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Cloudflare

Security Engineer, Applied Research & Labs

Cloudflare is hiring a Security Engineer, Applied Research & Labs. Level rates it ; you can apply on Level.

AI in 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: Austin, TX

What You'll Do

Cloudflare is seeking a Security Engineer to design and build agentic security tooling for Cloudflare Security, and to release that work as open-source reference implementations, interactive labs, and technical workshops for customers and partners.

This role sits in the Applied Research & Labs function within the Office of the CSO. You will work embedded with Cloudflare's security teams, build on Cloudflare's Developer Platform, and represent the team's security & engineering work externally.

Security Tooling & Reference Implementations

  • Design and build agentic security workflows and tooling for Cloudflare Security, including multi-agent orchestration, tool integration, and evaluation harnesses
  • Release internal harnesses, skill definitions, and orchestration workflows as documented open-source reference implementations
  • Implement on Cloudflare Workers, Durable Objects, Workflows, Workers AI, AI Gateway, and the Agents SDK

Labs & Workshops

  • Define the technical scope and sequencing of each lab, including the failure modes participants will hit and the scaffolding they need
  • Build and operate the lab infrastructure: per-participant isolation, automated provisioning, state reset, and teardown
  • Run hands-on workshops where customers and partners build and deploy the tooling themselves
  • Document and package workshop formats so other Cloudflare engineers can deliver them

External Engagement

  • Present Cloudflare's agentic security architecture through customer briefings and conference talks
  • Author technical deep dives and architecture write-ups that establish Cloudflare Security as a recognized voice in the security community
  • Partner with Product and Engineering to align external technical content with the roadmap

Required Qualifications

  • 4+ years in software engineering, shipping and operating production systems
  • Demonstrated experience building interactive labs, hands-on learning platforms, or developer training environments, including the infrastructure behind them
  • Strong design judgment for technical learning experiences, including scope, sequencing, and knowing what to leave out
  • Proficiency in TypeScript, Python, or a comparable language, with production experience in distributed or event-driven systems
  • Hands-on experience building LLM-based systems, including agent orchestration, tool use, context engineering, and evaluation
  • Experience with Cloudflare Workers, Durable Objects, Workflows, Workers AI, AI Gateway, and Vectorize, or an equivalent serverless stack
  • Working knowledge of application and infrastructure security, including common vulnerability classes and secure development practices
  • Published technical writing, conference talks, or open-source contributions

Bonus Points

  • Hands-on security background in any domain
  • Experience with the Cloudflare Agents SDK 
  • Experience with developer education, technical certification programs, or developer relations
  • Maintainer or significant contributor to an open-source security or developer tooling project
  • Experience speaking at security or developer conferences

Location & Travel

  • Based in Austin, TX
  • 15-25% travel for customer workshops, conferences, and other Cloudflare offices
  • Occasional work outside standard hours to support sessions across EMEA and APAC time zones

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 hr@cloudflare.com or via mail at 101 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94107.

How we rate this

Security Engineer, Applied Research & Labs at Cloudflare rates 28 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Little AI. AI is not part of the work.

  1. ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
  2. ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
  3. ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
  4. ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Open the description and count.

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