Principal Engineer

Cloudflare; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Cloudflare is seeking an experienced hands-on engineer to lead small teams focused on edge CDN proxy services, speed improvements, and caching systems. You will build products and operate services to help Cloudflare remain the fastest place to serve content.

The role requires leadership across multiple projects, deep knowledge of HTTP and transport protocols, and clear communication with other teams and customers. This position is based in Austin, Texas.

Qualifications

• Hands-on engineer with 5+ years of experience.
• Experience operating high-performance, large-scale software systems.
• Experience leading engineering teams.
• Ability to manage multiple concurrent projects.
• Deep knowledge of HTTP and transport protocols.
• Strong cross-team communication.
• Customer-focused engineering mindset.

Skills

Hands-on engineering

Large-scale systems

Team leadership

Multitasking

HTTP protocols

Cross-team communication

Customer focus

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.

Available Locations

• Austin, US

Role Summary

Work on our edge CDN proxy services and products focussing on our customer speed improvement products, our caching systems and our connectivity to customer origins. Work hands on and in a leadership role for small groups of engineers, building products and operating services to make Cloudflare the fastest place in the world to serve content from.

Role Requirements (Must-Have Skills)

Must-Have Skills

• At least 5 years experience as a hands-on engineer
• Experience of operating high performance and large scale software systems
• Experience leading teams of engineers to deliver projects
• Experience of working on multiple concurrent projects with competing priorities
• Detailed knowledge of HTTP and transport protocols
• Working with other teams, maintaining clear lines of communication across and upwards in an organisation
• Customer focussed experience - building what customers need

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.

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.