Cloudflare
Principal Software Engineer: Distributed Systems (Config, Test, & Deployment)
$200K–$288K
Hybrid +4 · Principal · Full-time · Posted Jul 1, 2026
- Location
- Hybrid
Austin, TX, United States
New York, New York, United States
San Francisco, CA, United States
Washington, DC, United States - Experience
- 10+ years of software engineering experience.
- Visa sponsorship
- Any offer may be conditioned on authorization to receive software or technology controlled under U.S. export laws without sponsorship for an export license.
About the job
Own the technical direction and development of Cloudflare’s globally distributed platform for safe configuration changes, progressive deployments, testing, and health mediation.
What you'll do
- Set technical direction across distributed storage, configuration delivery, releases, and systems that validate change safety.
- Design systems, write production code, review senior engineers’ proposals, and drive technical decisions across teams.
- Explore how LLMs can be integrated into engineering processes and systems.
What they ask for
- 10+ years of software engineering experience, including leading complex organization-wide initiatives with measurable impact.
- Demonstrated technical leadership across teams, including consensus-building, mentoring senior engineers, and establishing adopted architectural patterns.
- Experience designing, building, and managing high-volume, global-scale software applications.
- Expertise in at least one modern strongly-typed programming language; knowledge of API design practices; and experience using top-tier LLMs to plan, write, test, and deploy software.
Nice to have
- Experience scaling and simplifying Configuration Management systems; familiarity with Google’s Prodspec and Annealing systems.
- Experience with Kubernetes, RocksDB or similar data stores, or large-scale health-checking and probe platforms; public evidence of technical leadership.
Pay
$230,000 - $288,000 USD annual base salary (Bay Area); $220,000 - $275,000 USD annual base salary (Washington and New York City); $200,000 - $250,000 USD annual base salary (Austin)
Tools
LLMs, Kubernetes, RocksDB, Prodspec, Annealing
AI focus
Help determine how to integrate LLMs into engineering processes and systems; use top-tier LLMs to plan, write, test, and deploy software.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative