Senior Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering
CloudflareRole Description & Requirements
About Us
At Cloudflare, we are on a mission to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world’s largest networks that powers millions of websites and other Internet properties for customers ranging from individual bloggers to SMBs to Fortune 500 companies. Cloudflare protects and accelerates any Internet application online without adding hardware, installing software, or changing a line of code. Internet properties powered by Cloudflare all have web traffic routed through its intelligent global network, which gets smarter with every request. As a result, they see significant improvement in performance and a decrease in spam and other attacks. Cloudflare was named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top Company Cultures list and ranked among the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company.
At Cloudflare, we’re not looking for people who wait for a polished roadmap; we’re looking for the builders who see the cracks in the Internet that everyone else has simply learned to live with. We value candidates who have the instinct to spot a "normalized" problem and the AI-native curiosity to create a solution using the latest tools. Our culture is built on iteration, leveraging AI to ship faster today to make it better tomorrow, while ensuring that every improvement, no matter how small, is shared across the team to lift everyone up. If you’re the type of person who values curiosity over bureaucracy, and that AI is a partner in solving tough problems to keep the Internet moving forward, you’ll fit right in.
Location: Austin, TX | New York, NY | San Francisco, CA (metro areas)
About Cloudflare
At Cloudflare, our mission is bold yet simple: to help build a better Internet. Our global network handles trillions of requests each month, protecting and accelerating applications without added hardware, software, or code changes. Our Developer Platform, including Workers, Workers AI, R2, KV, Durable Objects, and Pages, empowers developers to build and deploy applications globally, faster than ever before.
About the Team
The Developer GTM organization is a startup within Cloudflare, driving how we attract, inspire, and grow the next generation of builders. We are redefining what developer acquisition looks like in a world where AI and distributed agents are reshaping the stack. Our mission is to create new pathways for developers to discover Cloudflare, whether through ecosystem partnerships, high impact content, or creative field engagement.
We are builders, storytellers, and connectors united by one goal: to make Cloudflare the most exciting place for developers to build.
About the Role
As the Senior Manager, Forward Deployed Engineering, you will lead a team of high-performing technical experts who help customers understand the business value and technical details of Cloudflare’s ecosystem. You will serve as a strategic partner to sales leadership, advising on programs to grow developer revenue and supporting complex strategic opportunities. In this leadership capacity, you will bridge the gap between technical sales and product engineering, ensuring your team effectively acts as the feedback loop that evolves our product offerings.
What you will do
- Strategic Oversight: Develop and execute the long-term technical sales strategy in partnership with regional and country sales leaders to drive pipeline and revenue for the Cloudflare Developer Platform.
- People Management: Directly manage, mentor, and grow a team of Solution Architects, ensuring they successfully serve as trusted technical advisors and regional leads.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Serve as the primary liaison with executive leadership, Product Management, and Product Marketing to align goals and deliver data-driven value propositions and customer stories.
- Budget and Resource Allocation: Manage the annual budget and make critical resource allocation decisions to ensure the team is staffed and equipped to meet customer needs and business goals.
- Executive Engagement: Support your team in aligning perceived business and technical value with C-Level executives at strategic customer accounts.
- Product Evolution: Oversee the creation of a succinct feedback loop between the field and internal teams to refine the product roadmap based on customer usage and competitive intelligence.
Who you are
- Technical Sales Leadership: Significant experience leading technical teams, with a background of 7+ years in technical sales of cloud computing, storage, or full-stack engineering.
- Strategic Planning: Proven ability to develop programs that drive sales strategy and pipeline generation in a complex technical environment.
- Deep Technical Expertise: Comprehensive knowledge of modern Web Technologies, Cloud Architecture, AI/ML, and the advantages of Distributed Serverless Platforms.
- System Design Authority: Ability to mentor teams on Systems Design theory and practice for distributed, full-stack applications to solve complex client needs.
- Cross-Functional Leadership: Demonstrated success collaborating with Product, Marketing, and Sales to drive revenue and customer adoption.
- Application Materials: Candidates must submit a resume/CV detailing their experience with team leadership and technical architecture.
Nice-to-Have Skills
- Platform Proficiency: Practical experience where you have built applications or solutions using Cloudflare Workers.
- Industry Certifications: Holding current AWS Solutions Architect or GCP Cloud Architect certifications.
- Developer Workflow Knowledge: Strong understanding of CI/CD practices, versioning, and system integrations to better guide the team on developer workflows.
Compensation
Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location.
For Bay Area based hires: Estimated annual salary of $244,000.00 - $310,000.00 OTE
For New York based hires: Estimated annual salary of $234,000.00 - $295,000.00 OTE
Equity
This role is eligible to participate in Cloudflare’s equity plan.
Benefits
Cloudflare offers a complete package of benefits and programs to support you and your family. Our benefits programs can help you pay health care expenses, support caregiving, build capital for the future and make life a little easier and fun! The below is a description of our benefits for employees in the United States, and benefits may vary for employees based outside the U.S.
Health & Welfare 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
Financial Benefits
- Short and Long Term Disability Insurance
- Life & Accident Insurance
- 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan
- Employee Stock Participation Plan
Time Off
- Flexible paid time off covering vacation and sick leave
- Leave programs, including parental, pregnancy health, medical, and bereavement leave
What Makes Cloudflare Special?
We’re not just a highly ambitious, large-scale technology company. We’re a highly ambitious, large-scale technology company with a soul. Fundamental to our mission to help build a better Internet is protecting the free and open Internet.
Project Galileo: Since 2014, we've equipped more than 2,400 journalism and civil society organizations in 111 countries with powerful tools to defend themselves against attacks that would otherwise censor their work, technology already used by Cloudflare’s enterprise customers--at no cost.
Athenian Project: In 2017, we created the Athenian Project to ensure that state and local governments have the highest level of protection and reliability for free, so that their constituents have access to election information and voter registration. Since the project, we've provided services to more than 425 local government election websites in 33 states.
1.1.1.1: We released 1.1.1.1 to help fix the foundation of the Internet by building a faster, more secure and privacy-centric public DNS resolver. This is available publicly for everyone to use - it is the first consumer-focused service Cloudflare has ever released. Here’s the deal - we don’t store client IP addresses never, ever. We will continue to abide by our privacy commitment and ensure that no user data is sold to advertisers or used to target consumers.
Sound like something you’d like to be a part of? We’d love to hear from you!
Please note that applicants who progress to the offer stage of the interview process may be asked to attend an in-person interview within one of the Cloudflare Offices or Cloudflare Hubs. More details about this will be available at that stage of the interview process.
This position may require access to information protected under U.S. export control laws, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations. Please note that any offer of employment may be conditioned on your authorization to receive software or technology controlled under these U.S. export laws without sponsorship for an export license.
Cloudflare is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people and place great value in both diversity and inclusiveness. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to their, or any other person's, perceived or actual race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, family care status, or any other basis protected by law. We are an AA/Veterans/Disabled Employer.
Cloudflare provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please tell us if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job. Examples of reasonable accommodations include, but are not limited to, changing the application process, providing documents in an alternate format, using a sign language interpreter, or using specialized equipment. If you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job, please contact us via e-mail at hr@cloudflare.com or via mail at 101 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94107.
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