Distributed Systems Engineer, Cloudflare
Data Platform, Delivery, Database, Retrieval
Web performance and security platform
Open for applications
Web performance and security platform
1001+ employees
Open for applications
1001+ employees
Company mission
To help build a better Internet that is bold and ambitious.
Role
Who you are
- 3+ years of experience working in software development covering distributed systems and databases
- Strong programming skills (Golang is preferable), as well as a deep understanding of software development best practices and principles
- Hands-on experience with modern observability stacks, including Prometheus, Grafana, and a strong understanding of handling high-cardinality metrics at scale
- Strong knowledge of SQL and database internals, including experience with database design, optimisation, and performance tuning
- A solid foundation in computer science, including algorithms, data structures, distributed systems, and concurrency
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a willingness to debug, troubleshoot, and learn about complex problems at high scale
- Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment and communicate effectively with other teams across Cloudflare
- Experience with ClickHouse is a plus
- Experience with data streaming technologies (e.g., Kafka, Flink) is a plus
- Experience developing and scaling APIs, particularly GraphQL, is a plus
- Experience with Infrastructure as Code tools like SALT or Terraform is a plus
- Experience with Linux container technologies, such as Docker and Kubernetes, is a plus
- If you're passionate about building scalable and performant data platforms using cutting-edge technologies and want to work with a world-class team of engineers, then we want to hear from you! Join us in our mission to help build a better internet for everyone!
- This role requires flexibility to be on-call outside of standard working hours to address technical issues as needed
What the job involves
- We are looking for experienced and highly motivated engineers to join our DATA Org and help build the future of data at Cloudflare
- Our organisation is responsible for the entire data lifecycle - from ingestion and processing to storage and retrieval - powering the critical logs and analytics that provide our customers with real-time visibility into the health and performance of their online properties
- Our mission is to empower customers to leverage their data to drive better outcomes for their business. We build and maintain a suite of high-performance, scalable systems that handle more than a billion events in a second. As an engineer in our organisation, you will have the opportunity to work on complex distributed systems challenges across different parts of our data stack
- Data Delivery: You will build and operate our distributed data delivery pipeline, a high-throughput, low-latency system (primarily written in Go) responsible for ingesting, processing, and routing massive volumes of data from across Cloudflare's global network to multi-core destination
- Analytical Database Platform: Contribute to our core analytical platform powered by ClickHouse. This team builds and maintains a high-performance, scalable database platform optimised for the immense analytical workloads generated by our products and services
- Data Retrieval: Be responsible for building the customer-facing products that make data accessible and actionable.
- This includes developing our public GraphQL API, building robust log delivery solutions and integrations with customer destinations, and contributing to our alerting products, which empower users to configure and receive near real-time alerts based on the logs and metrics observed by our data platform
- As a Software Engineer in our Data Organisation depending on the team you join, you will focus on a subset of the following areas:
- Design, develop, and maintain scalable and reliable distributed systems across the entire data lifecycle
- Build and optimise key components of our high-throughput data delivery platform to ensure data integrity and low-latency delivery
- Develop new and improve existing components for the Cloudflare Analytical Platform to extend functionality and performance
- Scale, monitor, and maintain the performance of our large-scale database clusters to accommodate the growing volume of data
- Develop and enhance our customer-facing GraphQL APIs, log delivery, and alerting solutions, focusing on performance, reliability, and user experience
- Work to identify and remove bottlenecks across our data platforms, from streamlining data ingestion processes to optimizing query performance
- Collaborate with other teams across Cloudflare to understand their data needs and build solutions that empower them to make data-driven decisions
- Collaborate with the ClickHouse open-source community to add new features and contribute to the upstream codebase
- Participate in the development of the next generation of our data platforms, including researching and evaluating new technologies and approaches
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
- 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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