This role pays more than
68%
of similar roles. Most pay
$154,525–$235,750
— the shaded band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$230k
versus about
$195k
for comparable roles.
Based on 240 similar postings.
Employer
About Cloudflare, Inc
Cloudflare is a prominent cloud services and security company that provides content delivery network (CDN), DDoS mitigation, and Zero Trust security services to millions of internet properties.
Cloudflare, Inc currently has
190 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$215,000–$278,000
across 59 roles with salary data.
Senior Systems Engineer, AI Gateway joins the Developer Platform organization to build infrastructure for the AI Gateway product. This role focuses on developing a core layer at the network edge to manage high-volume inference traffic across various providers and models while ensuring reliability, observability, and cost control. The engineer will design APIs, routing primitives, and developer workflows while building internal tools like agents and automated test harnesses. Key responsibilities include transforming ambiguous ideas into production-ready systems and improving performance for latency-sensitive workloads. Candidates should possess expertise in distributed systems, networking, and high-scale APIs. Required skills include experience with TypeScript, Go, or Rust, along with a strong command of system engineering fundamentals like data modeling and infrastructure scaling. The role addresses the challenge of creating durable, scalable infrastructure within a rapidly evolving AI ecosystem.
What does a Systems Engineer earn in California?
Median $194000 from 61 postings across 16 companies.
Build core AI Gateway systems to handle high-volume inference traffic across various providers and models.
Design and implement APIs, routing primitives, observability features, and developer workflows for the AI platform.
Convert ambiguous product ideas into functional prototypes, design documents, and production-ready features.
Improve reliability, performance, cost efficiency, and debuggability for latency-sensitive AI workloads.
Develop internal tools, automated tests, and evaluation loops to accelerate the engineering team's output.
Optimize the developer experience through high-quality SDKs, documentation, dashboard flows, and clear error messages.
Mentor other engineers through technical leadership, code reviews, and architectural design discussions.
What we're looking for
You must have 5+ years of experience building and operating production systems in areas like AI infrastructure, cloud infrastructure, or distributed systems.
You must possess strong systems engineering fundamentals including networking, APIs, reliability, observability, data modeling, and performance.
You must be able to design and scale distributed systems where latency, throughput, availability, and correctness are critical.
You must be capable of working across the full stack from API design and product surfaces to backend services and performance-critical code.
You must demonstrate a strong "developer tools taste" regarding the creation of high-quality APIs, SDKs, dashboards, and documentation.
You must possess clear technical communication skills to write design docs and align engineers and product partners.
You must be comfortable using AI-native development workflows, including agents, tools, and automation, to improve engineering productivity.
This position requires authorization to receive software or technology controlled under U.S. export control laws.
Systems Engineering
Integration & Test
Configuration Management
Rust
Python
C
MATLAB
R
SQL
Linux
Command Line Interface
JAMA
Design-Build-Test (DBT)
Requirements Management
Robotics
Autonomous Systems