Engineering Manager, WAF Data Science

At Cloudflare, we have our eyes set on an ambitious goal: to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world’s largest networks that powers approximately 25 million 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. 

We realize people do not fit into neat boxes. We are looking for curious and empathetic individuals who are committed to developing themselves and learning new skills, and we are ready to help you do that. We cannot complete our mission without building a diverse and inclusive team. We hire the best people based on an evaluation of their potential and support them throughout their time at Cloudflare. Come join us! 

About the team

The WAF Data Science team aims to make the most from the 30 million peak requests per second that we handle. We want to be able to train and serve models, generate insights, and generally utilise data to improve the WAF product that we offer to customers. We're innovating very quickly using industry standard approaches alongside novel machine learning models for detecting malicious traffic. We’re aiming to expand the scope of our research and development to include models which detect other kinds of malicious traffic in support of Cloudflare’s expanding security product offering. 

The product is built by a small team of engineers and data scientists, using a mix of technologies including Kafka, Postgres, Clickhouse, TensorFlow, Python, and Rust. 

What you'll do

As Engineering Manager for the WAF Data Science team your primary responsibility is to build the right team and support the engineers building our machine learning models and the associated data pipelines. This involves ensuring that the goals are clear, that the right processes, tooling and resources are available, and that the technical architecture meets requirements. You will use your technical knowledge and operational experience to guide the team, though the role does not involve hands-on development work. This role will involve working with other product teams to determine road maps and deliverables based on priority and team availability.

We aim to ensure that everyone in Cloudflare has the opportunity to find their dream job within Cloudflare. As part of this, you will work to develop the team’s skills and careers, and coordinate with other teams across the organisation. As your career progresses in this role, you will also have the opportunity to extend your work to support our wider portfolio of security products.

Desirable skills, knowledge and experience

It is not essential to have experience of all of the following, but all are relevant for the role:

• Familiarity with data science or machine learning technologies and methodologies
• Experience in engineering management with a track record of delivery to tight deadlines
• Line management experience including hiring, on-boarding, mentoring and professional development
• Experience building products using user-centered and iterative development processes - a vital part of Cloudflare products is that they are easy to configure correctly
• Experience working in a multidisciplinary team, for example with product management, design, front and back end development, operations and support representatives
• Experience running services at scale and iterating at pace, while maintaining operational stability
• Experience implementing tools, process, internal instrumentation, methodologies and resolving blockages
• Ability to handle difficult situations with empathy, finding the best resolution for all involved

Bonus Points

The following are not essential, but will help you be effective in the role more quickly:

• Familiarity with internet security
• Familiarity with delivering and supporting software as a service
• Past experience as a hands-on data scientist or data engineer
• Mentoring and supporting people with different experiences and backgrounds

How to be successful in this role

Cloudflare gives engineering teams a high degree of autonomy in how they meet their objectives. Successful managers play a key supporting role in creating the circumstances that allow these teams to be successful.

Within the team, this means providing a safe and supportive environment, providing the right combination of mentoring, guidance, direction, inspiration, opportunity and leadership to each individual team member, according to their needs.

Outside the team, it involves being an advocate for the team, ensuring that it is set up for success, with the right recognition, resources and support. When things don’t go well, it involves performing a dispassionate analysis of the circumstances, and taking responsibility for changing the situation. This team will also be heavily coordinating with other product teams, so the ability to balance priorities to ensure that the highest priority projects are given the attention they require.

Most of all, it involves patience and empathy in all directions, to build a team which is stronger than the sum of its parts.

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: We equip politically and artistically important organizations and journalists 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: We created 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.

Path Forward Partnership: Since 2016, we have partnered with Path Forward, a nonprofit organization, to create 16-week positions for mid-career professionals who want to get back to the workplace after taking time off to care for a child, parent, or loved one.

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.