Software Engineer, Platform

About the role

We’re looking for a Software Engineer to join our Platform team. You will build the observability systems that give Vercel visibility into how we build, ship, and operate our systems. Core Platform owns Vercel’s reliability, resilience, and engineering velocity. We’re looking for engineers to create observability for everything from cost attribution to deployment velocity, alongside the logs, metrics, and traces necessary to optimize how Vercel builds its systems. This is a role with a wide breadth where we quickly develop critical systems and improve the entire Vercel code base. You will report to Eric Larson, Engineering Manager, Platform and will be located onsite, hybrid, or remote.

If you’re based within a pre-determined commuting distance of one of our offices (SF, NY, London, or Berlin), the role includes in-office anchor days on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, even if the role is listed as remote. For location-specific details, please connect with our recruiting team.

What you'll do

• Design and build high-scale, internal observability systems (metrics, logs, and traces) that give engineering and the business visibility into Vercel's own infrastructure.
• Build cost attribution and chargeback tooling so spend can be accurately mapped to the parts of the business driving it, reducing reliance on third-party tools like Datadog.
• Partner with Backend and Platform teams to instrument services for compliance, auditing, and record-keeping requirements.
• Evaluate, integrate, and help operate observability infrastructure across our existing vendors and the CNCF ecosystem.
• Ship pragmatic, high-leverage visibility quickly that drives improvement in how we build, deploy, and operate our systems.
• Work closely with Backend and Platform engineers to scale observability infrastructure to the throughput and cardinality of Vercel's full production traffic.

What you need

• Proficient in TypeScript, with backend/infrastructure experience.
• Hands-on experience with Go, Rust, or Zig in production systems.
• Experience with distributed computing systems at scale.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure, including object storage.
• Familiarity with observability tooling and concepts (Datadog, Grafana, New Relic, Splunk, or CNCF-based stacks such as Prometheus-compatible backends).

Bonus if you

• Have contributed to or worked closely with CNCF observability projects.
• Built, scaled, and improved internal developer platforms.

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 $208,000-$312,000. 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.