Software Engineer, Connect

Vercel • San Francisco, CA

8d • $196,000 - $294,000

About The Position

Vercel Connect helps developers give agents and AI-built apps secure access to the data, tools, and events they need. The team is building a platform for managing agent identity, access, and permissions, along with connectors to the many systems agents need to use. The role focuses on agent identity and delegated access, tool approval, and standards for keeping agents aware of changes on third-party platforms.

As a senior engineer on the team, you will own APIs, token infrastructure, authorization, SDKs, and related platform components. You will also work with external companies to make it easier for developers to build agents that integrate with their products, balancing uptime and performance with flexibility across systems that were not designed for agents.

The position includes competitive compensation, equity, inclusive healthcare, mentorship and professional development opportunities, flexible time off, work equipment, and a work-from-home budget. The San Francisco base pay range is $196,000–$294,000; compensation may vary based on job-related skills, experience, and location.

Requirements

• At least 6 years of experience building and operating production backend or full-stack systems, with a record of owning a service or platform surface rather than only a feature.
• Deep understanding of users’ problems and a focused approach to addressing them and improving the product over time.
• Practical understanding of OAuth 2.0/2.1, OIDC, and JWTs, including authorization codes, PKCE, refresh semantics, audience and scope restriction, and token exchange.
• Security experience with integration code, including issues such as SSRF and DNS rebinding, confused-deputy and mix-up attacks, redirect-URI validation, webhook signature verification, and tenant isolation.
• Strong TypeScript skills and comfort developing backend and frontend components.
• Experience integrating with many third-party APIs, including handling undocumented behavior, non-compliant OAuth, and inconsistent errors behind clean abstractions.
• Comfort with ambiguity, incremental delivery across a large surface area, and clear communication with teams building on the platform.
• Uses agents and AI extensively in the development workflow and can apply that experience to building an agent platform.

Nice To Haves

• Experience building or operating an OAuth authorization server, identity provider, or multi-tenant integrations platform.
• Experience with MCP, agent tool-calling, or delegated-access and consent patterns.
• Prior work on integration marketplaces, partner engineering, or webhook infrastructure at scale.
• Open-source contributions, particularly in authentication, Next.js, or agent tooling ecosystems.

Responsibilities

• Ship provider integrations end to end, including authentication flows, token exchange, app registration, and configuration UI, from standard API-key and OAuth presets to bespoke integrations.
• Own and improve Connect infrastructure, including uptime, performance, and secure storage of credentials and keys, as well as the developer experience.
• Work with industry leaders inside and outside Vercel to propose and implement authentication and authorization protocols for the AI era.
• Build and harden event forwarding, including inbound signature verification and outbound project-scoped identity, with delivery to the correct deployment and environment.
• Extend SDKs, consent-redirect flows, and framework adapters to make Connect an obvious way to provide credentials to agents.
• Reduce the cost of adding integrations so that most new providers can be configured rather than implemented in code.
• Work directly with teams building on Connect and use their feedback to improve the platform.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation package, including equity.
• Inclusive healthcare package.
• Mentorship and opportunities to attend events that build professional networks and skills.
• Flexible time off.
• Work equipment needed for the role.
• Work-from-home budget to outfit the employee’s workspace.
• Potential eligibility for a company bonus or variable pay program, depending on the role.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed