Distributed Systems Engineer – Data Platform, Analytics and Alerts

Cloudflare

Software Engineer developing APIs and alerting systems within Cloudflare's data organization. Focusing on distributed systems and customer-facing services for analytics and alerts.

Posted 6/12/2026full-timeAustin • Texas • 🇺🇸 United StatesMid-LevelSeniorWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

Distributed SystemsDockerGoGrafanaGraphQLKafkaKubernetesLinuxPrometheusSaltStackSQLTerraform

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Develop and enhance our customer-facing APIs focusing on performance, reliability, and an intuitive user experience.
Design, build, and maintain our near real-time alerting platform, from data processing and anomaly detection to reliable notification delivery.
Optimise the performance of complex analytical queries that power our APIs and dashboards, working closely with the database platform team.
Create intuitive and powerful tools that allow customers to explore their data and configure meaningful alerts based on logs and metrics.
Scale our API and alerting infrastructure to support a growing number of internal and external use cases.
Collaborate with front-end engineers and product managers to define API contracts and deliver a seamless data experience for our users.
Ensure the operational health of our APIs and alerting systems by developing comprehensive monitoring, and participating in an on-call rotation (with the flexibility to be on-call outside of standard working hours as needed).

Requirements

What you’ll need

3+ years of experience working in software development covering distributed systems and scalable APIs.
Strong programming skills (Go is preferable), with a deep understanding of software development best practices for building performant, customer-facing services.
Hands-on experience with modern observability stacks, including Prometheus, Grafana, and a strong understanding of handling high-cardinality metrics at scale.
Strong knowledge of SQL, including extensive experience with complex query optimisation.
A solid foundation in computer science, including algorithms, data structures, distributed systems, and concurrency.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a willingness to debug, troubleshoot, and learn about complex problems at high scale.
Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment and communicate effectively with other teams across Cloudflare.
Experience developing and scaling APIs, particularly GraphQL, is a strong plus.
Experience with data streaming technologies (e.g., Kafka, Flink) for real-time processing is a plus.
Experience with Infrastructure as Code tools like SALT or Terraform is a plus.
Experience with Linux container technologies, such as Docker and Kubernetes, is a plus.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Health insurance
Equipment allowances
Professional development opportunities

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

GoSQLGraphQLdata processinganomaly detectioncomplex query optimisationalgorithmsdata structuresdistributed systemsconcurrency

Soft Skills

analytical skillsproblem-solving skillscollaborationcommunication