Senior Systems Engineer

About Us
At Cloudflare, we are on a mission to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world's largest networks that powers millions of websites and other Internet properties for customers ranging from individual bloggers to SMBs to Fortune 500 companies. Cloudflare protects and accelerates any Internet application online without adding hardware, installing software, or changing a line of code. Internet properties powered by Cloudflare all have web traffic routed through its intelligent global network, which gets smarter with every request. As a result, they see significant improvement in performance and a decrease in spam and other attacks. Cloudflare was named to Entrepreneur Magazine's Top Company Cultures list and ranked among the World's Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company.
At Cloudflare, we're not looking for people who wait for a polished roadmap; we're looking for the builders who see the cracks in the Internet that everyone else has simply learned to live with. We value candidates who have the instinct to spot a "normalized" problem and the AI-native curiosity to create a solution using the latest tools. Our culture is built on iteration, leveraging AI to ship faster today to make it better tomorrow, while ensuring that every improvement, no matter how small, is shared across the team to lift everyone up. If you're the type of person who values curiosity over bureaucracy, and that AI is a partner in solving tough problems to keep the Internet moving forward, you'll fit right in.
About the Role
We are looking for a Systems Engineer to help build and manage tools that help engineers deploy and operate the services that make Cloudflare work. Our mission is to provide a reliable and flexible platform to help product teams release new software efficiently and safely. The role includes both software engineering and operational responsibilities.
Responsibilities

• Design and build scalable and resilient systems that can keep up with company growth.
• Design and build developer productivity tooling.
• Harden the platform against security threats and resource contention issues.
• Improve our development systems and practices.
• Improve the efficiency of managing resources such as CPU, bandwidth and storage.
• Work with application teams to understand their potential challenges and help them choose the best way to architect their systems.
• Drive initiatives that make our engineers happier and more productive.
• Help respond and prevent incidents impacting core platforms.

Desirable Skills, Knowledge, and Experience

• Demonstrable professional experience building and managing large-scale distributed systems or Linux production environments.
• Proficiency in at least one systems programming or scripting language (e.g., Go, Rust, C/C++, Python) with a track record of writing clean, maintainable code.
• Experience managing containerized workloads at scale using Kubernetes, Docker, or similar orchestration platforms.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and automated testing strategies for infrastructure.
• Source control experience including branching, merging and rebasing.
• Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills, with a methodical approach to diagnosing complex system-level failures.

Bonus Points

• Experience with configuration management and infrastructure-as-code tools (e.g., Ansible, Terraform, SaltStack).
• Deep understanding of Linux/Unix operating system internals (e.g., storage subsystems, memory management) and core networking protocols (TCP/IP, DNS).
• Contributions to open-source systems software projects or active participation in the broader systems engineering community.

What Makes Cloudflare Special?
We're not just a highly ambitious, large-scale technology company. We're a highly ambitious, large-scale technology company with a soul. Fundamental to our mission to help build a better Internet is protecting the free and open Internet.
Project Galileo: Since 2014, we've equipped more than 2,400 journalism and civil society organizations in 111 countries with powerful tools to defend themselves against attacks that would otherwise censor their work, technology already used by Cloudflare's enterprise customers--at no cost.
Athenian Project: In 2017, we created the Athenian Project to ensure that state and local governments have the highest level of protection and reliability for free, so that their constituents have access to election information and voter registration. Since the project, we've provided services to more than 425 local government election websites in 33 states.
1.1.1.1: We released 1.1.1.1 to help fix the foundation of the Internet by building a faster, more secure and privacy-centric public DNS resolver. This is available publicly for everyone to use - it is the first consumer-focused service Cloudflare has ever released. Here's the deal - we don't store client IP addresses never, ever. We will continue to abide by our privacy commitment and ensure that no user data is sold to advertisers or used to target consumers.
Sound like something you'd like to be a part of? We'd love to hear from you!
Please note that applicants who progress to the offer stage of the interview process may be asked to attend an in-person interview within one of the Cloudflare Offices or Cloudflare Hubs. More details about this will be available at that stage of the interview process.
This position may require access to information protected under U.S. export control laws, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations. Please note that any offer of employment may be conditioned on your authorization to receive software or technology controlled under these U.S. export laws without sponsorship for an export license.
Cloudflare is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people and place great value in both diversity and inclusiveness. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to their, or any other person's, perceived or actual race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, family care status, or any other basis protected by law. We are an AA/Veterans/Disabled Employer.
Cloudflare provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please tell us if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job. Examples of reasonable accommodations include, but are not limited to, changing the application process, providing documents in an alternate format, using a sign language interpreter, or using specialized equipment. If you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job, please contact us via e-mail at [email protected] or via mail at 101 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94107.