Interconnection Manager at Cloudflare — BranchFactor

BranchFactor Summary

The original posting with the fluff stripped out

Expected experience: 5+ yrs
Management level: Individual contributor
Employment: Hybrid

Compensation

Base salary	US$143,000 – US$207,000 / yr

Role speciality

Network Strategy Interconnection & Backbone Management

Useful technologies

DWDM BGP

Original posting

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: San Francisco, CA; Austin, TX; New York, NY; Washington, D.C.

About the Role

The Interconnection Manager for the Americas is the network strategy leader for one of Cloudflare's most important and most contrasted regions — a mature, high-volume United States market alongside a fast-growing, infrastructure-constrained South America. You will own the strategy that scales our connectivity with the largest ISPs and eyeball networks in the U.S. while solving the harder, less-charted problem of building resilient, cost-effective network reach across South America.

This role operates on an AI-first model. You won't just consume reports — you'll use AI agents and tooling to analyze traffic, model capacity and cost scenarios, surface peering and transport opportunities, and automate the operational work that historically slowed interconnection teams down. AI is the force-multiplier that lets a single strategist see the whole region clearly and act on it quickly, shifting your time from reactive task processing to proactive architecture. The decisions you make will directly shape Cloudflare's standing as the network leader across the Americas.

You will work in close partnership with the Regional Network Acquisition Manager, who executes high-volume sourcing, contract lifecycle, and vendor management under your strategic direction — freeing you to lead the complex, high-stakes work.

What You'll Do / Responsibilities

Regional Network Strategy — Americas

Own and execute the interconnection and backbone strategy for the Americas, balancing the distinct realities of the U.S. and South American markets.
United States: Drive interconnection scale and depth with the largest U.S. ISPs and eyeball networks (e.g., Comcast, Charter, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile), expanding private interconnect, peering, and capacity to keep pace with traffic growth.
South America: Solve the region's unique build challenges — a sparse and uneven IXP fabric, terrestrial and subsea transport economics, regulatory and market fragmentation, and heavy reliance on local partners — to establish durable, performant reach (with particular focus on Brazil, the region's largest market).

AI-First Operating Model

Use AI-driven analytics to interpret regional traffic patterns, peering opportunities, and performance/cost trade-offs, and to inform interconnection and capacity decisions.
Leverage and help shape automated, agentic workflows for LOAs, ticketing, contract tracking, and data hygiene — partnering with the support layer to push routine execution to automation.
Build models and scenario analyses (capacity, cost, resiliency) that let you make faster, better-evidenced strategic calls and clearly defend them to leadership.

Interconnection & Backbone Management

Formulate and execute plans to optimize traffic flow across the region, balancing backbone, partner, transit, IX, and peer connections.
Develop and execute strategies for the expansion, optimization, and maintenance of Cloudflare's backbone across the Americas, planning capacity for scalability and high performance.
Lead negotiations for high-value, complex interconnection agreements and Tier-1 partnerships.
Advise budget planning cycles to ensure proper resource allocation for regional growth and scaling.

Partnership with the Regional Network Acquisition Manager

Set the strategy and priorities the Network Acquisition Manager executes against; review and approve sourcing recommendations for new and existing transport services.
Lead complex, high-value negotiations directly, while the Acquisition Manager runs high-volume requirements, contract lifecycle support, inventory, and first-level billing response.
Ensure a clean handoff model so strategic intent translates into reliable, well-documented execution.

Relationship Management

Cultivate and maintain strong relationships with ISPs, IXPs, carriers, and partners across the Americas.
Act as the regional expert for interconnection relationships, focused on availability, capacity, effectiveness, and cost efficiency.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Collaborate with Data Center Strategy, Network Engineering, Capacity Planning, and Infrastructure Operations to align on network strategy and implementation.
Engage internal stakeholders to plan requirements and deliver cross-functional projects, communicating clearly throughout.

Industry Engagement

Represent Cloudflare in regional and global industry forums and conferences, contributing to best practices and standards.

Desirable Skills, Knowledge, and Experience:

5+ years of experience in network infrastructure, ideally within a Telco, ISP, CDN, or cloud environment.
Strong understanding of networking protocols and technologies, including BGP, DWDM, and IP networking.
Proven experience negotiating and managing interconnection agreements.
Working knowledge of the Americas connectivity landscape — the U.S. wholesale/peering market and the transport, IXP, and partner dynamics of South America (including subsea and terrestrial considerations).
Fluency with AI tools in daily work, and a genuine appetite to use AI/agentic tooling to scale decision-making and eliminate manual toil.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
Experience with capacity planning, cost modeling, and operations research.

Bonus Points

Professional proficiency in Spanish and/or Portuguese, to support relationship-building and network expansion across South America.
Hands-on experience building or scaling network presence in emerging or infrastructure-constrained markets.
Experience designing AI-assisted analytics or automation for network/commercial operations.

Compensation

Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location.

For Bay Area based hires: Estimated annual salary of $150,000 - $207,000
For New York based hires: Estimated annual salary of $143,000 - $197,000
For Washington D.C. based hires: Estimated annual salary of $143,000 - $197,000

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.