Lead and mentor a team of engineers in Linux Kernel and systems development, overseeing delivery, debugging, and team performance.
Available Locations: Austin, TX, New York, NY, San Francisco, CA
What You'll Do
What You'll Bring
Compensation
Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location.
Equity
This role is eligible to participate in Cloudflare's equity plan.
What You'll Do
- Lead and Mentor: Manage a high-performing team of kernel and systems engineers, fostering a culture of "collaboration-first" and continuous knowledge sharing both internally and with the global open-source community.
- Own the OS Lifecycle: Oversee the end-to-end delivery of the Linux Kernel and core OS components. Your goal is a fully automated continuous delivery pipeline that moves from merge to 100% production in less than 30 days.
- Drive Technical Vision: Steer the Cloudflare kernel development roadmap. You will balance the need for cutting-edge features with the absolute requirements of production stability, security, and performance.
- Upstream Advocacy: Promote a "minimal patch" philosophy by ensuring your team is a top contributor to the Linux Kernel. You will support engineers in becoming upstream maintainers for critical subsystems.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Act as a consultant to hardware and service teams, helping them onboard new hardware and optimize workloads for our OS. You'll lead a "virtual team" environment where any engineer at Cloudflare can contribute to the kernel.
- Innovate Debugging: Tackle the "impossible" challenges of kernel-level debugging. You will lead the development of automated systems that collect critical telemetry when a system crashes, even when traditional debuggers cannot run.
- Measure Success: Use DORA metrics and team-specific capabilities - such as the "time to fix a kernel issue" and upstream commit volume - to track and improve team impact.
What You'll Bring
- Systems Leadership: 5+ years of experience managing engineering teams, ideally in low-level systems, kernel development, or large-scale infrastructure environments.
- Low-Level Expertise: A deep understanding of Linux Kernel internals, x86/ARM architecture, and OS design fundamentals. You should be comfortable discussing memory management, schedulers, and network stacks.
- Automation Mindset: Experience building or managing CI/CD pipelines for foundational software. You believe that "toil" is a bug and automation is the feature.
- Open Source Pedigree: A proven track record of engaging with the open-source community. You understand the nuances of upstreaming and how to navigate community dynamics effectively.
- Operational Empathy: An understanding of the unique challenges of a global "reboot-limited" production environment. You prioritize stability and have experience with pre-production QA and synthetic workload evaluation.
- Strategic Communication: The ability to translate complex kernel-level obstacles into actionable business insights for stakeholders across the company.
- Resilience: You aren't intimidated by the "impossible." Whether it's a non-reproducible race condition or an unwelcoming upstream thread, you lead your team through the challenge with a pragmatic, solution-oriented mindset.
Compensation
Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location.
- For New York City and California (excluding Bay Area) based hires: Estimated annual salary of $170,000 - $275,000.
- For Bay Area based hires: Estimated annual salary of $190,000 - $303,000
Equity
This role is eligible to participate in Cloudflare's equity plan.
Cloudflare Boston, Massachusetts, USA Office
Boston, MA, United States
Similar Jobs at Cloudflare
Cloud • Information Technology • Security • Software • Cybersecurity
Lead strategy and execution for Cloudflare's Developer Platform events portfolio, owning flagship and field programs, budgets, vendor relationships, team growth, and cross-functional integration to drive developer acquisition, product adoption, and community growth.
Top Skills:
AICloudflare D1Cloudflare Durable ObjectsCloudflare PagesCloudflare R2Cloudflare Workers
Cloud • Information Technology • Security • Software • Cybersecurity
Support Commercial Legal (Procurement) and Sales Legal teams by reviewing and analyzing vendor and customer contracts, assisting with procurement policy and playbook development, performing vendor risk assessments and due diligence, and preparing drafting, redlines, and negotiation support materials for technology and services procurements.
Cloud • Information Technology • Security • Software • Cybersecurity
As a Solutions Engineering Manager, you will architect and oversee the Associate Engineer Program, mentoring interns, designing curricula, and ensuring alignment with business needs.
Top Skills:
CloudDnsEdge ComputingSecurityTcp/IpTlsWorkers
What you need to know about the Boston Tech Scene
Boston is a powerhouse for technology innovation thanks to world-class research universities like MIT and Harvard and a robust pipeline of venture capital investment. Host to the first telephone call and one of the first general-purpose computers ever put into use, Boston is now a hub for biotechnology, robotics and artificial intelligence — though it’s also home to several B2B software giants. So it’s no surprise that the city consistently ranks among the greatest startup ecosystems in the world.
Key Facts About Boston Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 269,000; 9.4% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: Thermo Fisher Scientific, Toast, Klaviyo, HubSpot, DraftKings
- Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, biotechnology, robotics, software, aerospace
- Funding Landscape: $15.7 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Summit Partners, Volition Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, MassVentures, Highland Capital Partners
- Research Centers and Universities: MIT, Harvard University, Boston College, Tufts University, Boston University, Northeastern University, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, National Bureau of Economic Research, Broad Institute, Lowell Center for Space Science & Technology, National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories
