About Us

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! 

About the department

Cloudflare’s Infrastructure group is responsible for building our global network. Our Hardware Engineering team helps research, test, and deploy new equipment enabling compute, storage, and network. Deployed across 200+ cities in 100+ countries, the hardware we select helps improve the security, reliability, and performance of the Internet.

About the Role

We need to make thoughtful infrastructure choices affecting a significant, growing portion of the Internet. Hardware we work with includes servers, routers, switches, optical equipment, power distribution units, cables, optics, and more. As a Network Hardware Engineer, you will work with colleagues on the Hardware Engineering, Network Operations, and Hardware Sourcing teams to evaluate and inform decisions around new networking equipment.

What you'll do

  • Develop systems for Cloudflare’s next generation of network hardware. Examples of network hardware that you will select, and qualify include switches, routers, and optics/transceivers
  • Experiment with different designs and solutions for Cloudflare’s network hardware and work cross-functionally with Network Engineering and Hardware Sourcing to enact your suggestions globally
  • Work with vendors to obtain, debug, and maintain the most efficient and effective next-generation network hardware and software for Cloudflare’s workload
  • Develop tools and automation to evaluate network hardware performance
  • Partner with engineers in the Network Engineering, Network Operations, Datacenter Engineering, and Observability teams to make informed decisions about hardware strategy
  • Communicate your results and updates through blog posts, internal talks, and tickets

Examples of desirable skills, knowledge and experience

  • Extensive experience with networking hardware architecture, validation, performance benchmarking, debugging, and deployment
  • Previous experience in testing, measuring, and/or simulating hardware performance and an understanding of no-stone-left-unturned experimentation
  • Deep knowledge of network engineering and protocols used in data center switching and routing as well as Internet routing
  • Track record of driving engineering projects from idea to experiment to implementation
  • Demonstrated success in working with ODMs and technology vendors
  • Professional-level proficiency in Python, Go, or similar programming and/or scripting languages

Bonus Points

  • Familiar with traffic generation equipment such as Spirent or Ixia is a plus
  • Experience with white-box network switches and open source projects such as openswitch.net
  • Experience with different network operating systems such as Junos, NX-OS, EOS, SONiC, ArcOS, and Cumulus
  • Operational experience as a network engineer in a hyperscale cloud infrastructure
  • In-depth hardware knowledge of platforms (ASICs, TCAMs, etc)

Compensation

Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location.

  • For Colorado-based hires: Estimated annual salary of $168,000 - $206,000.
  • For New York City-based hires: Estimated annual salary of $154,000 - $188,000.

Equity

This role is eligible to participate in Cloudflare’s equity plan.

Benefits

Cloudflare offers a complete package of benefits and programs to support you and your family.  Our benefits programs can help you pay health care expenses, support caregiving, build capital for the future and make life a little easier and fun!  The below is a description of our benefits for employees in the United States, and benefits may vary for employees based outside the U.S.

Health & Welfare Benefits

  • Medical/Rx Insurance
  • Dental Insurance
  • Vision Insurance
  • Flexible Spending Accounts
  • Commuter Spending Accounts
  • Fertility & Family Forming Benefits
  • On-demand mental health support and Employee Assistance Program
  • Global Travel Medical Insurance

Financial Benefits

  • Short and Long Term Disability Insurance
  • Life & Accident Insurance
  • 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan
  • Employee Stock Participation Plan

Time Off

  • Flexible paid time off covering vacation and sick leave
  • Leave programs, including parental, pregnancy health, medical, and bereavement leave

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 hr@cloudflare.com or via mail at 101 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94107.

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