Data Center Strategy - Edge

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. Job Title: Data Center Strategy - Edge Available Locations: San Francisco, Austin, Seattle, or New York About the Role We are seeking a new Data Center Strategy team member to improve the quality and unit cost and grow the size and number of our colocation sites/PoPs, and help us understand where on the map Cloudflare’s infrastructure needs to go next. You possess a broad set of contacts across the data center industry and are able to navigate local and international businesses in various markets to drive the best possible deal parameters. You will unlock efficiency within our vendor partner portfolio by understanding how to structure contracts to follow demand, keeping abreast of unique market dynamics and insights that help us negotiate, and managing vendor partner relationships to know where to invest and partner further with existing or new partners. We are looking for someone who excels at progressing many projects in parallel, managing dynamic day to day priorities with many stakeholders, and has experience implementing and refining sourcing best practices in a high growth environment. Getting stuff done is a must! The Data Center Strategy team is part of Cloudflare’s global Infrastructure strategy team. The infrastructure strategy team grows and manages Cloudflare’s global data center/PoP footprint, enabling Cloudflare’s tremendous growth with compute, network, and data center infrastructure, utilizing an extensive range of global partner vendors. What You'll Do: • Define regional vendor strategy for data centers • Own deals end to end involving new and existing data center vendors and sites to support Cloudflare’s infrastructure growth including planning, RFP, commercial negotiation and execution • Work cross-functionally with legal, operations, capacity planning, network strategy and security teams to understand requirements and project timelines • Establish and conduct scheduled QBR and other vendor management activities with top category partners • Represent Cloudflare credibly to external partner C-level senior management and at public conferences/events • Expert point of contact for internal business customers & external colocation partner vendors as needed • Contribute information to annual data center budget for effective tracking and benchmarking of infrastructure costs • Review colocation spend & invoices for management approval • Other duties as assigned Must Have Skills: • 10+ years in planning and managing data center footprints within a fast moving enterprise technology organization or cloud services, software or colocation company • Ability to multi-task and manage complex projects across multiple teams and geographies within set deadlines • Ability to navigate, solve problems and answer questions with minimal supervision • Relationship management experience and excellent communication skills • Demonstrated experience in commercial negotiation • Experience with rack, site power and white space planning (data center sales engineering) a plus • Experience with or understanding of network concepts a plus • Experience in budget planning, financial analysis, or other analytical role a plus • Experience with Jira a plus • Multilingual and/or experience living/working/conducting business in another country a plus • Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience required Nice-to-Have SKills: • Sale-leaseback, JV, or PPA / power-procurement work • Existing relationships with developers, wholesale operators, brokers, or utilities • High-density / liquid-cooling site constraints • Network (fiber diversity, latency, MMR) • Government incentives or economic-development agreements • Another language Compensation Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location. • For Bay Area based hires: Estimated annual salary of $166,000 - $271,000 • For New York based hires: Estimated annual salary of $158,000 - $257,000 • For Seattle based hires: Estimated annual Salary of $158,000 - $257,000 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 ba