Systems Reliability Engineer – Core

WebHosting; Lisboa; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Cloudflare is hiring a Systems Engineer to architect, scale, and operate distributed infrastructure powering its global server fleets. The role focuses on automation, reliability, and high performance to support Cloudflare's platform at scale.

You will join one of the Core platform teams, building tools for deployment and operation of services, including Postgres, Kafka, and other key technologies. The position requires strong systems engineering skills and a passion for scalable infrastructure.

Qualifications

• Experience building and managing large-scale distributed systems or Linux production environments.
• Proficiency in at least one systems programming or scripting language (Go, Rust, C/C++, Python).
• Deep understanding of Linux/Unix internals and core networking protocols (TCP/IP, DNS).
• Experience with configuration management and infrastructure-as-code tools (Ansible, Terraform, SaltStack).

Responsibilities

• Architect, deploy, and maintain robust distributed systems with high availability and low latency.
• Analyse bottlenecks and fine-tune resource utilisation across global server fleets.
• Build and maintain internal tools and automation frameworks for deployment, configuration, and monitoring.
• Participate in architecture reviews, capacity planning, and proactive health monitoring.
• Collaborate with Security, Network Engineering, and Product teams to integrate infrastructure solutions.

Skills

Distributed systems

Go/Rust/Python

Linux internals

Networking

Tools

Postgres

Kafka

Job description

Cloudflare ·United States, Lisbon, Portugal / London, United Kingdom

Job Description

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.

Hiring Locations: Lisbon, Portugal, London, UK

About the Role

We are looking for a Systems Engineer to architect, scale, and operate the distributed infrastructure that powers our global server fleets. You will drive automation and reliability work that keeps our systems fast and resilient at scale.

Responsibilities

Cloudflare is a system spanning the globe, on a mission to make the internet better, safer, and more powerful everyday. With this goal in mind, our product teams are responsible for deployed thousands of deployments at an ever increasing rate.

As an engineer on one of our Core platform teams, you'll be building the tools to help engineers deploy and operate the services that make Cloudflare work. Our mission is to provide a reliable, yet flexible, platform to help product teams release new software efficiently and safely. You'll be building the private cloud that Cloudflare developers leverage to build Cloudflare itself. Core platforms we operate at Cloudflare include:

• Postgres, PgBouncer, and Stolon
• Kafka
• Zookeeper
• Ceph & Rook
• Developer tools, CI, and CD systems
• Vault
• Consul
• Etcd
• Temporal
• Artificial Intelligence & LLMs

You will

Architect, deploy, and maintain robust distributed systems, focusing on high availability, low latency, and horizontal scalability.

Optimise Performance: Analyse system bottlenecks, optimise kernel and network stacks, and fine-tune resource utilisation across global server fleets.

Drive Automation: Build and maintain internal tools and automation frameworks to streamline infrastructure deployment, configuration management, and monitoring.

Ensure Reliability: Participate in architecture reviews, capacity planning, and proactive system health monitoring to guarantee maximum uptime and resilience.

Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner closely with Security, Network Engineering, and Product teams to integrate infrastructure solutions smoothly across the entire stack.

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.

Deep understanding of Linux/Unix operating system internals (e.g., storage subsystems, memory management) and core networking protocols (TCP/IP, DNS, BGP).

Experience with configuration management and infrastructure-as-code tools (e.g., Ansible, Terraform, SaltStack).

Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills, with a methodical approach to diagnosing complex system-level failures.

Bonus Points

Experience managing containerised workloads at scale using Kubernetes, Docker, or similar orchestration platforms.

Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and automated testing strategies for infrastructure.

Contributions to open-source systems software projects or active participation in the broader systems engineering community.

Experience with any of our existing tooling, such as Kafka and Temporal

Good experience of harnessing AI to drive robust solutions

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.

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 [e-mail] or via mail at 101 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94107.