Senior Customer Engineer AI/ Start Up's

Cloudflare•San Francisco, CA

26d•Onsite

About The Position

Cloudflare is hiring a customer-facing technologist to support developer-first, digital-native startups and high-growth cloud-native businesses. The Senior Solutions Engineer partners closely with Sales to lead technical discovery, qualify opportunities, and guide prospects and customers toward building on the Cloudflare Developer Platform. The role calls for credible technical engagement with developers, founding engineers, and CTOs, while translating customer goals into platform solutions and adoption roadmaps. It is not a software developer position, though familiarity with building web applications and the ability to read code and create demos are valuable. The position covers both acquisition of new accounts and expansion of existing accounts. The engineer works with customers through discovery calls, Slack channels, and working sessions; presents tailored demos and architecture discussions; and leads proofs of concept and build activities. The role also includes producing professional technical content, sharing knowledge internally, advising on best practices, and representing Cloudflare at developer, community, technology, and industry events. The role is based in San Francisco, and candidates must be local or willing to relocate to the Bay Area. It requires up to 50% travel. For San Francisco-based hires, estimated annual compensation is $213,500–$335,500 OTE, base plus commissions. The role is eligible for Cloudflare’s equity plan. Cloudflare provides a benefits package supporting employees and their families; U.S. benefits include health and welfare, financial, and time-off programs.

Requirements

Previous experience as a Solutions Engineer or in another customer-facing technical role.
Experience in pre-sales or technical sales and comfort operating in a fast-moving environment.
Ability to lead technical discovery, draw out requirements, qualify fit early, and distinguish customer needs from noise.
Credibility discussing architecture, APIs, and platform design with engineers; this is not a production coding role.
Experience building web applications or making meaningful contributions to existing web applications.
Strong written, verbal, presentation, and executive communication skills, including the ability to communicate with both hands-on developers and senior stakeholders.
Proven ability to build deep technical relationships with engineers and technical founders and to manage stakeholder relationships toward consensus.
Ability to manage technical sales within accounts, including champion development, technical wins, and validation.
Ability to work on multiple projects and activities concurrently, with urgency, curiosity, and a team-oriented approach.
Bachelor's degree or equivalent relevant work experience.
Willingness to travel up to 50% for customer or prospect meetings, conferences, industry events, and collaboration with Cloudflare teammates.
Knowledge of the Cloudflare Developer Platform and industry components, including serverless compute and application development with Workers, Durable Objects, Workers AI, R2, KV, D1, Vectorize, Queues, and Pages.
Knowledge of AI/GenAI application patterns, including inference at the edge, RAG, vector databases, and startup AI initiatives.
Knowledge of HTTP technologies, including reverse proxy (such as WAF and CDN), forward proxy (secure web gateway), and serverless application development.
Knowledge of Internet security technologies, including DDoS and mitigation, firewalls, TLS, VPN, and DLP.
Knowledge of networking technologies, including TCP, UDP, DNS, IPv4 and IPv6, BGP routing, GRE, SD-WAN, MPLS, and Global Traffic Management.
Knowledge of zero-trust network access and SASE concepts, including identity management and authentication.
Knowledge of cloud computing technologies such as AWS, GCP, or Azure.
Scripting or programming familiarity with one or more of JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Golang, or BASH sufficient to read code, build demos, and converse with engineers.
Ability to translate technical concepts and jargon for a range of audiences, from systems engineers and frontend developers to technical founders and C-level leaders.
Ability to learn new products and identify which parts of the product suite address a customer's problem.
Ability to manage projects, meet deadlines, and prioritize competing demands.

Nice To Haves

Experience selling to or working with developer-led, cloud-native, or startup organizations.
Experience building or architecting applications on a serverless or edge platform.
Undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field; the posting states this is not a strict requirement.
Understanding of or experience with regulatory requirements such as FedRAMP, GDPR, PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2, or ISO/IEC standards.
Strong domain expertise in developer platforms and AI/GenAI application patterns.

Responsibilities

Lead technical discovery in the cloud-developer vertical, uncovering how customers build, what they aim to ship, and where Cloudflare fits.
Join sales-led discovery calls early, help qualify opportunities, and remain engaged with customer teams through channels such as Slack and working sessions.
Identify customer initiatives and business problems, especially around product development and AI, and map them to the Cloudflare platform.
Build technical relationships and champions in customer accounts, from developers and founding engineers to CTOs.
Develop and present tailored technical content and demos for developers and senior technical leaders.
Lead demonstrations and proof-of-concept or build activities for prospects and customers.
Evangelize the Cloudflare Developer Platform, including Workers, Workers AI, Durable Objects, R2, D1, KV, Vectorize, Queues, and Pages.
Create and share professional content such as reference architectures, demos, and blog posts, and contribute to team knowledge sharing.
Represent Cloudflare at developer, community, technology, and industry events through expertise and thought leadership.
Apply in-depth vertical or domain expertise and advise customers on best practices.
Manage technical sales within accounts, develop champion relationships, drive technical wins, and assist with technical validation.
Manage multiple projects and activities concurrently, working to deadlines and prioritizing competing demands.

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
Equity plan eligibility