Engineering Manager, Cdn

Vercel Vercel · Enterprise · AMER · Engineering

Engineering Manager to lead the team responsible for Vercel's CDN, proxy, and edge caching systems, focusing on performance, reliability, and cost efficiency. The role involves operating critical systems, aligning the team to business goals, and people leadership.

What you'd actually do

  1. Lead the team responsible for Vercel’s CDN, proxy, and edge caching systems—the core infrastructure that powers performance, reliability, and cost efficiency for every customer request at Vercel.
  2. Operate critical systems exceptionally (latency, reliability, COGS), and align the team to product and business goals, translating strategy into a clear roadmap
  3. Set direction, grow people, and create the conditions for high trust, high autonomy, and high output—balancing technical depth with strong people leadership.
  4. Code when it’s the highest leverage (e.g., prototypes/unblocking), but your default is delegation, coaching, and alignment.

Skills

Required

  • building and operating large-scale distributed systems
  • managing engineers
  • leading CDN/proxy/caching/edge or similar high-throughput, low-latency infrastructure
  • translate business goals into technical strategy
  • drive cross-org alignment
  • establishing trust
  • psychological safety
  • clear expectations
  • timely, candid feedback
  • technical conflict facilitation
  • HTTP
  • TLS
  • caching strategies
  • load shedding
  • capacity planning
  • observability
  • cost optimization

Nice to have

  • Go
  • Lua
  • Node at the edge
  • running high-signal hiring pipelines
  • Collaborating with product/PMM on customer-facing narratives

What the JD emphasized

  • 8+ years building and operating large-scale distributed systems
  • 3+ years managing engineers
  • Demonstrated success leading CDN/proxy/caching/edge or similar high-throughput, low-latency infrastructure
  • Proven ability to translate business goals into technical strategy and drive cross-org alignment
  • Track record establishing trust, psychological safety, and clear expectations; skilled at timely, candid feedback
  • Strong facilitator in technical conflict—you listen, synthesize, decide, and bring the team with you
  • Competence across HTTP, TLS, caching strategies, load shedding, capacity planning, observability, and cost optimization