Hardware Systems Engineer

Cloudflare • San Francisco, CA

1d

About The Position

Cloudflare’s Infrastructure group builds its global network, and its Hardware Engineering team researches, develops, tests, and deploys equipment that supports Internet traffic across a worldwide fleet. The Hardware Systems Engineer will work with Engineering, Product and Performance, and Hardware Sourcing teams to design, qualify, and maintain Cloudflare’s servers and related infrastructure hardware, including server components, PDUs, and network hardware.

The role supports end-to-end server product qualification, from concept through deployment, and helps ensure electrical, thermal, and mechanical designs are suitable for large-scale implementation by Infrastructure Operations. The engineer also supports requirements gathering for next-generation servers, component evaluation with silicon vendors, and integration of new servers into provisioning and fleet-management systems. The position is based in Austin.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Computer Science.
• Foundational knowledge or internship/academic experience in compute design engineering, validation, performance benchmarking, debugging, and deployment for data centers.
• Curiosity and desire to learn about Cloudflare hardware and products.
• Desire to learn how a diverse server fleet is managed at scale, including traffic management, capacity planning, and failover mechanisms.
• Desire to learn the tools Cloudflare uses to maintain and monitor hardware.
• Ability to use AI tools and automation to accelerate the qualification lifecycle and improve efficiency and quality.
• Organizational skills and interest in managing cross-functional technical projects and aligning architectural designs with delivery schedules.
• Self-motivation, a bias for action, and ability to drive initiatives forward in ambiguous environments without close supervision.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Computer Science.
• Knowledge or experience with server hardware, including motherboard, chassis, and thermal designs, as well as CPU, memory, and storage technology.
• Knowledge of Bash, Python, and basic Linux task automation.
• Knowledge of Redfish, IPMI, and server remote-management protocols, and experience with firmware updates.
• Knowledge or experience in performance optimization based on hardware/software co-design.
• Knowledge and experience debugging server hardware faults and working with sourcing teams and vendors to improve quality.
• Experience working with external vendors on server hardware qualification.
• Experience with observability and monitoring tools such as Prometheus and Grafana, including observing trends over time.
• Experience with software development tools and processes such as Git, TeamCity, and Jira.
• Experience in a hyperscale cloud infrastructure role.

Responsibilities

• Support end-to-end server product qualification from concept to deployment, ensuring electrical, thermal, and mechanical designs are optimized for large-scale implementation by Infrastructure Operations.
• Support gathering product requirements for next-generation servers and work with silicon vendors to assess performance and select components such as CPUs, memory, disks, NICs, and GPUs.
• Collaborate with strategy, sourcing, and capacity-planning teams on server infrastructure initiatives aligned with Cloudflare’s business goals.
• Work with Site Reliability Engineering to onboard and integrate next-generation servers into provisioning and fleet-management tools.
• Collaborate with performance and software teams to optimize software performance on hardware.
• Work with cross-functional teams to deploy firmware updates, triage hardware problem reports, resolve hardware issues, and maintain automation tools.
• Communicate results and updates through blog posts and internal talks.

Benefits

• Medical/Rx insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Flexible spending accounts
• Commuter spending accounts
• Fertility and family-forming benefits
• On-demand mental health support and Employee Assistance Program
• Global travel medical insurance
• Short- and long-term disability insurance
• Life and accident insurance
• 401(k) retirement savings plan
• Employee stock participation plan
• Flexible paid time off covering vacation and sick leave
• Leave programs, including parental, pregnancy health, medical, and bereavement leave
• Eligibility to participate in Cloudflare’s equity plan

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level