Software Engineer, Scheduled Tasks

Vercel
San Francisco, CA
HybridCareer-pivot friendly

Who this role is best for

Best suited to candidates with distributed systems expertise working in developer platform infrastructure.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with 5+ years of experience in distributed systems and a background in developer platforms or cloud infrastructure
    — “You have 5+ years of experience building and operating distributed systems, developer platforms, or cloud infrastructure.”
  • Individuals who can bridge the gap between complex distributed systems and intuitive developer tools
    — “we are building and scaling the products that make it straightforward for developers to coordinate background work”
  • Candidates who have contributed to open-source infrastructure or developer tools and understand their impact on developer experience
    — “Experience with TypeScript/JavaScript and open-source infrastructure or developer tools is a plus.”

Things to consider

  • Candidates should be prepared to work closely with product and infrastructure teams
    — “Partner with product, developer experience, and infrastructure teams to turn customer needs into clear, useful developer primitives.”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience with job queues, workflow orchestration, and durable execution in your resume and interviews
    — “You have experience with one or more of: job queues, schedulers, workflow orchestration, event-driven systems, state machines, stream processing, or durable execution.”
  • Demonstrate your ability to translate technical trade-offs into usable platform features
    — “You understand the tradeoffs behind delivery guarantees, retries, idempotency, concurrency, and fault tolerance—and can turn those tradeoffs into usable product primitives.”
  • Showcase your skills in building APIs, SDKs, and tooling for scalable applications
    — “Build APIs, SDKs, and tooling that make it easy to define, run, and manage durable work at scale.”
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • Design, build, and operate platform capabilities across Workflows, Queues, and Cron
  • Build APIs, SDKs, and tooling that make it easy to define, run, and manage durable work at scale
Typical background
5+ years of experience building and operating distributed systemsExperience with TypeScript/JavaScript

Skills & requirements

Required

5+ Years Of Experience Building And Operating Distributed SystemsExperience With Typescript/javascriptComfortable Working Across Apis, Runtimes, Storage, Networking, And Production OperationsExperience With Job Queues, Schedulers, Workflow Orchestration, Event-driven Systems, State Machines, Stream Processing, Or Durable Execution

Preferred

Understanding The Tradeoffs Behind Delivery Guarantees, Retries, Idempotency, Concurrency, And Fault Tolerance

Stack & domain

Software EngineerScheduled TasksWorkflowsQueuesCronDistributed SystemsApisSdksTypescript/javascriptCloud InfrastructureOpen-source InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsLeadershipCommunicationProblem-solvingTeamworkAdaptabilityTechnical CommunicationCloud ComputingDeveloper ExperienceOpen-source

About the role

Original posting from Vercel via Greenhouse

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:

The Scheduled Tasks team builds the platform primitives that let applications and agents run work now, later, or for a long time. We own Vercel Workflows, Queues, and Cron: the systems developers use to build long-running, event-driven, and scheduled applications.

You will join a team working at the intersection of developer experience and distributed systems. Together, we are building and scaling the products that make it straightforward for developers to coordinate background work, move messages between services, and schedule work with confidence. You will collaborate closely with engineers across Vercel to make these powerful capabilities feel simple, composable, and native to the platform.

What You Will Do:

Design, build, and operate platform capabilities across Workflows, Queues, and Cron.

Help developers build applications and agents that coordinate background, event-driven, and scheduled work.

Build APIs, SDKs, and tooling that make it easy to define, run, and manage durable work at scale.

Work on the distributed-systems foundations behind scheduling, message delivery, execution, retries, and state.

Partner with product, developer experience, and infrastructure teams to turn customer needs into clear, useful developer primitives.

Raise the engineering bar through thoughtful design reviews, well-tested code, production ownership, and clear technical communication.

Engage with developers and the open-source community to understand where background jobs, queues, and scheduling create friction—and use that feedback to improve the platform.

About You:

You have 5+ years of experience building and operating distributed systems, developer platforms, or cloud infrastructure.

Experience with TypeScript/JavaScript and open-source infrastructure or developer tools is a plus.

You are comfortable working across APIs, runtimes, storage, networking, and production operations.

You have experience with one or more of: job queues, schedulers, workflow orchestration, event-driven systems, state machines, stream processing, or durable execution.

You understand the tradeoffs behind delivery guarantees, retries, idempotency, concurrency, and fault tolerance—and can turn those tradeoffs into usable product primitives.

You write high-quality, well-tested code and enjoy solving complex technical problems.

You communicate clearly, collaborate well across teams, and help a growing team converge on strong technical decisions.

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 base pay range for this role is $196,000.00 - $312,000.00. 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.

Source: Vercel careers (Greenhouse)

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