Senior Systems Engineer, Cloudflare Tunnel

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 Location: Austin, TX Atlanta, GA Denver, CO Seattle Washington DC Job Title: Senior Systems Engineer, Cloudflare Tunnel Role Summary: As a Senior Systems Engineer on the Cloudflare Tunnel team, you will drive the technical vision and architect for future scale, ensuring our product securely connects any machine to the Cloudflare network. You will be responsible for the strategic design of systems across our high-performance global edge network and microservice clusters, providing cross-functional influence to ensure long-term stability and performance. In this leadership role, you will guide capacity planning and the development of next-generation features for Cloudflare Tunnel, Mesh and Zero Trust Network. You will join a team of bright, hard-working, and supportive engineers who are passionate about their craft, and you will be comfortable operating in a fast-paced but sane work environment. Role Responsibilities Lead the architecture and implementation of complex software systems that comprise Cloudflare Tunnel, including the cross-platform, open-source client and high-performance edge services. Participate in all stages of the software development lifecycle, from designing and documenting systems to writing code, automated tests, and monitoring production deployments. Strategically influence and collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders, including security, network engineering, SRE, and product management, to design and scale technical solutions. Review work from your peers throughout all stages of the development lifecycle to ensure high-quality, maintainable code. Foster a culture of technical excellence through mentorship, proactive code reviews, and establishing engineering standards across the team to ensure high-quality, maintainable code. Debug issues in complex systems and contribute to the maintenance and improvement of operational health. Drive the long-term technical roadmap and identify opportunities for system-wide improvements, ensuring our architecture remains resilient as we scale. Work with a wide range of technologies and programming languages, including Go, Rust, and Typescript, as well as various databases (SQL and No-SQL), Docker, and Kubernetes. Role Requirements 8+ years of experience in backend software development with a focus on building  secure and highly available distributed systems. Strong programming skills in Go, Rust, C++, or a similar systems-level language. Knowledge of modern Unix/Linux development and runtime environments. Grasp of networking protocols in Layers 3-7 of the OSI Model and experience with network programming. Familiarity with microservices and APIs, including RESTful design. Basic understanding of software security and encryption principles. Ability to debug and troubleshoot issues in complex distributed systems. Experience with monitoring and logging tools like Prometheus and Grafana. Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies, such as Docker and Kubernetes. Strong interpersonal and communication skills, demonstrating empathy, teamwork and a sense of ownership. Compensation Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location. For Denver based hires: Estimated annual salary of $168,000 - $231,000. For Washington and Washington DC based hires: Estimated annual salary of $185,000 - $254,000. Application Deadline: December 1, 2026 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 : 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.