below marketmost similar roles pay hereabove market
This role pays more than
75%
of similar roles. Most pay
$147,200–$230,000
— the blue band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$230k
versus about
$189k
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
110 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$194,000–$266,000
across 56 roles with salary data.
The Senior Systems Engineer, AI Gateway joins the Developer Platform organization to build core infrastructure for AI inference at the network edge. This hands-on individual contributor role involves developing high-throughput APIs, routing primitives, and observability features to manage traffic across various providers and models. You will design and implement distributed systems, developer-facing workflows, SDKs, and dashboards while improving reliability and cost efficiency for latency-sensitive workloads. The role requires expertise in networking, data modeling, and performance-critical code using languages like TypeScript, Go, or Rust. You will solve the technical challenge of creating a durable, unified layer for AI applications, ensuring seamless integration with Workers AI and the broader agent stack. Success requires turning ambiguous ideas into production-ready software while mentoring others through technical leadership and design reviews.
What does a Systems Engineer earn in California?
Median $191000 from 99 postings across 21 companies.
Build core AI Gateway systems to handle high-volume inference traffic across global networks.
Design and implement APIs, routing primitives, and observability features for reliable AI adoption.
Convert ambiguous product ideas into functional prototypes, design documents, and production features.
Improve reliability, performance, and cost efficiency for latency-sensitive AI workloads.
Develop internal tools, agents, and automated harnesses to accelerate the engineering lifecycle.
Optimize the developer experience by refining SDKs, dashboards, documentation, and error messages.
Mentor other engineers through design reviews, code reviews, and technical leadership.
What we're looking for
5+ years of experience building and operating production systems in AI infrastructure, developer platforms, cloud infrastructure, or distributed systems (preferred).
Strong systems engineering fundamentals in networking, APIs, reliability, observability, data modeling, and performance.
Experience designing and scaling distributed systems where latency, throughput, availability, and correctness are critical.
Ability to work across the stack from API design and product surfaces to backend services, queues, and storage systems.
Clear technical communication skills to write design docs, explain tradeoffs, and review architecture.
Experience with TypeScript, Go, Rust, or similar systems/backend languages (preferred).
Experience building AI/ML infrastructure, inference platforms, or model gateways (preferred).
Authorization to receive software or technology controlled under U.S. export control laws.