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Vercel is the agentic infrastructure company building the platform for the next generation of software. As the team behind Next.js, v0, and AI SDK, Vercel creates products that help developers move from idea to production with speed and exceptional developer experience.
The Next.js team is seeking an Engineering Team Lead to build and lead a small team working on the open-source Next.js framework. This is a hands-on player/coach role for an experienced engineer who wants to remain close to the code while helping their team do its best work.
You will be an engineer first and a manager second, spending the majority of your time on technical leadership and engineering execution rather than traditional people management. You will contribute directly to the framework, lead major technical initiatives, review code, debug complex production issues, and help make architectural decisions. You will also support engineers through clear direction, thoughtful feedback, and practical coaching.
Key responsibilities include:
- Writing production code and reviewing pull requests for Next.js
- Leading major technical initiatives from exploration through architecture, implementation, rollout, and production follow-through
- Making sound architectural decisions across rendering, caching, routing, build systems, runtime behavior, and developer tooling
- Investigating performance regressions, production failures, and developer pain points to drive framework improvements
- Establishing strong patterns for code quality, testing, performance, reliability, observability, and incremental delivery
- Coaching engineers through pairing, design reviews, code reviews, and shared ownership of challenging problems
- Setting clear expectations, giving candid feedback, and supporting career development
- Creating lightweight planning and decision-making practices that clarify ownership and reduce unnecessary coordination
- Partnering with Product, Design, Infrastructure, and other engineering teams across Vercel
- Working in public, engaging with open-source contributors, and balancing community needs with product priorities
- Participating in recruiting and helping new engineers become productive in the codebase
You will work at the intersection of React, framework architecture, developer experience, infrastructure, performance, and production reliability. This role requires comfort owning difficult parts of the codebase while creating enough context and clarity for others to move quickly.
