Research Engineer - Machine Learning

About Us

At Cloudflare, we have our eyes set on an ambitious goal: to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world’s largest networks that powers approximately 25 million 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. 

We realize people do not fit into neat boxes. We are looking for curious and empathetic individuals who are committed to developing themselves and learning new skills, and we are ready to help you do that. We cannot complete our mission without building a diverse and inclusive team. We hire the best people based on an evaluation of their potential and support them throughout their time at Cloudflare. Come join us! 

Location: US Remote

About the Department

Cloudflare Research is involved with building the future of Cloudflare by tackling strategic projects that have a large impact on Cloudflare systems and the Internet at large. Team members independently drive greenfield projects, work closely with Cloudflare product and engineering teams on shared objectives, and build strong collaborations with both external organizations and other organizations within Cloudflare to achieve common goals.

Cloudflare Research embarks upon projects that help shape the future of the Internet at large, and the systems that drive it. We design, develop, and deploy these projects into Cloudflare systems to demonstrate their impact, and to share that knowledge with the wider standards and research communities -- often in collaboration with university or other industry labs. A sample of our recent high-profile works include Constellation AI, Encrypted Client Hello (ECH), Post Quantum Encryption, CAP, ZKP for browsers, and Addressing Agility. Our current research directions include applied cryptography, privacy, network protocols and architecture, measurement and performance evaluation, AI and ML for systems, systems for AI, and general distributed systems optimization.  We are open to researchers in all of these areas, and particularly solicit applications from researchers with backgrounds in ML for Systems or Systems for ML.  Particular attention will be paid to candidates with a background in ML and storage or network optimization. 

More information about Cloudflare's approach to research can be found here.

About the Role  

Cloudflare Research is looking for a senior ML researcher who is eager to help define and identify projects in the AI/ML space that Cloudflare is uniquely poised to build and benefit from.  Researchers and engineers across the Research Teams investigate new ideas, build new technologies, inform and execute telemetry, engage with global communities, and even dive into existing codebases to make meaningful changes in production environments. Prioritization and planning are key elements as the nature of the team’s research necessarily shifts between putting ideas into practice and onto paper, while ensuring rigorous evaluations of performance, correctness, or impact. The successful candidate will have a proven track record of success driving streams of investigation to completion.

General Requirements

• Demonstrated track record of design and follow-through on large-scale ML projects
• Have completed a PhD or equivalent graduate research program in Computer Science, Mathematics, or related STEM field 
• Must have a proven record of peer-reviewed research, standards, or equivalent in venues held by but not limited to ACM, USENIX, or IEEE, with publicly accessible paper artifacts where appropriate.
• Solid foundation in computer science, with specialization in machine learning and one or more Cloudflare-relevant areas such as distributed systems, storage, operating systems, networks, privacy, or telemetry.

• Excel at planning, working independently and multi-functionally, leading execution across teams to meet commitments, and deliver with predictability
• Demonstrate a track record of strong communication and technical influence. You’re as good as explaining “why” as you are “how.”
• Experience implementing tools, processes, internal instrumentation, methodologies, and resolving blockages