Machine Learning Engineer

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.

Available Locations: Austin

About the Team

The Core Data team’s mission is building a centralized data platform for Cloudflare that provides  secure, democratized access to data for internal customers throughout the company. We operate infrastructure and craft tools to empower both technical and non-technical users to answer their most important questions. We facilitate access to data from federated sources across the company for dashboarding, ad-hoc querying and in-product use cases. We power data pipelines and data products, secure and monitor data, and drive data governance at Cloudflare. Our work enables every individual at the company to act with greater information and make more informed decisions. 

About the Role

We are looking for a Machine Learning Engineer to lead the transformation of our data lakehouse into a semantically-aware intelligence platform. Instead of traditional ETL, this role focuses on building the software layer that extracts meaning from our vast data stores. You will be responsible for developing and leveraging a Semantic Knowledge Graph to power LLM-driven applications, discovery tools, and automated reasoning systems that serve business needs across Product, Marketing, and Billing.

What You'll Do

• Architect Semantic Layers: Design and develop the software infrastructure to layer semantic meaning over our existing data stack, including Kubernetes, Trino, and Iceberg.
• Build Knowledge Graphs: Construct and maintain large-scale knowledge graphs from unstructured and structured sources to enable advanced reasoning.
• Develop AI Software: Build production-grade software and APIs that leverage LLMs and Graph RAG pipelines to solve complex business queries.
• Enhance Data Intelligence: Implement embedding-based retrieval and semantic deduplication to improve the precision and reliability of AI agents.
• Collaborate on AI Solutions: Work with cross-functional teams to deploy conversational agents and automated diagnostics tools that turn data into actionable business value.

Requirements

• 3-5+ years of experience in software or machine learning engineering with a focus on AI-driven applications.
• Expertise in Knowledge Representation: Proven experience building knowledge graphs (e.g., HNSW, Neptune) and using graph-based reasoning for AI.
• Proficiency with LLMs & GenAI: Hands-on experience with RAG pipelines, fine-tuning (SFT/LoRA), and LLM-as-a-judge evaluation frameworks.
• Strong Backend Skills: Proficient in Python, Go, or TypeScript, with the ability to build and debug complex software systems.
• Analytical Mindset: Strong ability to understand how semantic data structures drive business value and improve user decision-making.
• B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or related fields.
• Solid understanding of systems engineering principles and practices.

Desirable Skills

• Experience with Semantic Search and hybrid vector search query engines.
• Familiarity with MLOps and deploying models within Kubernetes environments.
• Published research or a strong background in Applied ML or Computational Intelligence.

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!

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.