Software Engineer, Connect

Title: Software Engineer, Connect Location: Hybrid - San Francisco

About the Role

Vercel Connect helps developers give agents and AI-built apps secure access to the data, tools, and events they need—without wrestling with OAuth, credentials, and integration complexity. We’re currently building two things: 1) a platform for managing agent identity, access and permissions and 2) a set of rich connectors for the 1000s of systems (like Linear, Slack, GitHub, Google, etc.) that agents will need to talk to.

We’re solving core problems like agent identity and delegated access, tool approval and standards around making agents aware of changes on 3rd party platforms.

As a senior engineer on this team you'll not only own our APIs, token infrastructure, authorization, SDKs, and more, but work with external companies to make it easier for developers to build agents that integrate with their products. You’ll need to balance both high uptime and fast performance with flexibility to allow for seamless connection to many systems that weren’t designed with agents in mind. If you’re looking for a role that will put you at the center of how agent identity and credentials work, this is it!

What You Will Do

• Ship provider integrations end to end — auth flows, token exchange, app registration, and the configuration UI — from generic API-key and OAuth presets through bespoke cases like Snowflake Partner Connect, Slack manager apps, and Microsoft Entra.
• Own and improve our infrastructure (uptime, performance, secure storage of credentials and keys) and developer experience for Connect
• Work with industry leaders within and outside of Vercel to propose and implement new authentication and authorization protocols for AI era
• Build and harden event forwarding — signature verification inbound, project-scoped identity outbound, delivered to the right deployment and environment.
• Make Connect the obvious way to give an agent a credential, extending the SDKs , consent-redirect flow, and framework adapters.
• Reduce the cost of the next hundred integrations, so most new providers become configuration rather than code.
• Work directly with the teams building on Connect, and turn what you learn into platform improvements.

About You

• 6+ years building and operating production backend or full-stack systems, with a track record of owning a service or platform surface rather than a feature.
• You deeply understand your users problems and work in a focused manner to address them, leveling up the product you’re working on over time.
• Deep, practical understanding of OAuth 2.0/2.1, OIDC, and JWTs — not just wiring up a client library, but reasoning about authorization codes, PKCE, refresh semantics, audience and scope restriction, token exchange, and what each of those actually protects against.
• A security instinct for integration code specifically — SSRF and DNS rebinding, confused-deputy and mix-up attacks, redirect-URI validation, webhook signature verification, tenant isolation. You've either found these bugs or fixed them.
• Strong TypeScript, and comfort developing backend and frontend components.
• Experience integrating with many third-party APIs, an appetite for the reality of it — undocumented behavior, non-compliant OAuth, inconsistent errors — and the judgment to absorb that mess behind a clean abstraction.
• You're comfortable with ambiguity, ship incrementally against a large surface, and communicate clearly with the teams building on top of you.
• You push the envelope of leveraging agents and AI in ur dev workflow, giving you the insight to help build the agent platform of the future

Bonus Points

• You've built or operated an OAuth authorization server, an identity provider, or a 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 the auth, Next.js, or agent tooling ecosystems.

Compensation & 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.