About the role
Cloudflare’s Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) program (Principal Professional Services Engineer) provides customers with a dedicated, hands-on technical expert embedded directly within their environment. This is not a traditional support or purely advisory engagement—it is a staff-augmentation model where you act as an extension of the customer’s team, taking the lead in managing, optimizing, and evolving their Cloudflare solutions.
Responsibilities, requirements, fit, evidence and preparation are organized here. The original posting stays available for final verification.
What they’re looking for
Select a requirement to inspect fit, evidence or application context.
- 15+ years of experience in a customer-facing technical role.
- Recognized Expertise in one of the following focus areas with a proven track record of leading complex, enterprise-scale engagements:
- Applications — Advanced tuning of WAF, Bot Management, API Gateway, DDoS protection, Rate Limiting, and performance optimization for global web properties. Experience designing security architectures for large-scale, multi-zone deployments.
- Network — Hands-on management of Magic Transit, BYOIP, complex L3/L4 routing, DDoS resilience, and low-latency global connectivity design. Experience with network transformations and MPLS/SD-WAN migrations.
- Zero Trust / SASE — Securing distributed workforces with Access, Gateway, CASB, RBI, and DLP. Proven experience implementing Zero Trust architectures at enterprise scale.
- Leadership & Mentorship — Demonstrated experience mentoring junior team members, leading technical workshops, and contributing to the development of service methodologies, best practices, and reusable assets.
- Strong Networking Foundation — Expert-level understanding of the OSI model, TCP/IP, TLS, DNS, and HTTP.
- Hands-On Technical Skills — Demonstrated ability to implement, configure, and troubleshoot complex solutions. Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools (e.g., Terraform) and scripting (e.g., Python, JavaScript, Bash) is highly desirable.
- Project & Program Management — Ability to manage multiple competing priorities, work to deadlines, and deliver results in ambiguous or fast-moving environments. Experience scoping and estimating complex engagements.
- Communication & Executive Presence — Exceptional verbal and written communication skills. Ability to translate complex technical concepts for both technical and executive audience
- Regional Experience — Experience working with enterprise customers in APJC. Understanding of regional compliance requirements, business culture, and technical ecosystems.
Helpful, not always essential
- Experience in heavily regulated industries (Public Sector, Financial Services, Healthcare) or complex legacy-migration environments.
- Relevant industry certifications: CISSP, CCIE, AWS, GCP, Azure certifications, or equivalent.
- Familiarity with Agile methodologies and enterprise change-management processes.
- Prior experience with Cloudflare’s product suite and edge-network ecosystem.
How they work
- 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.
Eligibility
export laws without sponsorship for an export license.
How to apply
- Project & Program Management — Ability to manage multiple competing priorities, work to deadlines, and deliver results in ambiguous or fast-moving environments.
- Please tell us if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job.
- 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.
About Cloudflare
✓ Verified
We're not looking for people who wait for a polished roadmap. We're looking for builders — people who spot the "normalized" problem everyone else has learned to live with and have the curiosity and drive to fix it. Our culture is built on iteration, leveraging AI to move faster and sharing every improvement across the team. If you value curiosity over bureaucracy and see AI as a partner in solving hard problems, you'll fit right in.
If this one isn’t right.
Related live opportunities you can compare without restarting your search.
Direct employer source
Aptiora keeps the source available for trust and final verification while the working experience stays here.