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Salary: USD 232,000 - 348,000 / annual
Vercel is seeking a Staff-level Engineer to lead the design and development of a next-generation Data Platform. Reporting to the Senior Director of Data Engineering, you will define the technical vision for Vercel's data ecosystem, architect foundational systems that power data across products and business operations, and support real-time analytics and AI/ML initiatives.
Key responsibilities include:
- Design and implement a next-generation data platform supporting batch and real-time integrations, advanced analytics, and multiple data types using Kafka, ClickHouse, Tinybird, and Snowflake
- Work across engineering, product, and senior leadership to architect solutions aligned with business needs and product goals
- Define and maintain guidelines for data ingestion, enrichment, storage, and establish data modeling, ETL, and data warehousing practices for low-latency analytics
- Develop end-to-end solutions across the tech stack, set engineering excellence standards, and mentor team members
- Partner with Security, Compliance, and Legal to ensure data protection adherence and champion high availability through monitoring and incident response
- Drive architectural decisions and roadmap planning for efficiency, scalability, and performance; evaluate build-vs-buy trade-offs
- Collaborate with data scientists and ML teams to evolve infrastructure supporting advanced analytics and AI workloads
- Act as key decision-maker for discovering, vetting, and selecting critical data architectures and technologies; establish strategic roadmaps aligned with business objectives
Vercel is the agentic infrastructure company behind Next.js, v0, and AI SDK, trusted by OpenAI, PayPal, Ramp, Supreme, and millions of developers worldwide.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 8+ years of experience in data engineering, data architecture, or related roles, with at least 5 years at the Principal Engineer level
- Proven track record designing and operating large-scale data infrastructures at high scale in complex, fast-paced environments
- Experience across Kafka and its ecosystem (Kafka Streams, Confluent Platform), ClickHouse, Tinybird, Snowflake, and broader big data frameworks
- Proficiency in cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and associated big data services
- Strong background in data governance and security; adept at ensuring compliance with regulatory standards
- Outstanding communication and collaboration skills; ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Leadership mindset with demonstrated ability to mentor teams, drive consensus, and advocate for best practices
- Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field preferred
- Industry recognition or notable contributions in data engineering (published works, open-source contributions) is a plus
