Software Engineer, AI Gateway at Vercel

This role is ideal for a senior-leaning backend or full-stack engineer with at least 5 years of experience who thrives at the intersection of developer experien

Work type: remote

Location: Hybrid - San Francisco, New York City

Salary: $196,000 – $294,000/yr

Type: Full-time

Summary

This role is ideal for a senior-leaning backend or full-stack engineer with at least 5 years of experience who thrives at the intersection of developer experience (DX) and AI infrastructure. You should have a background in building high-throughput distributed systems and a deep proficiency in TypeScript. Since this team manages the "plumbing" of the AI-native web, experience with API design, rate limiting, and failover strategies is essential. The compensation is highly competitive, starting at **$196,000**, and includes equity in a high-growth industry leader. You will be working on a core product that bridges the gap between major AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) and developers. This is a high-impact "hybrid" role based in NYC or SF, perfect for those who value shipping open-source code and shaping the future of AI SDKs. **You might be a good fit if you:** * Have a track record of contributing to open-source projects or high-scale developer tools. * Are comfortable building low-latency systems that must remain reliable under high request volumes. * Want to work directly on the infrastructure that powers AI-native applications. * Prefer a "just ship things" culture over heavy corporate bureaucracy.

Job Description

## About Vercel:

Vercel gives developers the tools and cloud infrastructure to build, scale, and secure a faster, more personalized web. As the team behind v0, Next.js, and AI SDK, Vercel helps customers like Ramp, Supreme, PayPal, and Under Armour build for the AI-native web.

Our mission is to enable the world to ship the best products. That starts with creating a place where everyone can do their best work. Whether you're building on our platform, supporting our customers, or shaping our story: You can just ship things.

About the Role:
As a member of the AI Gateway Team, you will be responsible for developing and enhancing our AI Gateway platform, which provides a unified API for accessing hundreds of AI models from multiple providers. You will collaborate with a remote and distributed team of engineers to build reliable, low-latency systems that handle rate limiting, intelligent failovers, and seamless integrations, enabling developers to ship AI-powered applications without managing provider-specific complexities. This role focuses on ensuring production-ready reliability for AI workloads, including automatic fallbacks during outages and consistent performance across providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and more.

What You Will Do:

Contribute to the design, implementation, and maintenance of the AI Gateway platform, emphasizing features like unified API endpoints, rate limit management, and intelligent failover mechanisms to boost uptime and reliability.

Write clean, efficient, and well-documented code, conducting thorough testing to ensure low-latency responses and stability for high-volume AI inference requests.

Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including product managers, AI researchers, and infrastructure engineers, to integrate new AI providers and models while addressing scalability and performance challenges.

Engage with the open-source community, contribute to AI SDK and related projects, and align with Vercel's ethos of fostering developer tools.

Gather user feedback and analytics to drive innovations in AI Gateway, such as enhanced billing unification, provider-agnostic authentication, and analytics for usage insights.

About You:

You have at least 5+ years of relevant experience

Strong proficiency in JavaScript/TypeScript and experience with backend development, APIs, and cloud infrastructure

Experience with AI/ML integrations, API gateways, distributed systems, or handling high-throughput services (e.g., rate limiting, caching, failovers)

Experience contributing to or participating in open source projects

Excellent communication skills and the ability to work effectively in a collaborative team environment

Benefits:

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 San Francisco, CA base pay range for this role is $196,000-$294,000. 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.

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