Manager of the Technical Staff - Next.js

The Next.js team builds the open source framework that powers millions of applications and shapes how developers build for the web. Our work sits at the intersection of React, framework architecture, developer experience, infrastructure, performance, and production reliability.

We are looking for an Engineering Team Lead to help build and lead a team working on Next.js. This is a hands-on player/coach role for an experienced engineer who wants to remain close to the code while helping a small team do its best work.

You will be an engineer first and a manager second. 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 the engineers around you through clear direction, thoughtful feedback, and practical coaching.

This is not a traditional people management role. You will spend the majority of your time on technical leadership and engineering execution. You should be comfortable owning difficult parts of the codebase while creating enough context and clarity for others to move quickly.

You will work closely with Product, Design, and engineers across Vercel to guide the evolution of Next.js across rendering, caching, routing, build systems, and developer tooling.

• Build and ship Next.js: Write production code, review pull requests, debug difficult issues, and contribute directly to the framework and its supporting systems.
• Lead major technical initiatives: Take ownership of complex projects from initial exploration through architecture, implementation, rollout, and production follow-through.
• Set technical direction: Make sound architectural decisions across rendering, caching, routing, build systems, runtime behavior, and developer tooling.
• Stay close to real problems: Investigate performance regressions, production failures, and developer pain points. Turn what you learn into practical improvements to the framework.
• Raise the engineering bar: Establish strong patterns for code quality, testing, performance, reliability, observability, and incremental delivery.
• Coach through the work: Help engineers grow through pairing, design reviews, code reviews, technical feedback, and shared ownership of challenging problems.
• Provide focused people leadership: Set clear expectations, give candid feedback, support career development, and help maintain a high-trust and accountable team.
• Improve team execution: Create lightweight planning and decision-making practices that clarify ownership, reduce unnecessary coordination, and help the team ship consistently.
• Partner across Vercel: Work with Product, Design, Infrastructure, Developer Experience, and other engineering teams so framework changes integrate cleanly across the Vercel platform.
• Champion open source: Work in public, engage thoughtfully with contributors, and balance community needs with the team’s product and technical priorities.
• Help grow the team: Participate in recruiting, assess technical talent, and help new engineers become productive in a complex codebase.