Director of Customer Engineering, Cloudflare
+ A variable compensation structure tied directly to the CE organization’s performance against new business acquisition, expansion, adoption, and retention targets
More information about location
Web performance and security platform
Be an early applicant
Web performance and security platform
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
+ A variable compensation structure tied directly to the CE organization’s performance against new business acquisition, expansion, adoption, and retention targets
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
To help build a better Internet that is bold and ambitious.
Role
Who you are
- Experience: 10+ years of experience in technical go-to-market roles with a demonstrated track record of building and managing high-performing teams in SaaS, cloud, or infrastructure companies. Prior experience managing managers and owning revenue targets at scale is required
- Revenue & Commercial Acumen: Proven experience owning and forecasting a large CE or Solutions Engineering revenue number in an enterprise B2B or infrastructure environment. Deep understanding of ACV, renewal, expansion, consumption, and platform economics
- Leadership & Executive Presence: Exceptional ability to inspire, coach, and develop senior managers and senior individual contributors. Comfortable presenting to and influencing C-level executives inside and outside Cloudflare
- Strategic Thinking: Ability to synthesize market signals, customer feedback, and business data into a clear operating plan for a multi-team organization
- Communication: Outstanding written and verbal communication skills. Capable of representing the CE organization in executive reviews, board-level discussions, and large internal forums
- Technical Fluency: We do not expect directors to be hands-on across every technical domain. Qualified candidates will demonstrate fluency in at least two or three of the areas below, with the ability to engage credibly in architecture and commercial conversations:
- Internet fundamentals: Strong understanding of DNS, HTTP(S), TCP/IP, BGP, SSL/TLS, and network architecture
- Security: Foundational knowledge of WAF, Bot Management, Zero Trust, SASE, DDoS mitigation, and modern enterprise security posture
- Performance / Networking: Foundational knowledge of caching, latency, content delivery, traffic steering, and global network architecture
- AI & Platform: Familiarity with AI-augmented workflows, LLMs, automation, cloud platforms, edge services, and developer tooling
- Undergraduate or graduate degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related field
Desirable
- Cloudflare Domain Expertise: Direct experience with Cloudflare’s product portfolio, including Application Security, CDN, Zero Trust/SASE, Network Services, or AI/Workers platform
- Global Scale: Experience leading distributed teams across multiple regions and time zones
- Transformation Leadership: Proven track record of leading through organizational change, role redefinition, and operating model evolution
- Executive Customer Engagement: Experience as an executive sponsor for Fortune 500 or strategic accounts
- Operational Rigor: Track record of building dashboards, playbooks, and scalable processes for technical field organizations
What the job involves
- The Director, Customer Engineering is a senior leader who scales the Customer Engineering organization across a region, segment, or product domain. Leads multiple teams of Customer Engineers and their managers, sets the strategic direction for how Cloudflare technically engages with enterprise customers, and ensures the CE function operates as a unified, AI-augmented, high-performance GTM engine
- Reporting to a VP or Senior Leader of Customer Engineering, you will own commercial outcomes, team development, operational systems, and cross-functional execution - serving as the executive bridge between field reality and company strategy
- Organizational Leadership: Build, develop, and scale a multi-team CE organization across levels and geographies. Hire and develop front-line managers, create succession plans, and maintain a high bar for both technical and commercial talent
- Commercial Ownership: Own the CE number for your region, segment, or domain. Lead forecasting, pipeline reviews, win/loss analysis, and strategic account planning. Be accountable for new business acquisition, retention, expansion, and platform consumption targets
- GTM Strategy & Execution: Shape how Customer Engineering partners with Sales, Customer Experience, Professional Services, and Product. Define territory and account strategies, allocate coverage models, and ensure the CE function drives platform-led selling
- Executive Coaching & Standards: Elevate the capability of the CE management team. Coach managers on deal strategy, people development, technical architecture review, and executive communication. Set the standard for what great CE leadership looks like
- Operational Scale & AI Enablement: Build the systems, dashboards, and AI-augmented workflows that allow CEs to spend more time on high-value customer work. Champion automation, tooling, and repeatable plays across the organization
- Cross-Functional Influence: Represent Customer Engineering in executive forums, product roadmap discussions, and enablement planning. Translate field signals into actionable feedback for Product, Engineering, Support, and Marketing
- Customer & Market Presence: Act as an executive technical sponsor for strategic customers and prospects. Serve as a visible leader in industry events, executive business reviews, and executive customer engagements
- Culture & Transformation: Model Cloudflare’s values and drive the cultural evolution into the unified CE operating model. Ensure teams embrace full-lifecycle ownership, AI productivity, and continuous improvement
Application process
- 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
Salary benchmarks
Our take
Cloudflare is a multi-service global network that provides web security and infrastructure, DDoS mitigation services, and a content delivery network. Founded in 2009, Cloudflare has risen to become an industry giant, with over 25 million global internet properties on its network.
Cloudflare has been responsible for a number of admirable initiatives, offering free web protection to human rights groups, journalists, artists, and US election websites. This goes some way to counteracting the flak Cloudflare has received in some circles for the controversial groups and users who use its services. This chequered history, however, has not affected its over 80% market share in the content delivery network field.
This is perhaps in part because it has proven sharp at staying abreast of the rapidly morphing tech and digital space and customer demands. For example, Cloudflare is shifting to 100% renewable energy usage to create a zero-emissions internet, and in 2020 released a feature that would help users navigate data privacy regulations by selecting where their data is stored.
And impressive third-quarter 2025 results show strong momentum, with revenue rising to $562 million from $430 million a year earlier. The company also raised its full-year guidance, underscoring confidence in continued growth. As demand for secure, cloud-based infrastructure keeps growing, Cloudflare's expanding platform and improving efficiency leave it well positioned to capture further gains in a rapidly growing market.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
16% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Company benefits
- Competitive pay: We offer a competitive total rewards package, where every employee is an owner of our stock.
- Take-what-you-need vacation: We encourage employees to find a comfortable work-life balance by taking as many days off as they need while still being able to perform their jobs satisfactorily. (We really mean it!)
- Paid maternity & paternity leave: Our global parental leave policy allows up to sixteen paid weeks of bonding leave time for all qualifying new parents.
- Employee benefits: We offer a comprehensive benefits package including healthcare, life insurance, short- and long-term disability, pension plans in accordance with the market practice in our locations.
- Commuter program: We are flexible about where we work and value connecting at the office. Our commuter benefits program is in place to support team members' commute to work via public transportation without the extra cost burden.
- Wellbeing: Global offerings that provide mental health, childcare and family forming support to our employees across our offices.
Company HQ
China Basin, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Lee Holloway
(Co-Founder & Lead Engineer)Lee began their career as an Engineer at Homewarehouse for a year before working at Unspam Technologies for 4 years. They co-created Project Honey Pot in 2004 and Cloudflare in March 2009, serving as Lead Engineer of both to present.
Michelle Zatlyn
(Co-Founder, President & Co-Chair)Having worked for Investor Economics and I Love Rewards for a combined 4 years, Michelle worked at Toshiba for 3 years as a Product Manager. She then co-founded Cloudflare in 2009 as COO, and has served as President since 2020. She is also a Board Member at Atlassian.
Matthew Prince
(Co-Founder & CEO)Matthew studied for an MBA at Harvard Business School before co-founding Unspam Technologies in December 2001, and Cloudflare in 2009, where he has served as CEO ever since.
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