Response Engineer - Cloudflare Managed Defense Center (CMDC)

Location: Hybrid About Us At Cloudflare, we are on a mission to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world’s largest networks that powers millions of websites and other 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. At Cloudflare, we’re not looking for people who wait for a polished roadmap; we’re looking for the builders who see the cracks in the Internet that everyone else has simply learned to live with. We value candidates who have the instinct to spot a "normalized" problem and the AI-native curiosity to create a solution using the latest tools. Our culture is built on iteration, leveraging AI to ship faster today to make it better tomorrow, while ensuring that every improvement, no matter how small, is shared across the team to lift everyone up. If you’re the type of person who values curiosity over bureaucracy, and that AI is a partner in solving tough problems to keep the Internet moving forward, you’ll fit right in. Available Locations: London, United Kingdom About the Department Cloudforce One is Cloudflare's threat operations and research team, responsible for identifying and disrupting cyber threats ranging from sophisticated cyber criminal activity to nation-state sponsored advanced persistent threats (APTs). Cloudforce One works in close partnership with external organizations and internal Cloudflare teams, continuously developing operational tradecraft and expanding ever-growing sources of threat intelligence to enable expedited threat hunting and remediation. Members of Cloudforce One are at the helm of leveraging an incredibly vast and varied set of data points that only one of the world's largest global networks can provide. The team analyzes these unique data points at massive scale and efficiency, synthesizing findings into actionable threat intelligence to better protect our customers. About INTERDICT I.N.T.E.R.D.I.C.T. (Identify, Neutralize, Triage, Engage, Respond, Disrupt, Integrate, Contain, Threat Hunting) is Cloudforce One's unified operational security organization responsible for identifying, analyzing, and responding to threats targeting Cloudflare and its customers. INTERDICT encompasses three main sub-functions: PhishGuard: Email Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service. Cloudflare Managed Defense (CMD, Formerly SOCaaS): 24/7 monitoring, detection, and mitigation of security events across Cloudflare products. Detection Engineering: Develops, maintains, and deploys Cloudflare’s threat detection logic across email, application, and network telemetry. Through the combined capabilities of CMD, PhishGuard, and Detection Engineering, INTERDICT delivers a cohesive operational security function that provides continuous, proactive protection against network, application, and email-based threats. This integrated structure ensures rapid detection, coordinated response, and improved security outcomes for Cloudflare and its customers. About the Role The Response Engineer within the Cloudflare Managed Defense Center acts as a primary technical responder for Cloudflare's premium enterprise customers. You will autonomously investigate complex threat telemetry, handle live incident response for sophisticated volumetric DDoS and application-layer attacks, and analyze traffic anomalies during high-pressure events. Customers contact the Managed Defense Center for assistance and intelligence across Cloudflare's security portfolio, focused on two core pillars: Web Application Security (WAF and Bot Management) and DDoS mitigation across network and application layers. Managed Defense Response Engineers use customer-facing dashboards and internal tools to make detailed and informed suggestions for mitigation, and may implement mitigation strategies directly on behalf of the customer. The team provides continuous proactive monitoring and analysis of security events through internal alerting systems. We are looking for an analytical security practitioner who thrives in this always-on operational environment and bridges the gap between deep technical analysis and premium customer advisory. Role Responsibilities Implement robust mitigation strategies for complex attacks across OSI Layers 3, 4, and 7 using Cloudflare's suite (Magic Transit, Magic Firewall, Advanced TCP Protection, Advanced DNS Protection, WAF, Custom Rules, IP Access Rules, Bot Management, and Rate Limiting) Monitor and investigate proactive alerts, performing near real-time packet and traffic flow analysis and correlation to detect protocol exhaustion and application-layer exploitation, translating findings into custom, highly targeted mitigation rules Review alerts to determine relevancy and urgency, proactively escalate customer-impacting incidents, and adhere to Customer SLAs for alert response and customer communication Act as the primary technical contact for customers during active security incidents, driving high-touch, consultative communication (via phone, chat, email) with customers' technical engineering teams to neutralize threats while ensuring stable traffic delivery Continuously tune and optimize existing security monitoring rules and alerting thresholds to improve the operational signal-to-noise ratio and reduce false positives Lead managed customer onboarding sessions, maintain customer-specific runbooks, and deliver highly technical monthly security posture reviews and post-incident reports Partner directly with internal engineering, product, and threat intelligence teams to provide actionable feedback on attack trends, tooling gaps, and product enhancements Role Requirements 4–7 years of direct, hands-on experience in Managed Detection and Response (MDR), advanced Security Operations, or high-level Technical Support/Incident Response for enterprise infrastructure Proven capability to handle both Application Security (including knowledge of OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities, L7 WAF, HTTP/S anomalies, Bot mitigation) and Network Security (L3/L4 volumetric DDoS, protocol abuse) Working knowledge of threat frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK to classify adversary behavior and inform detection and mitigation strategies Operational understanding of internet protocols including TCP, UDP, ICMP, GRE, BGP, DNS, with the ability to quickly diagnose attack fingerprints and infrastructure impact during volumetric DDoS attacks Hands-on experience with packet capture (e.g., tcpdump, Wireshark, tshark) or HTTP traffic inspection (e.g., HAR, Burp Suite) to analyze malicious traffic Extensive experience managing technical communications with enterprise customers during high-stress, active attacks, with the ability to remain calm under pressure and translate complex attack data into clear actionable advice Ability and willingness to work 24x7 rotating shifts to support global operations Knowledge of industry security technologies (e.g., enterprise CDNs, cloud-based DDoS scrubbing centers, Next-Gen WAFs, and edge network firewalls) (Preferred) Proficiency in Linux/Unix environments and strong scripting skills (Bash, Python preferred) for workflow automation (including experience leveraging agentic AI environments or LLMs to optimize operations) and experience interacting with REST APIs or GraphQL to pull and correlate operational data (Preferred) Experience building or querying dashboards in Prometheus and Grafana for performance and attack metrics (Preferred) Highly valued security and networking certifications such as GIAC (e.g., GCIA, GCIH, GCFA, GCFE), Cisco CCNA/CCNP, or equivalent hands-on incident response credentials (Preferred) 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 : Since 2014, we've equipped more than 2,400 journalism and civil society organizations in 111 countries 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 : In 2017, we created the 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. Since the project, we've provided services to more than 425 local government election websites in 33 states. 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! 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. 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.