Distributed Systems Engineer, Cloudflare
Data Platform, Logs and Audit Logs
Web performance and security platform
Be an early applicant
Web performance and security platform
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
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 data pipelines
- Strong programming skills (Go is preferable), with a deep understanding of software development best practices for building resilient, high-throughput systems
- 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, including experience with query optimisation
- 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 data streaming technologies (e.g., Kafka, Flink) is a strong plus
- Experience with various logging platforms or SIEMs (e.g., Splunk, Datadog, Sumo Logic) and storage destinations (e.g., S3, R2, GCS) 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!
What the job involves
- We are actively seeking experienced and highly motivated Distributed Systems Engineers to join Cloudflare’s dynamic DATA Organisation
- This is a pivotal opportunity to contribute to the future of data at Cloudflare, working on systems that are fundamental to our global operations and customer insights
- Our organisation is responsible for the entire data lifecycle, encompassing everything from initial ingestion and sophisticated processing to robust storage and efficient retrieval
- These systems are the backbone that power critical logs and analytics, providing our customers with real-time, actionable visibility into the health, performance, and security of their online properties
- Our overarching mission is to empower customers to leverage their data effectively, enabling them to drive superior outcomes for their businesses
- To achieve this, we design, build, and maintain a suite of high-performance, massively scalable distributed systems that are engineered to handle an unprecedented scale – processing well over a billion events per second
- As an engineer within our organisation, you will be presented with unique challenges across various critical parts of our intricate data stack
- This role offers the chance to work on cutting-edge technologies and contribute to solutions that operate at the very edge of internet infrastructure
- This particular role is focused on the Logs and Audit Logs group. As a Software Engineer you will focus on the following areas:
- Design, build, and operate a robust logging platform, ensuring reliable logging, and secure data transfer to a wide array of customer destinations and third-party integrations
- Develop and maintain high-performance data connectors and integrations for our log-shipping products, focusing on usability, scalability and data integrity
- Create and manage systems for handling comprehensive audit logs, ensuring they are delivered securely and adhere to strict compliance and performance standards
- Scale and optimise the data delivery pipeline to handle massive data volumes with low latency, identifying and removing bottlenecks in data processing and routing
- Work closely with Product and other engineering teams to define requirements for a new logging platform and integrations
- Maintain the operational health of our log delivery platform through comprehensive monitoring and participation in an on-call rotation (with flexibility for out-of-hours technical issue resolution)
- Collaborate on the architectural evolution of our data egress platform, researching and implementing new technologies to improve efficiency and reliability
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
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.
Salary benchmarks
We don't have enough data yet to provide salary benchmarks for this role.
Submit your salary to help other candidates with crowdsourced salary estimates.
Share this job
View 78 more jobs at Cloudflare