Principal Partner Engineer

Cloudflare•San Francisco, CA

8d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Partner Engineer (PE) is a high-impact, strategic technical sales leader responsible for end-to-end technical lifecycle and enablement of the assigned partners, managing both pre-sales and post-sales engineering activities. In this role, you will act as the single technical point of contact as the trusted advisory for your assigned partners, driving technical validation during the sales cycle, architecting their delivery readiness and ensuring ongoing Partner Success. The role focuses heavily on driving value-based solution selling to accelerate the adoption of Cloudflare platform with focus on Cloudflare One (SASE/SSE) and AI Infrastructure (Workers AI / AI Gateway). By cultivating deeply technical champions within the partner organization, aligning architectures to tangible business outcomes, optimizing post-sales delivery and building joint managed services offering, you will directly expand and influence the pipeline to maximize Partner-Influenced Opportunity (PIO) revenue.

Requirements

8+ years of technical, partner-facing experience (e.g., Systems Engineer, Solutions Architect, or Technical Account Manager) in cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, or networking.
Strong technical depth in Cloudflare One (CF1) or equivalent SASE/SSE architectures, Zero Trust, DNS, and application security, alongside hands-on familiarity with AI deployment, AI Gateway, LLM orchestration frameworks, or vector databases.
Proven track record of developing technical talent or building "champion" programs within partner organizations, specifically driving adoption of complex cloud networks and AI technologies.
Deep understanding of enterprise IT, multi-cloud, and hybrid cloud environment while managing complex projects with multiple stakeholders
Demonstrated ability to manage the technical lifecycle of a deal from initial pre-sales discovery and CF1/AI PIO generation through post-sale service delivery.
Strong communication skills with a track record of presenting complex CF1 architectures and AI-driven use cases to partner leadership and technical teams alike.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

Own the technical relationship with Partners to align on building joint Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies.
Align, build, and accelerate partner technical capabilities, enabling them to lead deep technical discovery and architectural design to independently sell scalable solutions leveraging the Cloudflare Platform with a strong focus on AI and Cloudflare One (CF1).
Own and drive the end-to-end Technical Account Plan (TAP) for assigned strategic partners.
Act as the primary architect mapping partner business goals to technical execution milestones, ensuring continuous alignment on CF1 and AI adoption targets.
Identify, enable, and cultivate key technical advocates and "Champions" within the partner organization to scale Cloudflare expertise independently, generate Partner-Influenced Opportunities (PIO), and empower them to deliver high-value professional services around Zero Trust and AI application security.
Collaborate with sales teams to proactively source, qualify, and expand PIO through strategic architectural alignment, focusing on migrating legacy network architectures to CF1 and integrating secure AI solutions.
Enable partners' technical validation, proof-of-concept (PoC), demo, pipeline generation, and pipeline acceleration capabilities.
Identify joint pursuit accounts, facilitate strategic technical account planning, and deliver cutting-edge solution architecture sessions for Named Partners
Own the ASD partner journey to ensure partners possess the advanced capabilities required to deploy, manage, and support the Cloudflare platform and AI application workloads seamlessly.
Build and co-develop joint services catalogues with key partners, accelerating the creation and launch of their own Cloudflare-focused services offerings, managed CF1 SASE practices, and AI security assessments.
Enable partners to embed CF1 and Workers AI capabilities into their own managed security portfolios to shorten time-to-market, protect client AI pipelines, and maximize profitability.
Develop, manage, and track key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure and improve the effectiveness of these partner service deliveries
Act as the escalated technical point of contact to ensure long-term architectural health, utilizing telemetry and proactive design to move the partner relationship from reactive to strategics for Cloudflare.
Champion the use of Cloudflare OS and AI tools (Agent PAT and Agent Echo) to automate standard, repeatable technical tasks, optimizing operational efficiency and freeing up bandwidth for high-touch, strategic partner engagements.
Engage partner champions in the Partner Technical Advisory Council (PTAC) to give them early access to beta software, capture raw product feedback, and drive joint co-innovation on CF1 features and emerging AI products.
Participate in continuous cross-training programs to maintain peak proficiency in both pre-sales scoping and post-sales service deployment across the entire Cloudflare One and AI ecosystem.

Benefits

Medical/Rx Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
Flexible Spending Accounts
Commuter Spending Accounts
Fertility & Family Forming Benefits
On-demand mental health support and Employee Assistance Program
Global Travel Medical Insurance
Short and Long Term Disability Insurance
Life & 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