---
title: 'Startups Program Lead at Vercel'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/startups-program-lead-vercel-san-francisco-ketxnv9xf5dn'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-17'
---

# Startups Program Lead at Vercel

- **Company:** Vercel
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA / New York, NY
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-04-16
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-17
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/vercel/jobs/5971203004

## Job description

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:

Vercel is seeking a Startup Program Lead to build, lead, and scale our global startup program and startup program team. This individual will own the startup program end to end, leading strategy, execution, and team operations. They will be responsible for how the program operates, scales, and delivers a high-quality experience for early stage founders. They will also play a critical role in supporting our efforts to build strong partnerships with venture capital firms, accelerators, incubators, and startup enablement programs. You’ll work closely with our Startup marketing, sales, partner, and events teams to grow Vercel’s footprint across early-stage technology communities and identify strategic opportunities to support startup founders.

This role is ideal for someone who is deeply connected to the startup and VC community, has a strong understanding of developer-first products, and a track record of building and scaling programs.

What You’ll Do:

- Own and lead Vercel’s global startup program strategy, roadmap, and execution end to end, focused on early stage startups from pre-seed through Series A.
- Build, manage, and mentor a high-performing startup program team.
- Design and scale programs that drive adoption, activation, and ongoing engagement of startups building on Vercel, like the [Vercel AI Accelerator](http://vercel.com/ai-accelerator).
- Develop and grow relationships with venture capital firms, accelerators, incubators, and founder communities to bring high-quality startups into Vercel’s ecosystem as customers from day one.
- Partner closely with Sales to identify high-potential startups within the program and support their progression into long term, successful customers.
- Establish clear pathways from early stage adoption to deeper product usage, expansion, and retention, and track performance across the startup lifecycle.
- Work cross-functionally with Marketing, Vercel Media, Partnerships, and Developer Relations to integrate the startup program into campaigns, content, and ecosystem distribution.
- Identify opportunities to embed Vercel into the early stage ecosystem, including VC platforms, accelerator programs, and founder experiences.
- Serve as a visible leader and ambassador for Vercel in the startup ecosystem by hosting events, advising founders, and building long term relationships.
- Bring insights from early stage founders and developers back into Vercel’s marketing, product, and go to market strategies.

About You:

- 6+ years of experience in programs, partnerships, or ecosystem roles, ideally within a high-growth technology or developer-focused company.
- Experience building and scaling programs from 0 to 1, with clear impact on marketing, growth, or revenue.
- Proven experience managing or leading teams.
- Strong track record of building strategic relationships with VCs, accelerators, and early stage companies.
- Deep understanding of the startup ecosystem and the needs of founders and developer teams.
- Ability to engage credibly with technical audiences across Engineering, Product, and Design, with familiarity in modern frontend technologies such as React, Next.js, Vite, Astro, and Remix.
- Strong cross-functional operator who can partner effectively with Marketing, Media, Sales, Product, and Engineering.
- Data-driven mindset with experience defining success metrics and optimizing programs based on performance.
- Excellent communication, storytelling, and relationship-building skills.

Bonus if you:

- Contribute to open-source projects related to modern frontend technologies (eg. React, Next, Vite, Astro, Remix, etc.)
- Have existing relationships with top-tier VCs, accelerators (e.g., Y Combinator, Techstars), or founder communities.
- Have built applications at scale with modern frontend technologies.

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 $148,000 - $185,000. 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.

Disclosures:

- Privacy: Please review our [Job Applicant Privacy Policy](https://vercel.com/legal/job-applicant-privacy-notice) 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.

## About Vercel

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Vercel provides cloud infrastructure, developer tools, and frameworks (including Next.js) for building and deploying websites and applications.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series F, September 2025)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2015 (as ZEIT; rebranded to Vercel in April 2020)
- **Founders**: Guillermo Rauch

## Core Business
- **Primary industries**: Edge computing, web hosting, content delivery network, developer tools
- **Target customers**: B2B – developers, engineering teams, enterprises, and startups building modern web applications
- **Mission / Purpose**: “Agentic infrastructure for every app and agent” — enabling humans and AI to build software together (from [vercel.com/about](https://vercel.com/about))

