Global Senior Director, R&D HR Partnering

WebHosting; Austin (TX); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity plan

Benefits package

Job summary

Cloudflare is seeking a Senior Director, R&D HR Business Partnering to lead a global team of HRBPs supporting Engineering, Product, Security, and Research. You will bridge business leadership with Centers of Excellence and champion AI-native talent architectures while safeguarding human judgment, empathy, and leadership trust.

Partner with Heads of R&D and VPs to align talent strategy with roadmaps, shape agile operating models, and drive retention for critical technical roles across

Qualifications

• Partner directly with the Head of R&D and VPs to align talent strategy with product roadmaps and goals.
• Architect agile, high-velocity R&D structures for AI-native workflows.
• Lead succession planning and retention strategies for specialized technical talent.

Responsibilities

• Partner with senior R&D leadership to align talent strategy with Cloudflare's roadmap and platform goals.
• Conductor across People Team COEs to deliver high-impact talent programs.
• Lead a global team of HRBPs delivering strategic partnership with senior technical leaders.

Job description

Senior Director, R&D HR Business Partnering

Cloudflare ·United States, Austin, TX

Hybrid Full-time Senior People

Job Description

Available Locations:

• Austin, TX (Relocation Assistance provided to those willing to relocate)

About the Role

Cloudflare is scaling its global connectivity and security platform while transforming into an AI-native organization powered by our own AI harness and developer infrastructure. As Senior Director, R&D HR Business Partnering, you will lead a global team of embedded HRBPs supporting senior executives across Engineering, Product, Security, and Research.

In this role, you serve as the strategic HR leader for R&D and the primary conductor bridging business leadership with our Centers of Excellence (Total Rewards, Talent Acquisition, Talent Development, People Operations). You will challenge and champion the business-architecting an organization built for AI-augmented velocity while protecting and evaluating the essential human elements of work: character, critical judgment, empathy, and leadership trust.

Key Focus Areas & Responsibilities

Business Acumen & COE Conduction

• Partner directly with the Head of R&D and technical VPs to align talent strategy with Cloudflare’s product roadmap, platform architecture, and operational goals.
• Act as the chief conductor across People Team COEs-synthesizing R&D’s operational realities to push COEs for tailored, high-impact talent programs while challenging R&D leaders to elevate their organizational standards.
• Apply analytical rigor to people metrics, diagnosing organizational health, attrition trends, and productivity indicators to guide business decisions proactively.

Organizational Design & AI Integration

• Architect agile, high-velocity R&D structures designed for AI-native workflows, optimizing team size, spans of control, and cross-functional interfaces across platform and product teams.
• Partner with engineering leadership to rethink operating rhythms and team structures as development shifts from traditional models to AI-assisted, agent-driven engineering.
• Evolve technical career frameworks, leveling, and role definitions to reflect the higher leverage expected in AI-native engineering environments.
• Drive succession planning, critical-role mapping, and retention strategies for specialized technical talent across Cloudflare’s global hubs.
• Establish clear boundaries between work optimized by AI and decisions requiring human judgment, ethical clarity, nuance, and character.

Driving Change & Strategic Initiatives

• Drive complex, continuous change initiatives across global R&D teams, equipping leaders to navigate structural evolution, technological pivots, and shifting priorities with clarity.
• Deliver custom, service-oriented solutions tailored to business needs, providing high-trust coaching to senior technical leaders as they navigate complex team dynamics with empathy and results.
• Team Leadership
  Lead a global team of HRBPs, setting a high standard for strategic partnership, business fluency, and execution speed.

Compensation

Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location.

Equity

This role is eligible to participate in Cloudflare’s equity plan.

Cloudflare offers a complete package of benefits and programs to support you and your family. Our benefits programs can help you pay health care expenses, support caregiving, build capital for the future and make life a little easier and fun! The below is a description of our benefits for employees in the United States, and benefits may vary for employees based outside the U.S.

Health & Welfare Benefits

Time Off

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