Linux Engineer

Cloudflare, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Cloudflare, Inc. is seeking Linux engineers to keep its Linux platforms secure, up-to-date and optimized at scale. You will deploy kernel updates to Cloudflare data centers across 335 cities in over 100 countries, monitor performance, and design tools for teams to leverage new kernel features and improvements.

The role emphasizes Go, Rust, C, Bash and Python, with a focus on high-performance networking, security and reliability. A strong DevOps mindset and experience with containers is essential.

Qualifications

• Solid experience with Linux kernel development and deployment.
• Proficiency in Go, Rust, C, Bash and Python for tooling and scripting.
• Familiarity with containerization, CI/CD, and system programming concepts.

Responsibilities

• Keep Cloudflare Linux platforms secure and up-to-date.
• Deploy Linux kernels and OS updates to Cloudflare data centers globally.
• Monitor and fix kernel bugs and performance regressions.
• Design tools and frameworks for other teams to adopt kernel features.
• Port Cloudflare software to new hardware platforms and architectures.
• Research Linux kernel security and performance improvements.
• Build CI/CD pipelines for safe OS deployment.
• Gain experience with Linux kernel packaging and distribution.

Skills

Linux kernel

Go

Rust

C

Bash

Python

eBPF

Networking

Git

Tools

Docker

Grafana

Consul

Nomad

Salt

Chef

OpenTSDB

Job description

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.

An engineering role at Cloudflare provides an opportunity to address some big challenges, at scale. We believe that with our talented team, we can tackle some of the biggest security, reliability and performance problems facing the Internet.

We are searching for Linux engineers to make our flavour of Linux fast, resilient and reliable across the many use cases that a distribution saving the Internet requires.

Our Engineers come from a variety of technical backgrounds and work across a broad range of environments and codebases. Common qualities across all of our performance-focused engineers include a passion for analysis, optimization, scaling, networking, cross-team collaboration and hard problem solving.

What you would be doing

Keep Cloudflare Linux platforms secure and up-to-date

Help with quick and safe deployment and delivery of the Linux kernel and basic operating system to Cloudflare Datacenters in more than 335 cities in over 100 countries

Continuously monitor and resolve kernel bugs and performance regressions

Design tools and frameworks for other engineering teams to successfully embrace and enable the latest Linux kernel features and optimizations

Help porting the Cloudflare software stack to new hardware platforms and architectures

Research and adopt the latest Linux kernel security features and performance improvements

Build tools and CI/CD pipelines for safe and automated operating system continuous deployment

Experience with the Linux kernel and Linux software packaging

CS fundamentals and comfortable working in multiple programming languages and codebases; Comfortable working in Go, Rust, C, Bash, and Python.

Familiarity with constructing and using eBPF programs.

Understanding of Linux and POSIX operation systems concepts: processing, files, syscalls, and networking

Containerization technologies in Linux (e.g Docker, Namespaces, Cgroups)

Configuration management (e.g Saltstack, Chef) and CI/CD pipelines

Version control systems (git)

Examples of desirable skills, knowledge and experience

Performance analysis and debugging

Time series databases such as OpenTSDB, Graphite, Prometheus or Grafana

Network fundamentals DHCP, ARP, subnetting, routing, firewalls, IPv6, BGP

Experience in a DevOps team structure

Bonus Points

Experience with programming in C, Rust, Go, or similar languages

Experience with rapid release engineering

Upstream community contribution

Strong tooling and automation development experience

Some tools that we use

Consul

Docker

Grafana

Nomad

Salt

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.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in Cloudflare’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

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An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.