Senior Systems Engineer, Cloudflare Data Platform

Cloudflare; United States; On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Cloudflare is seeking a Senior Engineer to work on innovative storage and database solutions. Your role will involve shaping the future of their industry-leading services, ensuring performance, data residency, and unique global network capabilities.

The ideal candidate will have minimum 6 years’ experience in distributed systems, with proficiency in languages such as Rust and TypeScript. This role provides a unique opportunity to interact deeply with various technologies and contribute key solutions throughout the software stack.

Qualifications

• Minimum 6 years of experience working with distributed systems.
• Experience building and managing high volume software applications.
• Solid understanding of computer science fundamentals.

Responsibilities

• Shape the future of industry-leading services in storage and database products.
• Own your code from inception to release, delivering solutions across the stack.
• Interact with various languages and technologies including JavaScript, TypeScript, Rust, and C++.

Skills

Distributed systems experience

High volume software applications

Computer science fundamentals

Modern strongly-typed programming language

Debugging large-scale systems

Tools

Rust

TypeScript

JavaScript

C++

Job description

Available Locations: Austin, US

About the Department

Emerging Technologies & Incubation (ETI) is where new and bold products are built and released within Cloudflare. Rather than being constrained by the structures which make Cloudflare a massively successful business, we are able to leverage them to deliver entirely new tools and products to our customers. Cloudflare’s edge and network make it possible to solve problems at massive scale and efficiency which would be impossible for almost any other organization.

About the project

Cloudflare Data Platform has been announced during Birthday Week 2025. We are looking to extend engineering teams working on R2 Data Catalog and R2 SQL:

• R2 Data Catalog manages the Iceberg metadata and now performs ongoing maintenance, including compaction, to improve query performance
• R2 SQL is our in‑house distributed SQL engine, designed to perform petabyte‑scale queries over your data in R2

What you’ll do

As a Senior Engineer focused on Cloudflare’s storage and database products, you will shape the future of industry‑leading services that redefine what is possible for developers. We don’t just copy what other cloud providers do; we work backward from developer needs, reimagining solutions by leveraging our unique global network. This network brings data closer to users for unparalleled performance, allows for granular control to meet data residency requirements, and provides a platform for truly innovative data products.

You will own your code from inception to release, delivering solutions at all layers of the software stack to empower Cloudflare customers. On any given day, you might be architecting a new globally distributed data consistency model, optimizing storage engine performance, or designing a novel API for a new data‑centric product. You can expect to interact with a variety of languages and technologies including, but not limited to JavaScript, Typescript, Rust, and C++.

Examples of desirable skills, knowledge and experience

• Minimum 6 years of experience working with distributed systems.
• Experience building and managing high volume software applications.
• Solid understanding of computer science fundamentals including data structures, algorithms, and object‑oriented or functional design.
• Knowledge of at least one modern strongly‑typed programming language: we primarily use Rust, TypeScript, and Go.
• Experience debugging, optimizing and identifying failure modes in a large‑scale distributed system.

Bonus Points

• Experience building and managing a large scale data storage platform.
• Experience working in low‑latency real time environments such as game streaming, game engine architecture, high frequency trading, payment systems
• Experience working in a non‑garbage collected language such as Rust or C++.
• Experience writing Javascript and Typescript. Deep Linux / UNIX systems knowledge.

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.

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.