Principal Professional Services Engineer - Cloudflare

About the Role

Cloudflare’s Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) program provides customers with a dedicated, hands-on technical expert embedded directly within their environment. As a Principal Professional Services Engineer, you are a recognized subject-matter expert and a trusted advisor to both the customer and Cloudflare leadership. You will own high-stakes engagements, make architectural decisions for mission-critical infrastructure, and align technical outcomes with business objectives.

What You Will Do

• Embed & Integrate: Act as an extension of the customer’s team, operating within their tools and change-management frameworks.
• Hands-On Execution: Design, configure, and optimize Cloudflare solutions, build prototypes, and develop automation scripts.
• Strategic Advisory: Provide architectural guidance, roadmap alignment, and produce comprehensive documentation (HLDs, LLDs, test plans).
• Workshops & Knowledge Transfer: Lead technical sessions and ensure operational continuity through runbooks and documentation.
• Customer Advocacy: Act as the voice of the customer within Cloudflare, surfacing product gaps and partnering with internal stakeholders to drive account strategy.

Experience & Skills

• Core Requirements: 15+ years of experience in a customer-facing technical role.
• Technical Expertise: Proven track record in one of the following: Applications (WAF, Bot Management, API Gateway), Network (Magic Transit, L3/L4 routing, DDoS), or Zero Trust/SASE.
• Networking Foundation: Expert-level understanding of the OSI model, TCP/IP, TLS, DNS, and HTTP.
• Technical Proficiency: Experience with infrastructure-as-code (e.g., Terraform) and scripting (e.g., Python, JavaScript, Bash).
• Leadership: Demonstrated ability to mentor teams, lead workshops, and develop service methodologies.
• Communication: Exceptional executive presence with the ability to translate complex technical concepts for diverse audiences.
• Regional Experience: Experience working with enterprise customers in the APJC region.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in regulated industries (Public Sector, Financial Services, Healthcare).
• Relevant certifications: CISSP, CCIE, AWS, GCP, or Azure.
• Familiarity with Agile methodologies and enterprise change-management processes.