Software Engineer, CDN Content

About the role

You will architect and evolve the multi-tier caching strategies that power Vercel's global CDN performance at planet scale. The role owns the full lifecycle of high-impact serving path projects, from initial discovery through implementation, rollout, and long-term production ownership. You will deepen your expertise in distributed systems by working directly with the core infrastructure teams that built the CDN from the ground up. This position requires a proactive mindset for data-driven decisions, where your analysis of production metrics directly shapes product behavior. You will partner closely with framework teams like Next.js to ensure CDN behavior aligns with developer expectations. The work demands comfort with ambiguity as you own well-scoped projects that grow into larger system responsibilities over time. You will contribute to the reliability and performance that powers deployments for companies like OpenAI, PayPal, Ramp, and Supreme.

Key facts

What you'll do

Design and implement new features for ISR, PPR, and image optimization systems using Go, Lua, and TypeScript across the CDN serving path.

Execute independent projects from initial design through safe production rollout, leveraging feature flags, shadow modes, and progressive deployment strategies.

Build detailed observability for your services by creating dashboards, defining metrics, and configuring alerts to ensure system reliability.

Own the end-to-end serving path, including cache configuration, object storage behavior, and performance optimization across 20+ global regions.

Investigate production incidents during on-call rotations and contribute to follow-up processes that improve system resilience.

Collaborate with partner teams such as Next.js and CI/CD to align CDN behavior with framework requirements and developer workflows.

Expand testing surface areas by contributing to e2e test suites, logs views, and dashboards that maintain high standards for change management.

Evaluate and adopt new techniques for content optimization, partially prerendered shells, and incremental regeneration to improve end-user performance.

Balance performance and cost tradeoffs by analyzing real-world data and adjusting caching strategies accordingly.

Mentor junior engineers by sharing best practices in operated code, instrumentation, and production ownership.

Drive forward experiments that validate changes through production data before broad deployment.

Maintain a deep understanding of HTTP and web fundamentals, including caching headers, request lifecycles, and proxy behavior.

Requirements

2+ years of experience building and operating backend services in production with demonstrable impact.

Proficiency in at least one of Go, TypeScript/Node.js, or a comparable systems language, with demonstrated ability to work across a polyglot stack.

Solid understanding of HTTP and web fundamentals, including caching headers, request/response lifecycle, and the role of proxies.

Experience writing code that you are willing to operate in production, including tests, instrumentation, and documentation.

Curiosity about how large-scale systems function, with motivation to explore unfamiliar code and production data to solve problems.

Clear communication skills, with the ability to ask insightful questions and follow through on commitments reliably.

Ability to work hybrid in San Francisco with anchor days on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, or fully remote if located beyond the pre-determined commuting distance.

Capacity to thrive in an environment where responsibilities expand as you grow into larger ownership of the system.

Nice to have

Experience with CDN internals, caching systems, and content delivery infrastructure.

Familiarity with Lua scripting within CDN edge environments.

Contributions to open source projects related to performance, networking, or developer tools.

Background in building or operating large-scale web platforms with high traffic demands.

Practical notes

This role is based in San Francisco and requires alignment with in-office anchor days on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday for hybrid employees.

Candidates located beyond the defined commuting distance may qualify for fully remote arrangements after review.

Travel is not required for this position.

Visa sponsorship may be available for eligible candidates who meet role requirements.