Distributed Systems Engineer - Data Platform (Delivery, Database, Retrieval) in London

Join to apply for the Distributed Systems Engineer – Data Platform (Delivery, Database, Retrieval) role at Cloudflare. We are looking for experienced and highly motivated engineers to join our Data Org and help build the future of data at Cloudflare. Our organisation is responsible for the entire data lifecycle – from ingestion and processing to storage and retrieval – powering the critical logs and analytics that provide our customers with real‐time visibility into the health and performance of their online properties.

Our mission is to empower customers to leverage their data to drive better outcomes for their business. We build and maintain a suite of high‐performance, scalable systems that handle more than a billion events in a second. As an engineer in this organisation, you will work on complex distributed systems challenges across different parts of our data stack.

Locations Available: London (UK), Lisbon (Portugal), or Austin (US).

Key Areas of Impact

• Data Delivery: Build and operate a high‐throughput, low‐latency distributed data delivery pipeline written primarily in Go, ingesting, processing, and routing massive volumes of data from Cloudflare's global network to multi‐core destinations.
• Analytical Database Platform: Contribute to our core analytical platform powered by ClickHouse, building and maintaining a high‐performance, scalable database platform for enormous analytical workloads.
• Data Retrieval: Build customer‐facing products that make data accessible and actionable, including public GraphQL APIs, robust log delivery solutions, and integration with customer destinations and alerting products.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable and reliable distributed systems across the entire data lifecycle.
• Build and optimise key components of the high‐throughput data delivery platform to ensure data integrity and low‐latency delivery.
• Develop new and improve existing components for the Cloudflare Analytical Platform to extend functionality and performance.
• Scale, monitor, and maintain the performance of large‐scale database clusters to accommodate growing data volumes.
• Develop and enhance customer‐facing GraphQL APIs, log delivery, and alerting solutions, focusing on performance, reliability, and user experience.
• Identify and remove bottlenecks across data platforms, from streamlining data ingestion to optimizing query performance.
• Collaborate with other Cloudflare teams to understand their data needs and build solutions that empower data‐driven decisions.
• Collaborate with the ClickHouse open‐source community to add new features and contribute to the upstream codebase.
• Participate in developing the next generation of data platforms, researching and evaluating new technologies and approaches.

Key Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in software development covering distributed systems and databases.
• Strong programming skills (Golang preferred) and deep understanding of software development best practices.
• Hands‐on experience with modern observability stacks, including Prometheus and Grafana, and handling high‐cardinality metrics at scale.
• Strong knowledge of SQL and database internals, including design, optimisation, and performance tuning.
• Solid foundation in algorithms, data structures, distributed systems, and concurrency.
• Strong analytical and problem‐solving skills with a willingness to debug, troubleshoot, and learn about complex high‐scale problems.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment and communicate effectively with other teams.
• Experience with ClickHouse is a plus.
• Experience with data streaming technologies (e.g., Kafka, Flink) is a plus.
• Experience developing and scaling APIs, particularly GraphQL, is a plus.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code tools like Salt or Terraform is a plus.
• Experience with Linux container technologies, such as Docker and Kubernetes, is a plus.

This role requires flexibility to be on‐call outside of standard working hours to address technical issues as needed.

What Makes Cloudflare Special?

We’re not just a highly ambitious, large‐scale technology company. Fundamental to our mission is protecting the free and open Internet. Projects like Project Galileo, the Athenian Project, and 1.1.1.1 exemplify our commitment to safety, accessibility, and privacy.

Sound like something you’d like to be a part of? We’d love to hear from you!

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 diversity and inclusiveness. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, 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.