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.
Location, Bay Area, San Francisco
Senior Solutions Engineer - Digital Native Startups (Mid-Market)
About the Digital Native Segment:
Digital Native SEs at Cloudflare sell into the most innovative companies in North America. In targeting high-growth, technologically advanced, and venture-backed companies, SEs are positioned to drive in-depth product discussions while communicating and demonstrating value quickly to customers. This role within the digital native segment focuses on both the acquisition of prospective Digital Native accounts, as well as the expansion of existing customer accounts. The ideal candidate will have both a sales and technical background that enables them to drive customer engagement from technical professionals through to senior executive levels, and across Security, Network, Development and Infrastructure teams.
What you’ll do as a Senior Solutions Engineer
You are the technical lynchpin through the entire sales cycle - pre sales. You will work closely with our prospects and customers to educate, empower, and ensure their success on the Cloudflare platform. Your technical expertise in Cloudflare’s global distributed network and technology will allow you to find best-fit solutions for prospects, to train and onboard new customers via video-conference or in person, through documentation, and to support the long-term success of the customer. As a subject matter expert on web/mobile security and performance, you are a trusted source for developing new firewall rules from log files, crafting performance caching and delivery strategies, and creating or repurposing internal tools and scripts for customers.
As a Senior Solutions Engineer, you are the technical customer advocate within Cloudflare. To aid your customers, you will work closely with every team at Cloudflare, from Sales and Product, through to Engineering and Customer Support. Your goal of customer success should drive you through the entire organization as you seek out and create scalable solutions for your customer’s needs.
What we look for in our Senior Solutions Engineers
Our Solutions Engineers come from a wide range of backgrounds: financial consulting, engineering, software development, product management, customer support, and project delivery. We're serious about building a diverse team. When hiring we look for diversity of experience combined with genuine curiosity for our technology.
Ultimately, you are passionate about technology and have the ability to explain complex technical concepts in easy-to-understand terms. You are naturally curious, and an avid builder who is not afraid to get your hands dirty. You appreciate the diversity of challenges in working with customers, and look forward to helping them realize the full promise of Cloudflare. On the Solutions Engineering team, you will find a collaborative environment where everyone brings different strengths and jumps in to help each other.
Responsibilities
- As critical members of Cloudflare’s sales team, Solutions Engineers drive technical discussions and implementations to help generate new business, expand existing business, and keep our customers happy.
- In business generation and expansion, you’ll be tasked with qualification of prospect and customer use cases, technical requirements discovery, leading demonstrations, solution identification and design, and collaborative work on proofs-of-concept (PoCs).
- For our existing customers, Solutions Engineers are part of a dedicated account team that advises the customer on technical best practices, implementation of Cloudflare products and features, and strategic guidance on internet security and performance.
- The role requires 20-30% travel to attend meetings with prospects or customers, attend conferences and other industry events, and to collaborate with your Cloudflare teammates.
Requirements
- Demonstrated experience with a scripting language (e.g. Python, JavaScript, Bash, Lua, Go) or a desire to expand those skills.
- Expertise in internet technologies: OSI Model layers 1-7, BGP, GRE, TCP/UDP, DNS (authoritative and recursive), HTTP(S), SSL / TLS.
- Familiarity with Zero Trust Framework and SASE related concepts.
- 6 years plus of experience in a customer-facing sales or consulting role.
- Technical curiosity and passion: Cloudflare is at the cutting edge of internet technology, and our Solutions Engineers are viewed as subject-matter experts. It’s incumbent on us to stay up to date not only with Cloudflare’s specific products, but with industry trends.
- A focus on learning, teaching, collaboration, mentorship, and growth, not only personally but also within the team and company.
- Aside from technical and collaborative skills, we place a high value on project management, relationship building, and EQ.
Desired
- You've built web applications before, or contributed to existing web applications in a meaningful way.
- You understand the role of a firewall, the difference between L3, L4, and L7 firewalls, and that ‘ACL’ doesn't always mean Anterior Cruciate Ligament.
- You're not afraid of command-line interfaces, RESTful APIs, or analyzing HTTP request and response in a browser’s web inspector.
- You can describe the differences between CSRF, XSS, and SQLi in detail, and Cloudflare's role in defending against them.
- Understanding of, or experience with, regulatory requirements such a PCI DSS, HIPAA, and SOC-2.
- An undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related field. Reminder: this is not a strict requirement at all. Candidates from all walks of life are welcome.
Bonus Points
- Graduate-level degrees in Computer Science, Engineering or related fields. Reminder: this is not a strict requirement at all. Candidates from all walks of life are welcome.
- Certifications
More About You
- You can translate technical concepts and jargon for a wide variety of audiences: from systems engineers, to front-end developers, through to IT managers and C-levels in organizations.
- You want to be constantly learning new things and teaching what you've learned to the broader team through internal and external blog posts, team demos, and product training sessions.
- You have a knack for understanding problems and finding creative ways to solve them. Our product suite is ever-growing, and knowing how to identify which parts will solve a customer's particular problem is important.
- You understand how to manage a project, work to deadlines, and prioritize between competing demands.
Compensation
- San Francisco based hires: Packages of $220,000 to $253,000 or higher including a base + Commission.
This role is eligible to earn incentive compensation under Cloudflare’s Sales Compensation Plan. The estimated annual salary range includes the on-target incentive compensation that may be attained in this role under the Sales Compensation Plan.
Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location.
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 programs, including parental, pregnancy health, medical, and bereavement leave
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.
Project Galileo: Since 2014, we've equipped more than 2,400 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 Cloudflare’s 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, we've 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. Here’s the deal - we don’t 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 you’d like to be a part of? We’d love to hear from you!
Please note that applicants who progress to the offer stage of the interview process may be asked to attend an in-person interview within one of the Cloudflare Offices or Cloudflare Hubs. More details about this will be available at that stage of the interview process.
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. 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 [contact via apply link] or via mail at 101 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94107.