Senior Systems Engineer, MCP Server Portals

About Us

At Cloudflare we are on a mission to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the worlds 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 Magazines Top Company Cultures list and ranked among the Worlds Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company.

At Cloudflare were not looking for people who wait for a polished roadmap; were 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 youre 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 youll fit right in.

Available Locations: Lisbon Portugal

Role Summary

Cloudflare MCP Server Portals give organizations a secure centralized way to connect AI agents to internal and third-party tools. As a Senior Systems Engineer on the MCP Portals team you will lead the design delivery and operation of distributed systems that authenticate users manage OAuth credentials and sessions enforce Zero Trust policies and proxy MCP traffic across Cloudflares global network. You will own complex projects across service boundaries make architectural tradeoffs for your area and help other engineers deliver reliable secure changes. You will work closely with engineers and product managers across Access Gateway and Developer Platform teams as the protocol and product evolve. We are looking for a hands-on engineer who can bring clarity to ambiguous systems problems and take responsibility for outcomes in production.

Role Responsibilities

• Lead the design implementation and operation of globally distributed services that connect MCP clients to authorized upstream MCP servers.
• Own complex features and service improvements from problem definition and design through implementation rollout observability and production support.
• Shape technical decisions for MCP Portals including service boundaries security controls compatibility and tradeoffs among reliability latency and resource use.
• Evolve our implementation as the MCP specification changes planning safe migrations for existing customers and integrations.
• Design and review authentication and authorization flows involving Cloudflare Access OAuth identity credential handling and delegated access to upstream services.
• Improve the reliability and scalability of multi-tenant systems built on the Cloudflare Developer Platform using production data to identify and prioritize work.
• Strengthen observability through structured logs metrics traces dashboards and actionable alerts; participate in production support and incident response.
• Lead investigations of complex customer issues across services and teams identify root causes and drive fixes that prevent recurrence.
• Review designs and code mentor engineers and raise the quality of testing deployment and operational practices on the team.
• Partner with product security and engineering teams to turn customer needs and emerging standards into maintainable product capabilities.

Role Requirements

Must Have Skills

• 6 years of experience building and operating distributed systems backend services network services or infrastructure products in production.
• Demonstrated ownership of complex production services or projects including architecture implementation rollout and operational outcomes.
• Strong programming skills in TypeScript JavaScript Go Rust C or another language used to build production services.
• Deep understanding of APIs proxies streaming connections and distributed-systems failure modes.
• Experience with authentication and authorization technologies such as OAuth 2.0 OpenID Connect JWTs PKCE or policy-based access control.
• Experience designing or operating security-sensitive systems with sound judgment about identity authorization credential handling concurrency and state management.
• Ability to diagnose difficult production issues using logs metrics traces error reporting and customer-provided evidence then drive durable fixes.
• Experience making backward-compatible changes to live systems and managing the risks of deployment and migration.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills with the ability to explain technical tradeoffs influence decisions across teams and mentor other engineers.

Applicants should provide a resume or CV describing relevant engineering technical leadership and operational experience.

Nice to Have Skills

• Experience with the Model Context Protocol
• Familiarity with the Cloudflare Developer Platform or other serverless edge-computing platforms.
• Experience building gateways forward proxies identity systems developer platforms or Zero Trust and data loss prevention products.

Compensation

Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location.

• For Bay Area based hires: Estimated annual salary of

Equity

This role is eligible to participate in Cloudflares equity plan.

What Makes Cloudflare Special

Were not just a highly ambitious large-scale technology company. Were 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 weve equipped more than 2400 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 Cloudflares 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 weve 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. Heres the deal - we dont 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 youd like to be a part of Wed love to hear from you!

Please note that applicants who progress to the offer stage of the interview process may be asked to attend an in-person interview within one of the Cloudflare Offices or Cloudflare Hubs. More details about this will be available at that stage of the interview process.

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 persons 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 or via mail at 101 Townsend St. San Francisco CA 94107.

Required Experience:

Senior IC