diff --git a/lucene/CHANGES.txt b/lucene/CHANGES.txt
index 20c0e582f184..950615c0cc80 100644
--- a/lucene/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/lucene/CHANGES.txt
@@ -215,6 +215,8 @@ Bug Fixes
 
 * GITHUB#16303: Add suppressed exception details when lock acquisition fails in NativeFSLockFactory. (Bharathi-Kanna)
 
+* Make VectorScorer#bulk default method lazily position its iterator on first use. (Michael Marshall)
+
 Changes in Runtime Behavior
 ---------------------
 * GITHUB#14187: The query cache is now disabled by default. (Adrien Grand)
diff --git a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/VectorScorer.java b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/VectorScorer.java
index f6a2c1f6d6ba..1969427ddaf5 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/VectorScorer.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/java/org/apache/lucene/search/VectorScorer.java
@@ -50,8 +50,8 @@ public interface VectorScorer {
    * docs. The iterator of this instance of VectorScorer should be used and iterated in conjunction
    * with the provided matchingDocs iterator to score only the documents that are present in both
    * iterators. If the provided matchingDocs iterator is null, then all documents should be scored.
-   * Additionally, if the iterators are unpositioned (docID() == -1), this method should position
-   * them to the first document.
+   * Additionally, if the iterators are unpositioned (docID() == -1), the first call to {@link
+   * Bulk#nextDocsAndScores} should position them to the first document.
    *
    * @param matchingDocs Optional filter to iterate over the documents to score
    * @return a {@link Bulk} scorer
@@ -63,11 +63,11 @@ default Bulk bulk(DocIdSetIterator matchingDocs) throws IOException {
         matchingDocs == null
             ? iterator()
             : ConjunctionUtils.createConjunction(List.of(matchingDocs, iterator()), List.of());
-    if (iterator.docID() == -1) {
-      iterator.nextDoc();
-    }
     return (upTo, liveDocs, buffer) -> {
       assert upTo > 0;
+      if (iterator.docID() == -1) {
+        iterator.nextDoc();
+      }
       buffer.growNoCopy(DEFAULT_BULK_BATCH_SIZE);
       int size = 0;
       float maxScore = Float.NEGATIVE_INFINITY;
diff --git a/lucene/core/src/test/org/apache/lucene/search/TestVectorScorer.java b/lucene/core/src/test/org/apache/lucene/search/TestVectorScorer.java
index 5432879a1341..de728f4db4da 100644
--- a/lucene/core/src/test/org/apache/lucene/search/TestVectorScorer.java
+++ b/lucene/core/src/test/org/apache/lucene/search/TestVectorScorer.java
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@
 import org.apache.lucene.store.Directory;
 import org.apache.lucene.tests.index.RandomIndexWriter;
 import org.apache.lucene.tests.util.LuceneTestCase;
+import org.apache.lucene.util.BitSetIterator;
+import org.apache.lucene.util.FixedBitSet;
 
 public class TestVectorScorer extends LuceneTestCase {
 
@@ -64,6 +66,36 @@ public void testFindAll() throws IOException {
     }
   }
 
+  public void testBulkDoesNotEagerlyAdvanceIterator() throws IOException {
+    FixedBitSet bits = new FixedBitSet(10);
+    bits.set(2);
+    bits.set(5);
+    bits.set(7);
+    BitSetIterator sharedIterator = new BitSetIterator(bits, bits.cardinality());
+    VectorScorer scorer =
+        new VectorScorer() {
+          @Override
+          public float score() {
+            return 1f;
+          }
+
+          @Override
+          public DocIdSetIterator iterator() {
+            return sharedIterator;
+          }
+        };
+
+    assertEquals(-1, scorer.iterator().docID());
+    scorer.bulk(null); // constructing a Bulk must not have any observable side effect
+    assertEquals(-1, scorer.iterator().docID());
+
+    FixedBitSet matchBits = new FixedBitSet(10);
+    matchBits.set(2);
+    matchBits.set(7);
+    scorer.bulk(new BitSetIterator(matchBits, matchBits.cardinality()));
+    assertEquals(-1, scorer.iterator().docID());
+  }
+
   /** Creates a new directory and adds documents with the given vectors as kNN vector fields */
   private Directory getIndexStore(String field, VectorEncoding encoding, float[]... contents)
       throws IOException {