Principal Customer Engineer
About the 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
- Switzerland
Responsibilities
The Pre-Sales Solution Engineering organisation is responsible for the technical sale of the Cloudflare solution portfolio, ensuring maximal business value, fit-for-purpose solution design and adoption roadmap for our customers. Solution Engineering is made up of individuals from a wide range of backgrounds - from Financial Consulting to Product Management, Customer Support to Software Engineering, and we are serious about building a diverse, experienced and curious team.
As a 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 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.
Desirable Skills, Knowledge, and Experience
- Our Solutions Engineers come from a wide range of backgrounds: financial consulting, engineering, software development, product management, customer support & 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.
- You will have a good fundamental understanding on how to obtain the technical win so that customers choose our proposed solutions over that of competitors.
Additional experience might include a combination of the skills below:
- Business Fluency in German
- Ability to manage a project, work to deadlines, and prioritize between competing demands
- Understanding of “how the internet works”. For example:
- Know the differences between TCP & UDP, and understand what kinds of applications may favor one over the other;
- Can explain the difference between authoritative DNS & recursive DNS;
- You understand the role of a firewall, why TLS (SSL) plays an increasingly important role on today's Internet, a solid understanding of HTTP and a willingness to dive deeper into the quirks of clients & servers alike;
- Understanding of how customers make buying decisions, how to explain ROI.
- Travel expected to customer offices, conferences and/or do talks.
Bonus Points
- Previous experience in a pre-sales SE or consulting role. (note: doesn't have to be in tech);
- Demonstrated experience with a scripting language (e.g. Python, JavaScript, Bash) and a desire to expand those skills;
- You've built a web application before, or contributed to an existing application in a meaningful way;
- 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;
- Exposure to emerging technical landscape trends, e.g. SASE and Zero Trust.
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.
