from-home budget to help you create an effective workspace.

The San Francisco, CA base pay range for this role is 262,000-348,000. Actual salary will be based on job-related skills, experience, and location. Compensation outside of San Francisco may be adjusted based on employee location. The total compensation package may include benefits, equity-based compensation, and eligibility for a company bonus or variable pay program depending on the role. Your recruiter can share more details during the hiring process.