Senior Systems Engineer, Workers AI

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 | New York, NY | San Francisco, CA or London, UK (Hybrid) About the role You'll design and build the core infrastructure that powers AI inference across Cloudflare's global network — real-time voice, frontier open LLMs, and customer-deployed models running on a heterogeneous fleet of GPUs and next-generation accelerators in hundreds of cities worldwide. Working alongside AI/ML engineers, hardware partners, and Cloudflare product teams, you'll solve hard problems in distributed systems and high-performance computing: sub-second model cold starts, multi-accelerator workload scheduling, efficient KV cache management, and a model deployment platform serving both Cloudflare and customers bringing their own models. We're building an AI inference platform embedded in the fabric of the internet — something that doesn't exist yet — and this role puts you at the center of it. We're looking for high-agency systems engineers who are energized by foundational infrastructure problems and want to define how AI runs at the edge of the network. Responsibilities • Platform Architecture: Develop and maintain core components of the serverless inference platform to ensure high availability and scalability for Cloudflare users. • Optimization & Performance: Optimize the model scheduling system to significantly increase efficiency and resource utilization across our inference infrastructure, and implement improvements to request routing logic to reduce latency for end-users. • System Reliability: Drive significant, measurable improvements in the platform's reliability and resilience by identifying and mitigating systemic risks. • Observability: Expand and refine the observability stack (metrics, logging, tracing) and fine-tune alerts to proactively identify and resolve production issues. • Technical Leadership: Lead complex, cross-functional technical projects from initial concept and design through final deployment and operationalization. • Mentorship: Act as a mentor to junior engineers and actively contribute to cultivating a strong, collaborative engineering culture within the team. Desirable skills, Knowledge & Experience • Proven experience in systems engineering, with a primary focus on distributed, high-performance systems. • Expert proficiency in Rust programming, particularly in an asynchronous environment. • Deep understanding and hands-on experience with relevant networking and application protocols (e.g., TCP, HTTP, WebSocket). • Solid experience with scaling and performance optimization techniques, including load balancing and caching in a distributed environment. Bonus Points • Demonstrable experience with container orchestration platforms, specifically Kubernetes and/or Nomad. • Familiarity with the unique architectural challenges involved in large-scale inference serving (e.g., LLMs and diffusion models). Compensation Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location. • For Bay Area based hires: Estimated annual salary of $194,000 - $266,000 • For New York City, New Jersey, Washington, Washington DC, and California (excluding Bay Area) based hires: Estimated annual salary of $185,000 - $254,000 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 sou