Senior Engineering Manager, Cloudflare Network Interconnect

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 About the Role The CNI team builds and operates the systems that let Cloudflare's enterprise customers connect their networks directly to Cloudflare through private, dedicated interconnects — rather than traversing the public Internet. The product, Cloudflare Network Interconnect (CNI), supports various interconnect types across hundreds of locations worldwide.These systems underpin Magic Transit, Cloudflare WAN, Zero Trust, and application security for some of Cloudflare's largest customers. What you'll do As an Engineering Manager on the CNI team you will hire, mentor, and coach a distributed team of Software Engineers. You will play a key role in developing the team and shaping its culture and technical vision. You will work closely with Product Managers and other Engineering leaders to communicate the vision, prioritize the team's roadmap, and achieve cross-functional objectives. You are a growth-oriented individual who enjoys being outside of your comfort zone. You are comfortable in a fast-paced but sensible work environment. You value curiosity and empathy and lead with these values. Responsibilities • Hiring and developing a high-performing team and supporting individual growth. • Applying technical experience to evaluate tradeoffs, contribute to design decisions, and help drive resolution to customer-facing issues, while creating the space for engineers within the team to lead design and implementation. • Taking responsibility for the team's production services by organizing on-call rotations, handling customer escalations, and overseeing incident response and follow-up. • Driving reliability and automation improvements across the team's systems and services. • Coordinating with partner and stakeholder teams on cross-functional initiatives. Desirable Skills, Knowledge, and Experience • 3+ years experience as an Engineering Manager for a team of Software and Systems Engineers. • Demonstrate a track record of managing a team including hiring, onboarding, and professional development. You inspire your team to reach higher. You're as good at explaining "why" as you are "how". • Excel at planning and overseeing execution to meet commitments and deliver with predictability. • Technical background in IP networking: BGP, Layer 3 routing, physical and virtual interconnect technologies (cross-connects, VLANs, partner fabric integrations). • Experience building or operating provisioning/automation systems for network infrastructure. • Experience with monitoring, alerting, and debugging distributed systems. • Experience participating in and/or managing an on-call rotation for production services with direct customer impact. • Willingness to adopt and integrate AI tools and systems into your workflow. • Clarity in written and verbal communication. Bonus Points • Hands-on experience with BGP configuration, route policy, and peering operations. • Familiarity with network inventory and IPAM systems (e.g., NetBox). • Experience with cloud provider networking (AWS Direct Connect, GCP Partner Interconnect, Azure ExpressRoute). • Knowledge of GRE, VXLAN, or other overlay/tunnel technologies. • Systems-level programming experience in Go, Python, Rust, C, or C++. • Comfort with customer-facing technical communication (escalation handling, partner engagements). • Experience using AI-assisted engineering tools (e.g., code completion, codebase analysis, log/data exploration) in a professional setting. Compensation 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 Savi