Researcher Web Security, Cloudflare
Detection
$150-185k
This role is eligible to participate in Cloudflare's equity plan
Web performance and security platform
Be an early applicant
Web performance and security platform
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$150-185k
This role is eligible to participate in Cloudflare's equity plan
1001+ employees
Company mission
To help build a better Internet that is bold and ambitious.
Role
Who you are
- You know our adversaries. You understand bots, automation, and the tooling used to attack web applications at scale
- Deep web expertise. You know HTTP, TLS, browser internals, fingerprinting, CAPTCHAs, and the techniques used to evade them
- You love the hunt. You enjoy ethical hacking and reverse engineering, with an adversarial mindset that assumes every defense can be broken — and the creativity to prove it
- From research to detection. You translate what you learn about attackers into concrete signals defenders can use
- Mitigation without burning signals. You understand (or are curious to learn) how to act on attackers without burning the signals that make them detectable
- Disciplined in code. You script comfortably (e.g., Python, JavaScript) to build proofs-of-concept and tooling – and you write it cleanly, whether it's throwaway or meant to last
- Clear communicator. You explain complex attacker behavior to technical and non-technical audiences alike
What the job involves
- Cloudflare’s Engineering Team is home to some of the industry’s top engineers, dedicated to building and scaling innovative software that handles a huge proportion of the Internet
- Our Detection department sits at the heart of that mission: we identify automated, fraudulent, and malicious activity across the Internet and through our gateway
- We develop advanced detection systems and machine learning models that operate at scale, collaborating with Product and Engineering teams across the company to protect our customers and stay ahead of the constantly evolving threat landscape
- Study our adversaries deeply – reverse-engineer bot tools, automation frameworks, and fraud kits to understand how they work and how they evolve
- Play the cat-and-mouse game: probe our own detections like an attacker would, close the gaps, and stay a step ahead as adversaries adapt
- Track the bot and fraud ecosystem through tooling, marketplaces, and emerging techniques. Turn that intelligence into actionable detection signals
- Develop heuristics, signatures, and detection ideas grounded in real adversary behavior, partnering with Data Scientists and Engineers to bring them to life
- Design mitigations that neutralize attackers without tipping our hand; preserving our detection signals rather than teaching adversaries how to evade them
- Automate the work analysts do by hand by turning manual investigation and rule-writing into scalable, automated detection
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 160 more jobs at Cloudflare