Principal Software Engineer: Distributed Systems (Config, Test, & Deployment)

About the role

The Intent Management organization within Cloudflare’s Foundational Engineering team is seeking a senior engineer to own the technical coherence of a platform that spans globally distributed key-value storage, progressive release and configuration delivery, and the testing and health-mediation systems that prove change is safe. Reporting directly to the Senior Director, this role will work alongside engineers who have presented at various conferences and will help deliver on critical Health Mediated Deployment projects.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical coherence of a platform that spans globally distributed key-value storage, progressive release and configuration delivery, and the testing and health-mediation systems that prove change is safe.
• Translate what Cloudflare’s Edge and control-plane platforms need into the primitives our teams build.
• Move fluidly between writing production code, designing new systems, and reviewing the proposals of other senior engineers.
• Help integrate LLMs into our processes and systems.
• Work on the key Health Mediated Deployment projects being tracked through senior leadership of Cloudflare up to the founders.

Requirements

10+ years of software engineering experience with a demonstrated history of leading complex, organization-wide technical initiatives that delivered measurable improvements to system performance, reliability, security, developer productivity, or engineering culture.

Strong track record of technical leadership and influence without direct authority, including driving consensus on technical decisions across multiple teams, mentoring senior engineers, and establishing architectural patterns that are widely adopted across an organization.

Expertise in at least one modern strongly-typed programming language.

Experience designing, building and managing high volume, global scale software applications.

Experience with top tier LLMs to plan, write, test, and deploy software.

Strong interpersonal and communication skills with a bias towards action.

Familiarity with scaling and simplifying high scale Configuration Management systems.

Experience with Google’s Prodspec and Annealing systems.

Experience with Kubernetes.

Experience with RocksDB or similar data stores.

Experience with health checking and probe platforms at significant scale.

Public evidence of technical leadership such as conference talks on distributed systems or security, widely-read technical blog posts, significant open source contributions, or published architectural patterns that have been adopted by the broader engineering community.

Qualifications

Available Locations: Washington DC, Austin, NYC, San Francisco

Skills

• 10+ years of software engineering experience
• Leading complex, organization-wide technical initiatives
• Technical leadership and influence without direct authority
• Designing, building, and managing high volume, global scale software applications
• At least one modern strongly-typed programming language
• API design standards, patterns, and best practices
• Working with top tier LLMs
• Interpersonal and communication skills with a bias towards action
• Scaling and simplifying high scale Configuration Management systems
• Google’s Prodspec and Annealing systems
• Kubernetes
• RocksDB or similar data stores
• Health checking and probe platforms at significant scale
• Public evidence of technical leadership

Bonus Points

• Experience with LLMs
• Experience with integrating LLMs into processes and systems
• Experience with integrating LLMs into processes and systems

Pay

Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location. For Bay Area based hires: Estimated annual salary of $230,000 - $288,000
For Washington and New York City based hired: Estimated annual salary of $220,000 - $275,000
For Austin based hired: Estimated annual salary of $200,000 - $250,000

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!

What Makes Cloudflare Special?

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, among other things, 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.