Software Engineer, Network Performance & Reliability

Cloudflare; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Cloudflare is seeking a Systems Engineer to join the Argo team in Austin, Texas. The role entails owning and enhancing connectivity technologies for Cloudflare's services, ensuring robust product performance by collaborating closely with engineering teams.

The ideal candidate should possess systems-level programming experience in languages like Go or Rust, strong debugging capabilities, and a solid understanding of networking protocols. The position emphasizes collaboration, curiosity, and a willingness to adopt innovative AI tools in engineering workflows.

Qualifications

• Experience in systems-level programming languages like Go, Rust, C, or C++.
• Solid grasp of networking protocols, particularly OSI Layers 3 and 4.
• Knowledge of HTTP and CDN architectures.
• Experience in implementing secure and reliable distributed systems.
• Strong issue debugging skills in complex systems.

Responsibilities

• Own and contribute to the engineering of Cloudflare's connectivity technology.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to translate requirements into platform capabilities.
• Participate in the software development lifecycle from design to production deployment.
• Utilize AI-powered tools for analysis and problem-solving.

Skills

Systems-level programming in Go, Rust, C, or C++

Understanding of networking protocols Layers 3 and 4

Knowledge of HTTP, TLS, CDN networks

Experience in secure distributed systems

Debugging complex systems

Collaboration and communication skills

Interest in HTTP networking and VPN technologies

Network performance monitoring and tuning

Adopting AI tools in workflows

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.

What You’ll Do

The Argo team was formed to own a very important aspect of Cloudflare's systems: enabling more reliable network connectivity for Cloudflare’s products than the Internet itself provides. Almost all products in Cloudflare’s portfolio are or will be powered by Argo technology, including CDN, Spectrum, Magic Transit, Stream, Workers, Workers AI, R2, WARP, and more. As a member of the Argo team, you’ll be a key technical contributor to the cutting‑edge network software infrastructure used by those products.
You will work closely with various Engineering teams to translate their requirements into new capabilities on the platform. Likewise you will partner with Network Engineering and SRE to ensure that the technology makes the best use of Cloudflare's world‑class edge network.
You will participate in all stages of the software development lifecycle, from designing and documenting systems to writing code and automated tests, to planning, managing, and monitoring production software deployments. You will work with a wide range of technologies and programming languages, including Rust, Go, Linux networking, ClickHouse, PostgreSQL, Grafana, Kubernetes, and more. You will use AI‑powered tools and systems as part of your daily workflow to analyze and extend codebases, introspect production systems and datasets, and accelerate problem‑solving.
Engineering teams at Cloudflare operate a Run What You Build model, including ours. We are responsible for the health of our system and participate in our team's on‑call rotation as part of operational responsibilities.
Because you’ll be solving problems of massive scale and significance, you are a growth‑oriented individual who enjoys being outside of your comfort zone. You are comfortable in a fast‑paced but sensible work environment. You value curiosity and empathy and lead with these values.

Must‑Have Skills

• Systems‑level programming experience in Go, Rust, C, or C++.
• A solid grasp of networking protocols in Layers 3 and 4 of the OSI Model.
• Knowledge of HTTP, TLS, and CDN networks.
• Experience in implementing secure and highly‑available distributed systems.
• Strong ability to debug issues in complex systems.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills.
• Experience/interest in HTTP networking and VPN technologies.
• Experience/interest in network performance monitoring and tuning.
• Willingness to adopt and integrate AI tools and systems into your engineering workflow.

Bonus Points

• Knowledge of TCP/IP and Internet routing.
• Professional systems‑level programming experience in Rust.
• Working knowledge of statistical‑analysis techniques and control theory.
• Experience building tools and APIs.
• Experience with monitoring, alerting, and debugging large‑scale distributed systems.
• Experience participating in an on‑call rotation.
• Experience using AI‑assisted development tools (e.g., code completion, codebase analysis, log/data exploration) in a professional setting.

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. 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.