Software Engineer – Distributed Systems (Unimog L4 Load Balancer)

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.

We realize people do not fit into neat boxes. We are looking for curious and empathetic individuals who are committed to developing themselves and learning new skills, and we are ready to help you do that. We cannot complete our mission without building a diverse and inclusive team. We hire the best people based on an evaluation of their potential and support them throughout their time at Cloudflare. Come join us!

Available Locations: London, Lisbon or Austin

About The Team

We are a team of software engineers who build distributed systems critical to keeping Cloudflare’s network operating smoothly and efficiently. We work with the latest Linux network technologies and low-level details of network protocols. But we’re also responsible for sophisticated automated control systems. The code we write runs on thousands of servers in hundreds of data centres around the world. As the scale of Cloudflare's network and the variety of services we offer continue to grow, so do the challenges we tackle.

What you’ll do

• You’ll participate in the ongoing development of a load distribution system that works at the scale of Cloudflare’s edge network.
• You’ll take on challenging projects that require focus and determination, pragmatism and innovation, and careful consideration of risk.
• You’ll get to know the details of Cloudflare’s software and hardware infrastructure in order to design software that behaves well even when failures occur.
• You’ll collaborate with engineers across the company, from operations teams to the teams that build our customer‑facing products.
• You’ll inspect the production behaviour of our systems, to check that they are working as intended and spot opportunities for improvement.
• You’ll be part of the on‑call rota for the occasional cases when our operations teams need to escalate problems.

What we are looking for

We are looking for smart, innovative team players that have broad experience covering some or all of:

• Linux kernel network stack development (particularly eBPF)
• Complex distributed systems written in Go
• Understanding of Internet protocols and technologies like IP, TCP, UDP, QUIC, DNS, HTTPS, BGP

People who excel in this role:

• Willing to write code in Go.
• Relish opportunities to dive into new technologies, and a demonstrated ability to do so.
• Awareness of networking concepts down to layer 2.
• Commitment to high code quality standards, both individually and working as part of a team.
• Comfortable understanding and working with complex distributed systems.
• Understanding of techniques to manage risk when evolving critical systems.
• Excellent communicator and team player.

Bonus Points

Skills the role requires; we’re happy to help you learn on the job, but prior experience is beneficial:

• Experience with Linux kernel network stack development (eBPF).
• Solid understanding of routing protocols, particularly BGP.

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.

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.