Principal Systems Engineer, IPC

Available Locations: London or Lisbon

• The Team

  Cloudflares CDN group provides the core infrastructure for services at the edge a massive distributed system where milliseconds matter. As part of this group the Inter-Process Communication (IPC) team is responsible for building and maintaining the high-performance communication layer that connects all the different services. Our teams mission is to ensure this communication is as reliable secure and fast as humanly possible. We believe that Rust is the right tool for this challenge and our entire codebase is built with it.

  The Role

  As a Senior Engineer/Architect on the Platform team you will be instrumental in building the next generation of our communication strategy. This is more than just maintaining a system; its about innovating and building a platform that empowers teams across the company.

  You will coordinate efforts across multiple teams to design build and deploy new features that enhance the availability safety and reliability of our edge network. This is a unique opportunity to sit at the nexus of Cloudflares operations influencing how millions of people experience the internet.

  Your primary focus will be on building a high-performance platform with a keen eye on operational excellence. This includes defining and implementing clear Service Level Objectives (SLOs) monitoring key metrics and managing error rates to ensure a robust and reliable system.

  As a Senior Software Engineer on the IPC team youll be at the forefront of Cloudflares core infrastructure. This isnt just about writing code; its about shaping the future of how our distributed systems communicate. You will serve as a key technical leader responsible for designing and implementing the next generation of our communication protocols and their associated libraries.

  
  

  Your work will directly enable other engineering teams to build innovative services on top of a robust high-performance foundation. This role requires a unique blend of deep technical expertise and the ability to influence others. Youll work across teams to define new features ensure operational excellence and drive the adoption of your solutions.

  
  

  Your primary focus will be on:

  • Architecting and building new features for our high-performance communication protocol.
  • Championing operational excellence by defining and measuring key metrics like Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and error rates.
  • Driving cross-team collaboration to ensure our communication platform meets the needs of teams across the organization.

  What Youll Bring

  We are looking for seasoned professionals with a strong background in software architecture and distributed systems.

  • Deep expertise in Rust with a history of building complex production-grade applications.
  • Strong competencies in computer science including a solid understanding of algorithms data structures and concurrency control.
  • Experience with performance engineering and a proven track record of optimizing high-throughput low-latency systems.
  • Excellent communication and collaboration skills to drive consensus and coordinate with diverse engineering teams.
  • A passion for continuous improvement in both operations and product development.

  Bonus Points

  • A deep understanding of web protocols and web servers.
  • Experience with distributed systems architecture.
  • Knowledge of web security issues and industry standards.
  • Familiarity with Prometheus for monitoring and alerting.

  Most importantly were seeking a buildersomeone who is excited by the challenge of working on a system at a scale few companies ever reach. Join us in our mission to build a better internet for everyone!

What Makes Cloudflare Special

Were not just a highly ambitious large-scale technology company. Were 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 weve equipped more than 2400 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 Cloudflares 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 weve 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. Heres the deal - we dont 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 youd like to be a part of Wed 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.

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