Distributed Systems Engineer

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.

Locations Available: Austin (US)

About Role

We are looking for an experienced and highly motivated engineer to join our team and contribute to our analytical database platform. The platform is a critical component of Cloudflare Analytics which provides real-time visibility into the health and performance of Cloudflare customers' online properties.

The team builds and maintains a high-performance, scalable database platform powered by ClickHouse, optimized for analytical workloads. We help our customers, both internal and external, to gain a deeper understanding of their online properties, identify trends and patterns, and make informed decisions about how to optimize their web performance, security, and other key metrics. Our mission is to empower customers to leverage their data to drive better outcomes for their business.

As a Distributed systems engineer - Analytical Database Platform, you will:

• Develop and implement new platform components for the Cloudflare Analytical Database Platform to improve functionality and performance.

• Add more database clusters to accommodate the growing volume of data generated by Cloudflare products and services.

• Monitor and maintain the performance and reliability of existing database platform clusters, and identify and troubleshoot any issues that may arise.

• Work to identify and remove bottlenecks within the analytics database platform, including optimizing query performance and streamlining data ingestion processes.

• Collaborate with the ClickHouse open-source community to add new features and functionality to the database, as well as contribute to the development of the upstream codebase.

• Collaborate with other teams across Cloudflare to understand their data needs and build solutions that empower them to make data-driven decisions.

• Participate in the development of the next generation of the database platform engine, including researching and evaluating new technologies and approaches that can improve the database's performance and scalability.

Key qualifications:

• 3+ years of experience working in software development covering distributed systems, and databases.

• Strong programming skills (Golang, python, C++ are preferable), as well as a deep understanding of software development best practices and principles.

• Strong knowledge of SQL and database internals, including experience with database design, optimization, and performance tuning.

• A solid foundation in computer science, including algorithms, data structures, distributed systems, and concurrency.

• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment, as well as communicate effectively with other teams across Cloudflare.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, as well as the ability to work independently and proactively identify and solve issues.

• Experience with ClickHouse is a plus.

• Experience with SALT or Terraform is a plus.

• Experience with Linux container technologies, such as Docker and Kubernetes, is a plus.

If you're passionate about building scalable and performant databases using cutting-edge technologies, and want to work with a world-class team of engineers, then we want to hear from you! Join us in our mission to help build a better internet for everyone!

This role may require flexibility to be on-call outside of standard working hours to address technical issues as needed.

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.