Senior Systems Engineer, MCP Server Portals

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: Lisbon, Portugal Role Summary Cloudflare MCP Server Portals give organizations a secure, centralized way to connect AI agents to internal and third-party tools. As a Senior Systems Engineer on the MCP Portals team, you will lead the design, delivery, and operation of distributed systems that authenticate users, manage OAuth credentials and sessions, enforce Zero Trust policies, and proxy MCP traffic across Cloudflare's global network. You will own complex projects across service boundaries, make architectural tradeoffs for your area, and help other engineers deliver reliable, secure changes. You will work closely with engineers and product managers across Access, Gateway, and Developer Platform teams as the protocol and product evolve. We are looking for a hands-on engineer who can bring clarity to ambiguous systems problems and take responsibility for outcomes in production. Role Responsibilities Lead the design, implementation, and operation of globally distributed services that connect MCP clients to authorized upstream MCP servers. Own complex features and service improvements from problem definition and design through implementation, rollout, observability, and production support. Shape technical decisions for MCP Portals, including service boundaries, security controls, compatibility, and tradeoffs among reliability, latency, and resource use. Evolve our implementation as the MCP specification changes, planning safe migrations for existing customers and integrations. Design and review authentication and authorization flows involving Cloudflare Access, OAuth, identity, credential handling, and delegated access to upstream services. Improve the reliability and scalability of multi-tenant systems built on the Cloudflare Developer Platform, using production data to identify and prioritize work. Strengthen observability through structured logs, metrics, traces, dashboards, and actionable alerts; participate in production support and incident response. Lead investigations of complex customer issues across services and teams, identify root causes, and drive fixes that prevent recurrence. Review designs and code, mentor engineers, and raise the quality of testing, deployment, and operational practices on the team. Partner with product, security, and engineering teams to turn customer needs and emerging standards into maintainable product capabilities. Role Requirements Must Have Skills 6+ years of experience building and operating distributed systems, backend services, network services, or infrastructure products in production. Demonstrated ownership of complex production services or projects, including architecture, implementation, rollout, and operational outcomes. Strong programming skills in TypeScript, JavaScript, Go, Rust, C++, or another language used to build production services. Deep understanding of HTTP, APIs, proxies, streaming connections, and distributed-systems failure modes. Experience with authentication and authorization technologies such as OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, JWTs, PKCE, or policy-based access control. Experience designing or operating security-sensitive systems, with sound judgment about identity, authorization, credential handling, concurrency, and state management. Ability to diagnose difficult production issues using logs, metrics, traces, error reporting, and customer-provided evidence, then drive durable fixes. Experience making backward-compatible changes to live systems and managing the risks of deployment and migration. Clear written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical tradeoffs, influence decisions across teams, and mentor other engineers. Applicants should provide a resume or CV describing relevant engineering, technical leadership, and operational experience. Nice to Have Skills Experience with the Model Context Protocol Familiarity with the Cloudflare Developer Platform or other serverless edge-computing platforms. Experience building gateways, forward proxies, identity systems, developer platforms, or Zero Trust and data loss prevention products. Compensation Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location. For Portugal based hires: Estimated annual salary of €66,000-91,000 Equity This role is eligible to participate in Cloudflare’s equity plan. 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.