## Products & Services
- **Next.js**: Open-source React framework for building full-stack web applications (created and maintained by Vercel).
- **Vercel Edge Network**: Global edge infrastructure for serverless compute, static hosting, and dynamic rendering.
- **v0 (AI web development tool)**: Generates front-end code from natural language prompts; winner of a 2025 Webby Award.
- **AI SDK**: Open-source library for building conversational streaming interfaces in JavaScript/TypeScript.
- **Turborepo**: Monorepo build system (acquired in Dec 2021).
- **Fluid (infrastructure model)**: Allows instances to handle multiple concurrent requests like traditional servers while retaining serverless elasticity (introduced 2025).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: $9.3 billion (Series F, September 2025)
- **Total Funding**: ~$652 million (Series C $102M in June 2021, $250M in May 2024 at $3.25B valuation, $300M Series F in Sep 2025)
- **Key Metric**: ~900 employees (as of 2026), growing from ~550 in 2025
- **Notable Investors & Partners**: Accel, GIC (co-led Series F); angel investors include Nat Friedman (former GitHub CEO), Jordan Walke (React creator), Naval Ravikant, and others (from [vercel.com/about](https://vercel.com/about))
- **Growth Signals**: Rapid valuation growth ($3.25B to $9.3B in ~16 months); acquisitions of NuxtLabs (Jul 2025), Tremor (Jan 2025), Splitbee (Oct 2022); appointment of Mitchell Hashimoto (HashiCorp co-founder) to board in Mar 2026.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Next.js ecosystem dominance**: Extensive adoption; Vercel controls the most popular React framework, creating a strong lock-in for deployment.
- **Composable architecture**: MACH Alliance member; supports Git-based workflows, serverless, and edge functions.
- **AI-native product suite**: v0 and AI SDK provide unique capabilities for developer productivity and conversational UI.
- **Fast innovation cycle**: Ship-fast culture backed by high funding and strong engineering talent.

## Strategic Focus
- **Agentic infrastructure**: Building the platform where both humans and AI agents build, deploy, and scale software.
- **AI integration**: Deepening capabilities of v0, AI SDK, and AI Gateway; automated infrastructure improvements.
- **Enterprise adoption**: Appointing board members with enterprise experience; expanding sales and partner roles.
- **Fluid model**: Evolving serverless to handle stateful, long-running workloads.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Engineer-driven, ship-fast ethos; 75% of Glassdoor reviewers recommend to a friend; overall rating 4.1/5.0 as of 2026 ([jobsbyculture.com](https://jobsbyculture.com/blog/working-at-vercel-2026))
- **Work model**: Remote-first (U.S. roles also in San Francisco, New York City, Austin); distributed across 54% U.S., 8% U.K., 5% Germany, etc. ([LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/vercel))
- **Compensation**: Typical engineering range $180k–$320k (senior roles); benefits and equity are competitive (from [jobsbyculture.com](https://jobsbyculture.com/blog/working-at-vercel-2026))
- **Engineering quality**: High bar for talent; known alumni go to top AI/cloud companies; strong open-source contributions (Next.js, Turborepo, AI SDK)
- **Recent departures do not diminish growth**: Despite some leadership changes (e.g., Head of Mobile left Mar 2026, Director of Commercial Sales left Apr 2026), the company continues to hire heavily (94 active postings as of mid-2026, +2.2% YoY) ([LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/vercel))

## Sources
1. [wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vercel)
2. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/vercel)
3. [vercel.com/about](https://vercel.com/about)
4. [vercel.com/careers](https://vercel.com/careers)
5. [jobsbyculture.com](https://jobsbyculture.com/blog/working-at-vercel-2026)

## Other roles at Vercel

- [GTM Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/gtm-engineer-vercel-san-francisco-k0nh6r8e3jcd) — San Francisco, CA / New York, NY / Austin, TX
- [Senior Deal Desk Analyst, EMEA](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-deal-desk-analyst-emea-vercel-london-m1w7m985t6nz) — London, United Kingdom
- [Senior Accountant](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-accountant-vercel-san-francisco-46df7tc6t12h) — San Francisco, CA
- [People Systems Manager, Workday](https://feeny.ai/job/people-systems-manager-workday-vercel-san-francisco-xzx7gs1t6cx9) — San Francisco, CA
- [Machine Learning Engineer, Trust & Safety](https://feeny.ai/job/machine-learning-engineer-trust-safety-vercel-san-francisco-tpx2ffnyq99r) — San Francisco, CA / New York, NY
- [IT Systems Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/it-systems-engineer-vercel-san-francisco-zt2wj81gmvjb) — San Francisco, CA / New York, NY / Austin, TX
- [Product Manager, Software Factory](https://feeny.ai/job/product-manager-software-factory-vercel-san-francisco-xfwjsgp1bg1r) — San Francisco, CA
- [Product Manager, Networking + CDN](https://feeny.ai/job/product-manager-networking-cdn-vercel-san-francisco-xz0a1e4mmrre) — San Francisco, CA
- [Product Manager, Compute](https://feeny.ai/job/product-manager-compute-vercel-san-francisco-jgbabbcy5gfs) — San Francisco, CA
- [Product Manager, Dashboard](https://feeny.ai/job/product-manager-dashboard-vercel-united-states-6x5w0tsqf1q0) — United States