Research engineer intern (summer 2026) at Cloudflare

Deadline: As soon as possible

Internships

Companies

Location(s)

  • Portugal
Lisbon

Overview

Cloudflare’s Research Team pursues strategic projects that have a large impact on Cloudflare systems and the Internet at large. Our focus is on solving difficult problems to connect and protect users, applications, and data, while helping to make the Internet more resilient, efficient, and transparent.

Details

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. 

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! 

What you'll do

In our quest to help make a better Internet, we frequently find ourselves exploring open problems at the boundaries of knowledge in scalable computing, with a focus on security and  privacy, using techniques including AI/ML and performance analysis.  We make cutting edge research contributions in-house, as well as in collaboration with academia, Internet standards organizations like the IETF, and more!

Our team includes experts in many disciplines, including applied cryptography, privacy, network architectures and protocols, measurement, distributed systems, storage optimization, machine learning for systems, and more.  We seek interns that augment our existing expertise as well as those who are working in broadly related areas. We have a vast set of potential projects focussed on our current priorities. We also welcome new ideas via concrete proposals that, more than just satisfying curiosity, may help to improve Cloudflare or aspects of the Internet and surrounding technologies touched by Cloudflare. We are, after all, researchers at heart and love learning, too!

Opportunity is About


Eligibility

Candidates should be from:


Description of Ideal Candidate

Examples of desirable skills, knowledge and experience

  • Evidence of tackling hard or open-ended problems
  • Proven track record of peer-reviewed research, open-source software contributions, or standards development, that is commensurate with level of training --- students at all levels are welcome to apply
  • Experience clearly communicating research ideas through papers, pre-prints, standards documents, blogs, or similar media
  • Ability to work in a systems-level programming language (e.g. Rust, C, Go) 
  • Passion for debugging and ensuring system reliability
  • Familiarity with continuous integration workflows and source control systems (e.g., Gitlab, Github)
  • Willing and eager to share knowledge, with the skills to do so

Additional Requirements

Knowledge or experience with at least one of the following:

  • Computer networking protocols (TCP/IP, DNS, BGP, QUIC, etc.) and related algorithms
  • Machine learning analysis, ideally in systems or network optimization
  • Authentication protocols, applied cryptography, PKI and SSL/TLS
  • Operating or distributed systems analysis or development
  • Measurement for network and computer systems
  • Proficiency in a scripting language, such as Python

 Bonus Points:

  • Proven track record of independently driving projects in a fast-paced environment
  • Experience working in groups, or with multiple stakeholders
  • Able to fluently work across multiple programming languages

Dates

Deadline: As soon as possible


Cost/funding for participants

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!

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