Forward-Deployed Engineer
Vercel
San Francisco, CA · Posted January 7, 2026
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Where San Francisco, CA ranks
Where San Francisco, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Best cities for security jobs316 openings · of 20
- #1Best cities for technology jobs7,178 openings · of 100
- #1Best cities for financial services pay after cost of living$173k · of 33
- #1Best cities for entry-level jobs that want AI skills35% · of 100
- #1Best cities for entry-level jobs that want AI skills in the West Coast35% · of 54
- #1Cities with the most jobs that do not need a four-year degree in the West Coast902 jobs · of 47
Rankings about engineering jobs
- Best cities for software and engineering jobs #1 San Francisco (3,412 openings)
- Best cities for engineering pay after cost of living #1 San Mateo ($216k)
- Most requested AI skills in engineering jobs #1 AI tools in daily work (6.1%)
- AI tools named most often in engineering jobs #1 Claude (1.7%)
- Employers with the most engineering jobs #1 Amazon (2,992 roles)
Pay compared with the market
This listing does not state pay. Across 140 open forward deployed engineer listings that state pay, the middle half runs $155,000 to $233,500 and the median is $194,500.
Listed pay is what employers advertise, not what people are paid.
Forward Deployed Engineer salaries by state · Check your own pay
How AI is used in this kind of work
Among software developers, AI is already used for some of the tasks. Measured exposure for software developers: 29% (some).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
Skills this job asks for
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About the job
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.