Senior Software Engineer - Kubernetes platform

Responsibilities

Design and maintain scalable, resilient Kubernetes platforms to support global network services and internal tools. Collaborate with product teams to architect efficient systems while hardening the platform against security threats and operational incidents.

Requirements

Requires extensive experience managing production Kubernetes clusters and operating on-premise systems at scale. Candidates must possess strong Linux debugging skills and proficiency in Go, TypeScript, and shell scripting.

Skills

• Kubernetes
• Linux
• Go
• TypeScript
• Bash
• Networking
• IP Networking
• Debugging
• Container Runtimes
• System Architecture
• Security
• SRE
• Cloud Infrastructure
• Distributed Systems
• Performance Optimization

Benefits

• Medical Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Commuter Spending Accounts
• Fertility Benefits
• Mental Health Support
• Employee Assistance Program
• Global Travel Medical Insurance
• Short Term Disability Insurance
• Long Term Disability Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Accident Insurance
• 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan
• Employee Stock Participation Plan
• Paid Time Off
• Parental Leave
• Bereavement Leave

About this role

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
Atlanta, US
Austin, US
Denver, US
New York, US
San Francisco, US
Seattle, US
Washington DC, US
Canada
About the role
Many of Cloudflare’s critical internal services run on Kubernetes. These services include those responsible for Cloudflare’s control plane and APIs, data analytics and other internal tools used to manage our global network. These Kubernetes platforms are purpose-built from the ground up and run on bare metal Linux in different regions around the world. The scale we work at involves tens of thousands of containers and terabits per second of network traffic. The team takes pride in knowing this platform helps run parts of the global Internet.
As an engineer on the Kubernetes platform team, you'll be building the tools to help engineers deploy and operate the services that make Cloudflare work. Our mission is to provide a reliable and flexible platform to help product teams release new software efficiently and safely. The role includes both software engineering and DevOps operational responsibilities.
Responsibilities
Design scalable and resilient systems that can keep up with company growth.
Work with application teams to understand their needs and challenges, and help them choose the best way to architect their systems to run well in our Kubernetes environment.
Harden the platform against security threats, noisy neighbours, and accidents.
Improve the efficiency of our use of resources such as CPU, memory, bandwidth, and storage.
Help respond to, resolve, and prevent incidents impacting the platform or our users.
Contribute back to the open source community. Some of our favorite open source projects include: Envoy, Contour, Consul, etcd, cdk8s, Cloudprober, Calico, Ceph, Rook, KubeVirt, and more.
Desirable Skills, Knowledge, and Experience
Experience managing production Kubernetes clusters.
Experience operating systems on-premise at scale in roles such as SRE, systems design or architecture.
Excellent debugging skills in a Linux environment.
Knowledge of how container runtimes work inside of Linux (isolation, storage, and networking).
A firm grasp of IP networking including routing and iptables/nftables.
Ability to work with codebases in Go, TypeScript, and Bash/shell.
The ability to break down complex problems into smaller pieces, provide options, talk through trade-offs, build consensus, and drive the effort to solve the problem.
Bonus Points
Familiarity with building platforms across multiple zones and regions as the foundation for other teams to build distributed highly-available applications.
Experience with configuration management frameworks such as SaltStack or Ansible.
Experience with continuous deployment tooling like ArgoCD and Argo Rollouts.
Operational/administrator experience with etcd, Ceph, Rook, KubeVirt, CNIs, ClusterAPI, Envoy, and/or Contour.
Experience as a user of Prometheus, Elasticsearch/Kibana, Vault, Redis, and/or Consul.
Compensation
Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location.
For California based hires: Estimated annual salary of $194,000 - $266,000
For Colorado based hires: Estimated annual salary of $168,000 - $231,000
For New York based hires: Estimated annual salary of $185,000 - $254,000
For Washington based hires: Estimated annual salary of $185,000 - $254,000
For Washington DC based hires: Estimated annual salary of $185,000 - $254,000
For Canada based hires: Estimated annual salary of $150,000 - $206,000
Applications will be accepted until December 25, 2026.
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 pr...

About Cloudflare

Computer and Network Security · 1,001-5,000 employees · headquartered in San Francisco, California · founded 2009