Senior Systems Engineer
Job description
Senior Systems Engineer at Cloudflare.
About the role
Join the Cloudflare One Appliance team to develop the Linux-based edge appliance runtime and its distributed control plane. This role involves building the core systems that connect customer sites to Cloudflare, running across physical hardware, virtual environments, and public clouds. You will provide technical leadership and hands-on engineering for a product that allows customers to manage numerous branch sites without building their own platforms.
Key facts
What you'll do
- Design and implement features across the cloud control plane, Linux appliance runtime, telemetry, and various deployment environments.
- Enhance the appliance dataplane by building secure and reliable networking capabilities using technologies like IPsec, MASQUE, eBPF, and Linux kernel primitives.
- Create distributed control-plane and state-management systems for safe configuration delivery, fault tolerance, and zero-touch operation across large device fleets.
- Improve device security through hardware-backed identity, secure boot, immutable operating systems, credential rotation, and safe over-the-air upgrades.
- Develop telemetry, diagnostics, and remote operations to ensure system transparency for customers and support teams.
- Collaborate with customers, Product, Support, and Solutions Engineering to translate requirements into technical direction.
- Take ownership of initiatives from prototyping to production, including rollout, monitoring, and incident response.
- Provide architectural guidance, write technical proposals, conduct reviews, and mentor engineers across various Cloudflare teams.
Requirements
- 8 or more years of professional software engineering experience, or equivalent impact, in building and operating complex production systems.
- Strong software engineering skills in Rust, Go, TypeScript, or a similar language, with adaptability to other parts of the stack.
- Deep knowledge of Linux systems and networking, including routing, TCP/IP, network namespaces, firewalls, and tunneling technologies like IPsec or WireGuard.
- Experience developing both Linux-based systems and cloud services, with strong debugging skills across various system boundaries.
- Background in designing distributed control planes, reconciliation systems, or remote configuration for large, intermittently connected fleets.
- Security expertise for software deployed in customer networks, including threat modeling, least privilege, and secure lifecycle design.
- Proven ability to lead ambiguous initiatives from discovery through production, including architecture, implementation, and incident response.
- Technical leadership and communication skills to influence decisions, explain trade-offs, and guide stakeholders to clear outcomes.
- Product judgment based on customer evidence, usability, and operational simplicity.
- Practical experience using AI-assisted engineering tools to improve quality and throughput.
Nice to have
- Experience with SD-WAN, SASE, network operating systems, or enterprise edge devices from vendors like Cisco Meraki or Fortinet.
- Experience building custom or embedded Linux distributions with Buildroot or Yocto, and operating immutable systems with RAUC or OSTree.
- Experience with UEFI Secure Boot, TPMs, measured boot, hardware-backed identity, or remote attestation.
- Experience packaging and operating virtual network appliances on VMware, KVM, or deploying in AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
- Experience with high-availability networking, dynamic routing, multi-WAN failover, traffic shaping, or local policy enforcement.
- Experience with Kubernetes or serverless control planes, event-driven systems, and observability platforms such as Prometheus or Grafana.
- Experience designing automated fleet tests, hardware-in-the-loop environments, and remote diagnostic tooling.
Skills & tools
- Rust
- Go
- TypeScript
- Linux
- IPsec
- MASQUE
- eBPF
- TCP/IP
- WireGuard
- GRE
- Buildroot
- Yocto
- RAUC
- OSTree
- UEFI Secure Boot
- TPMs
- VMware
- KVM
- AWS
- Azure
- Google Cloud
- Kubernetes
- Prometheus
- Grafana
- ClickHouse
- OpenTelemetry
Practical notes
Colorado-based hires: Estimated annual salary of $168,000 - $231,000 USD. Washington-based hires: Estimated annual salary of $185,000 - $254,000 USD. This role includes eligibility for Cloudflare's equity plan. Benefits include medical, dental, vision, FSA, commuter benefits, fertility and family forming benefits, mental health support, global travel medical insurance, short and long term disability, life and accident insurance, 401(k), employee stock participation plan, flexible paid time off, and various leave programs.