Principal Partner Engineer, Cloudflare
$212-336k
Salary dependent on location. + Equity Plan
Web performance and security platform
Be an early applicant
Web performance and security platform
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$212-336k
Salary dependent on location. + Equity Plan
1001+ employees
Company mission
To help build a better Internet that is bold and ambitious.
Role
Who you are
- 8+ years of technical, partner-facing experience (e.g., Systems Engineer, Solutions Architect, or Technical Account Manager) in cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, or networking
- Strong technical depth in Cloudflare One (CF1) or equivalent SASE/SSE architectures, Zero Trust, DNS, and application security, alongside hands-on familiarity with AI deployment, AI Gateway, LLM orchestration frameworks, or vector databases
- Proven track record of developing technical talent or building "champion" programs within partner organizations, specifically driving adoption of complex cloud networks and AI technologies
- Enterprise Architecture & Project Management: Deep understanding of enterprise IT, multi-cloud, and hybrid cloud environment while managing complex projects with multiple stakeholders
- Demonstrated ability to manage the technical lifecycle of a deal from initial pre-sales discovery and CF1/AI PIO generation through post-sale service delivery
- Strong communication skills with a track record of presenting complex CF1 architectures and AI-driven use cases to partner leadership and technical teams alike
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
What the job involves
- The Partner Engineer (PE) is a high-impact, strategic technical sales leader responsible for end-to-end technical lifecycle and enablement of the assigned partners, managing both pre-sales and post-sales engineering activities
- In this role, you will act as the single technical point of contact as the trusted advisory for your assigned partners, driving technical validation during the sales cycle, architecting their delivery readiness and ensuring ongoing Partner Success
- The role focuses heavily on driving value-based solution selling to accelerate the adoption of Cloudflare platform with focus on Cloudflare One (SASE/SSE) and AI Infrastructure (Workers AI / AI Gateway)
- By cultivating deeply technical champions within the partner organization, aligning architectures to tangible business outcomes, optimizing post-sales delivery and building joint managed services offering, you will directly expand and influence the pipeline to maximize Partner-Influenced Opportunity (PIO) revenue
- Technical Alignment, Discovery & Enablement: Own the technical relationship with Partners to align on building joint Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies
- Align, build, and accelerate partner technical capabilities, enabling them to lead deep technical discovery and architectural design to independently sell scalable solutions leveraging the Cloudflare Platform with a strong focus on AI and Cloudflare One (CF1)
- Technical Account Plan Ownership: Own and drive the end-to-end Technical Account Plan (TAP) for assigned strategic partners
- Act as the primary architect mapping partner business goals to technical execution milestones, ensuring continuous alignment on CF1 and AI adoption targets
- Building Technical Champions: Identify, enable, and cultivate key technical advocates and "Champions" within the partner organization to scale Cloudflare expertise independently, generate Partner-Influenced Opportunities (PIO), and empower them to deliver high-value professional services around Zero Trust and AI application security
- Driving PIO via Next-Gen Architectures: Collaborate with sales teams to proactively source, qualify, and expand PIO through strategic architectural alignment, focusing on migrating legacy network architectures to CF1 and integrating secure AI solutions
- Deal Support & Qualification: Enable partners' technical validation, proof-of-concept (PoC), demo, pipeline generation, and pipeline acceleration capabilities
- Identify joint pursuit accounts, facilitate strategic technical account planning, and deliver cutting-edge solution architecture sessions for Named Partners
- ASD Partner Journey Ownership: Own the ASD partner journey to ensure partners possess the advanced capabilities required to deploy, manage, and support the Cloudflare platform and AI application workloads seamlessly
- Joint Services Offering Acceleration with strong focus on CF1 and A1: Build and co-develop joint services catalogues with key partners, accelerating the creation and launch of their own Cloudflare-focused services offerings, managed CF1 SASE practices, and AI security assessments
- Service Monetization & Performance Metrics: Enable partners to embed CF1 and Workers AI capabilities into their own managed security portfolios to shorten time-to-market, protect client AI pipelines, and maximize profitability
- Develop, manage, and track key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure and improve the effectiveness of these partner service deliveries
- Technical Account Management & Architectural Health: Act as the escalated technical point of contact to ensure long-term architectural health, utilizing telemetry and proactive design to move the partner relationship from reactive to strategics for Cloudflare
- Leverage Autonomous AI Tools: Champion the use of Cloudflare OS and AI tools (Agent PAT and Agent Echo) to automate standard, repeatable technical tasks, optimizing operational efficiency and freeing up bandwidth for high-touch, strategic partner engagements
- AI & CF1 Product Enhancement Feedback Loop: Engage partner champions in the Partner Technical Advisory Council (PTAC) to give them early access to beta software, capture raw product feedback, and drive joint co-innovation on CF1 features and emerging AI products
- Cross-Functional Enablement: Participate in continuous cross-training programs to maintain peak proficiency in both pre-sales scoping and post-sales service deployment across the entire Cloudflare One and AI ecosystem
Application process
- Application Deadline: December 10, 2026
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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