Network Deployment Engineer

Role summary

In this role, you will focus on the buildout and expansion of our global network infrastructure across 700+ datacenter locations. You will work closely with Cloudflare’s Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team, Network Engineering team, and various global partners—including hardware vendors, datacenter providers, and ISPs—to aggressively scale and maintain our physical footprint. This is a highly visible position requiring a strong blend of physical networking knowledge, datacenter infrastructure expertise, basic data analysis, and proactive project coordination.

Role Responsibilities

• Provisioning & Deployment: Provision, configure, monitor, and maintain physical hardware, networking devices, and software in both greenfield deployments and brownfield migrations.
• Remote Datacenter Operations: Perform server administration remotely using IPMI/BMC out-of-band management tools for server provisioning, troubleshooting, and firmware updates.
• Automation & AI Workflows: Build scripts using Python and other tools to eliminate repetitive toil. Actively leverage and develop agentic AI tools to reduce administrative overhead.
• Vendor & Contractor Management: Direct remote hands and field contractors on rack-and-stack installations, optical cross-connects, cable management, power (AC/DC), and cooling requirements.
• Technical Guidance: Provide technical leadership to remote contractors and junior team members during on-site deployments, walking them through configurations and quality control.
• Documentation & Process Improvement: Create and maintain standardized SOPs, MOPs, runbooks, and visibility metrics to ensure operational consistency across all global regions.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Infrastructure Planning, SRE, and Network Engineering teams on global expansion projects. Limited travel required.

Role Requirements

Must-Have Skills

• 5+ years of hands-on experience in Data Center Operations, Network Engineering, Linux System Administration, SRE, or DevOps.
• Datacenter Infrastructure: In-depth knowledge of physical power/cooling, optics (CWDM/DWDM), cable standards, and remote "lights-out" management (IPMI/BMC).
• Networking Foundations: Strong grasp of network protocols, topologies, and design, with experience troubleshooting physical and logical network connectivity.
• Automation & Tooling: Proficient in writing Python or Bash scripts to automate operational tasks. Experience using or building agentic AI tools for workflow efficiency is required.
• Configuration Management: Hands-on experience with tools such as SaltStack, Ansible, Puppet, or Chef.
• Operational Drive: Proven capability to manage global vendors, anticipate blockers before execution, spot failure patterns, and write precise MOPs/SOPs.

Nice-To-Have Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, MIS, or equivalent practical experience.
• Familiarity with network NOS platforms: Juniper Junos, Cisco IOS/NX-OS, Arista EOS, SONiC, Ciena, or Nokia/Infinera.
• Core internet routing knowledge (BGP, Anycast) and load balancing concepts (Nginx, HAProxy).
• Basic program management experience using JIRA, Excel, or Google Sheets to track multi-region rollouts.
• Multi-lingual capabilities and experience managing infrastructure across diverse international regions.
• Linux certifications (RHCSA/RHCE) or programming experience in Go.

Bonus Points

• Professional level network certification(s) (JNCIP, CCNP, etc) or higher.
• Linux certifications. Experience with continuous / rapid deployment.
• Experience working in a 24/7/365 mission-critical service environment (on-call rotation required)
• Knowledge of the OSI-model and experience isolating network, hardware and software issues.

Compensation

Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location.

• For Colorado based hires: Estimated annual salary of $114,000 - $157,000
• For New York City, Washington, Washington D.C. based hires: Estimated annual salary of $126,000 - $173,000.

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