Research Systems Engineer

At Cloudflare, we have our eyes set on an ambitious goal: to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world’s largest networks that powers approximately 25 million Internet properties, for customers ranging from individual bloggers to SMBs to Fortune 500 companies. Cloudflare protects and accelerates any Internet application online without adding hardware, installing software, or changing a line of code. Internet properties powered by Cloudflare all have web traffic routed through its intelligent global network, which gets smarter with every request. As a result, they see significant improvement in performance and a decrease in spam and other attacks. Cloudflare was named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top Company Cultures list and ranked among the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company.

We realize people do not fit into neat boxes. We are looking for curious and empathetic individuals who are committed to developing themselves and learning new skills, and we are ready to help you do that. We cannot complete our mission without building a diverse and inclusive team. We hire the best people based on an evaluation of their potential and support them throughout their time at Cloudflare. Come join us!

Location: US Remote

About the Department

Cloudflare Research is involved with building the future of Cloudflare by tackling strategic projects that have a large impact on Cloudflare systems and the Internet at large. Team members independently drive greenfield projects, work closely with Cloudflare product and engineering teams on shared objectives, and build strong collaborations with both external organizations and other organizations within Cloudflare to achieve common goals.

Cloudflare Research embarks upon projects that help shape the future of the Internet at large, and the systems that drive it. We design, develop, and deploy these projects into Cloudflare systems to demonstrate their impact, and to share that knowledge with the wider standards and research communities -- often in collaboration with university or other industry labs. A sample of our recent high-profile works include Constellation AI, Encrypted Client Hello (ECH), Post Quantum Encryption, CAP, ZKP for browsers, and Addressing Agility. Our current research directions include applied cryptography, privacy, network protocols and architecture, scalable telemetry and performance evaluation, systems for AI, and general distributed systems optimization. We are open to researchers in all of these areas, and particularly solicit applications from researchers with backgrounds in Formal Methods, Formal Analysis, Distributed Cache and Storage Systems, and Systems for ML. Particular attention will be paid to candidates with a background in formal analysis and storage or network optimization.

More information about Cloudflare's approach to research can be found here.

About the Role

Cloudflare Research is looking for a systems researcher who is eager to help define and pursue research in systems and formal analysis that Cloudflare is uniquely poised to build and benefit from, with attention to scalability, resiliency, observability, and dynamic adaptation. Researchers and engineers across the Research Teams investigate new ideas, build new technologies, inform and execute telemetry, engage with global communities, and even dive into existing codebases to make meaningful changes in production environments. Prioritization and planning are key elements as the nature of the team’s research necessarily shifts between putting ideas into practice and onto paper, while ensuring rigorous evaluations of performance, correctness, or impact. The successful candidate will have a proven track record of success driving streams of investigation to completion.

General Requirements

• Demonstrated track record of design and follow-through on large-scale systems projects
• Must have a proven record of peer-reviewed research, standards, or equivalent in venues held by but not limited to ACM, USENIX, or IEEE, with publicly accessible paper artifacts where appropriate.
• Solid foundation in computer science, with specialization in distributed systems and one or more Cloudflare-relevant areas such as machine learning, storage, operating systems, networks, privacy, or telemetry.
• Proficiency in one or more the following languages - Go, Rust, Typescript, C and/or Lua

• Excel at planning, working independently and multi-functionally, leading execution across teams to meet commitments, and deliver with predictability
• Demonstrate a track record of strong communication and technical influence. You’re as good as explaining “why” as you are “how.”
• Experience implementing tools, processes, internal instrumentation, methodologies, and resolving blockages
• Comfortable working on teams/projects with tight deadlines and short release cycles

Bonus Points

• Have completed a PhD or equivalent graduate research program in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related STEM field
• Familiarity with Kafka, Postgres, ClickHouse, Kubernetes, Prometheus, and tools such as Cloudflare’s Workers platform
• Demonstrated excellence in broad-audience technical communication (e.g. highly cited blogs, textbooks)
• Strong connections with the broader scientific community (arXiv presence, program committees, etc.)

What Makes Cloudflare Special?

We’re not just a highly ambitious, large-scale technology company. We’re a highly ambitious, large-scale technology company with a soul. Fundamental to our mission to help build a better Internet is protecting the free and open Internet.

Project Galileo: We equip politically and artistically important organizations and journalists with powerful tools to defend themselves against attacks that would otherwise censor their work, technology already used by Cloudflare’s enterprise customers--at no cost.

Athenian Project: We created Athenian Project to ensure that state and local governments have the highest level of protection and reliability for free, so that their constituents have access to election information and voter registration.

Path Forward Partnership: Since 2016, we have partnered with Path Forward, a nonprofit organization, to create 16-week positions for mid-career professionals who want to get back to the workplace after taking time off to care for a child, parent, or loved one.

1.1.1.1: We released 1.1.1.1 to help fix the foundation of the Internet by building a faster, more secure and privacy-centric public DNS resolver. This is available publicly for everyone to use - it is the first consumer-focused service Cloudflare has ever released. Here’s the deal - we don’t store client IP addresses never, ever. We will continue to abide by our privacy commitment and ensure that no user data is sold to advertisers or used to target consumers.

Sound like something you’d like to be a part of? We’d love to hear from you!

This position may require access to information protected under U.S. export control laws, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations. Please note that any offer of employment may be conditioned on your authorization to receive software or technology controlled under these U.S. export laws without sponsorship for an export license.

Cloudflare is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people and place great value in both diversity and inclusiveness. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to their, or any other person's, perceived or actual race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, family care status, or any other basis protected by law. We are an AA/Veterans/Disabled Employer.

Cloudflare provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please tell us if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job. Examples of reasonable accommodations include, but are not limited to, changing the application process, providing documents in an alternate format, using a sign language interpreter, or using specialized equipment. If you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job, please contact us via e-mail at [email protected] or via mail at 101 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94107.