Head of Professional Services
AI in this role
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:
We are looking for a Global Head of Professional Services to build and lead Vercel's professional services organization, composed of our Technical Account Management (TAM) and Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) functions. These functions embed directly with our most strategic customers to design, build, and ship production applications on Vercel using Vercel's core platform, Next.js and our agent stack, taking projects from first prototype through production rollout. You will define how this function operates: the engagement model, the delivery methodology, the commercial structure, and the team itself.
You will report directly to our Global Head of Field Engineering, and partner closely with GTM and Product Leadership to run a business function that turns our largest customers' complex implementations into production deployments, drives adoption and expansion, and feeds what you learn in the field back into our product roadmap.
This is a hybrid position based in San Francisco, Austin or New York, with 3 days per week required in office.
What You Will Do:
- Build, lead, and develop the global Professional Services team, including hiring standards, training, career development, and compensation.
- Define the engagement model: how engagements are scoped, staffed, sequenced, and measured, and which accounts qualify for embedded support.
- Own delivery excellence for strategic customer engagements, from discovery and technical scoping through production deployment and stabilization.
- Establish the commercial model for professional services, including packaging, pricing, capacity planning, and resource allocation across competing customer priorities.
- Stay hands-on where it matters: architecture reviews, system design, and unblocking critical engagements alongside your team.
- Define clear handoff protocols between Forward Deployed Engineering, Technical Account Managers, Solutions Architects and partners.
- Codify field learnings into repeatable playbooks, reference architectures, and delivery patterns that scale beyond individual engagements.
- Synthesize customer insights into product feedback for Engineering and Product, and report delivery outcomes and customer impact to Field Engineering and executive leadership.
About You:
- 10+ years in software engineering, forward deployed engineering, or technical consulting roles, with at least 5 years leading customer-facing engineering or delivery teams in a high-growth environment.
- Experience building a team, function, or service line from zero, including hiring, methodology, and operating model.
- Strong background in modern web technologies (JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Next.js, Node.js, cloud infrastructure) with the ability to review code and whiteboard architectures credibly.
- Experience building or deploying LLM-powered applications and an understanding of how model behavior shapes product decisions.
- Commercial acumen: you have scoped, priced, and delivered technical engagements for enterprise customers and understand utilization, margin, and capacity tradeoffs.
- Demonstrated success embedding with customer engineering teams to deliver complex production systems.
Bonus If You:
- Have built with Vercel, Next.js, AI SDK, or v0.
- Have led forward deployed or embedded engineering teams at an AI-native or developer platform company.
- Have owned a professional services P&L or defined services pricing and packaging from scratch.
- Are comfortable representing the function externally at conferences, customer executive briefings, or large-scale events.
Benefits & Compensation:
- Competitive compensation package, including equity.
- Inclusive Healthcare Package.
- Learn and Grow - we provide mentorship and send you to events that help you build your network and skills.
- Flexible Time Off.
- We will provide you the gear you need to do your role, and a WFH budget for you to outfit your space as needed.
The San Francisco, CA base pay range for this role is $300,000 - $370,000 plus annual bonus. 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.
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.
How we rate this
Head of Professional Services at Vercel rates 72 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Open the description and count.
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