Customer Solution Strategy Lead

Cloudflare · Austin, United States +2 · 16d ago

Staff / Lead / PrincipalHybridSoftware Engineering

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.

At Cloudflare, we’re not looking for people who wait for a polished roadmap; we’re 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 you’re 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, you’ll fit right in.

Available Locations: Austin, TX, Dallas, TX, New York, NY

About the Role

The Pre-Sales Customer Engineering organization owns the technical sale of the Cloudflare solution portfolio, ensuring maximal business value, fit-for-purpose solution design and adoption roadmap for our customers. Customer Engineering is made up of individuals from a wide range of backgrounds - from Financial Consulting to Product Management, Customer Support to Software Engineering, and we are serious about building a diverse, experienced and curious team.

What you'll do as a Solution Strategy Lead

Scaling Cloudflare’s most complex and critical accounts requires unparalleled focus. While Client Directors own the commercial relationships and Customer Engineers drive pre-sales, this role serves as the essential strategic link bridging the two. As a dedicated trusted advisor for 1–5 of our highest-value accounts, you will take a deeply consultative approach to map the customer's entire technical ecosystem. You will drive enterprise-wide transformation from initial strategic positioning through the complete customer lifecycle.

You are the single thread connecting high-level strategy to flawless execution, orchestrating cross-functional teams to deliver exceptional outcomes. While not a "hands-on-keyboard" engineering role, you possess the technical acumen to proactively steer complex engagements and step in decisively when it matters most.

Platform Focus Areas

Accelerate ARR growth by orchestrating parallel expansion motions across three distinct platform domains.

App Modernization

Scope: Migration from legacy application architectures to Cloudflare's edge platform. Includes moving workloads from on-premise or hyperscale compute to Workers, consolidating storage on R2, and modernizing data layers with D1 and Durable Objects, all while considering security posture.
Stakeholders: VP Engineering, Platform Architects, Infrastructure leads, CISO

Developer

Scope: Adoption of Cloudflare's developer platform for new application development. Workers, Workers KV, Pages, Queues, Durable Objects, R2, D1. Positioning Cloudflare as the compute and storage layer for net-new projects.
Stakeholders: VP Engineering, Developer Experience leads, Platform teams

AI

Scope: Adoption of Cloudflare's AI infrastructure for inference and orchestration. Workers AI, Vectorize, AI Gateway. Positioning Cloudflare as the AI inference layer at the edge.
Stakeholders: CTO, Head of AI/ML, Data Platform leads

Core Accountabilities

Accountability	Description
Platform Adoption Roadmapping	Develop account-specific adoption plans across App Modernization, Developer, and AI. Map customer workloads to Cloudflare capabilities. Define sequencing and milestones.
Cross-Functional Coordination	Coordinate SE, CS, and Product resources against adoption milestones. Run account team operating rhythm. Ensure internal alignment on customer priorities.
Technical Executive Relationships	Build relationships with CTOs, VPs of Engineering, and Platform Architects. Engage technical decision-makers on platform strategy. CD retains procurement and CFO relationships.
Expansion Development	Identify and qualify platform expansion opportunities. Hand off to CD when commercial-ready. This individual builds the case; CD closes the deal.
Voice of Customer to Product	Bring strategic customer requirements into Product roadmap discussions. Provide quarterly briefings on adoption patterns, blockers, and feature needs.

Success Metrics

Platform Adoption

Products per account: Number of Cloudflare products in production per strategic account
Developer platform adoption: Strategic accounts with Workers, R2, or D1 in production
AI adoption: Strategic accounts with Workers AI or AI Gateway in production

Revenue Influence

Expansion pipeline: Dollar value of platform expansion opportunities developed and handed to CD
Net Revenue Retention: NRR on strategic account portfolio (shared metric with CD)

Product Feedback

Requirements submitted: Strategic customer requirements brought to Product quarterly
Adoption blockers resolved: Product or engineering issues addressed that were blocking adoption

Customer-Facing Positioning

To customer executives, this role helps them realize value from Cloudflare's entire platform:

An expert and trusted advisor; peer to their architects and technical leads
Focused on Platform adoption and business outcomes, not transactions
Turns platform capabilities into production workloads and business value

The Profile

Architectural Command: 10+ years of experience in Customer Engineering Leadership, Product Management, Consulting, or Technical Strategy within a global SaaS or infrastructure environment.
Executive Presence: Exceptional communication skills with the ability to influence C-level executives and internal product leads simultaneously.
Relentless Curiosity: A natural obsession with "How it works" and "How it could be better." You are driven to discover the architectural truth behind every customer challenge.
Bias for Action: You don't just identify problems; you build the "Formation" to solve them. You are comfortable in high-pressure, ambiguous environments.

Desirable skills, knowledge and experience

7+ years of deployment experience in similar role or experience in a technical leadership role
Previous experience as a Customer Engineer leader, consultant or technical marketing engineer building, architecting or deploying security solutions
Good understanding of AI, security challenges and its applicability to today’s enterprise landscape
Proven track record using AI to help drive revenue
Strong knowledge of Security Architecture, Design and Operations
Working knowledge of the broader threat landscape and the ability to distill technology trends, and explain complex behaviors in simple terms
Proven experience working with customers and partners in successful design and deployment of solutions
Ability to juggle and successfully drive projects with customers, prospects, and partners.
Experience with cloud computing solutions implementations including Microsoft 365, Azure, Google, AWS

Compensation

Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location.
This role is eligible to earn incentive compensation under Cloudflare’s Sales Compensation Plan. The estimated annual salary range includes the on-target incentive compensation that may be attained in this role under the Sales Compensation Plan.

For New York City based hires: Estimated annual salary of $273,000.00 to $341,000.00

Equity
This role is eligible to participate in Cloudflare’s equity plan.

Benefits
Cloudflare offers a complete package of benefits and programs to support you and your family. Our benefits programs can help you pay health care expenses, support caregiving, build capital for the future and make life a little easier and fun! The below is a description of our benefits for employees in the United States, and benefits may vary for employees based outside the U.S.

Health & Welfare Benefits

Medical/Rx Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
Flexible Spending Accounts
Commuter Spending Accounts
Fertility & Family Forming Benefits
On-demand mental health support and Employee Assistance Program
Global Travel Medical Insurance

Financial Benefits

Short and Long Term Disability Insurance
Life & Accident Insurance
401(k) Retirement Savings Plan
Employee Stock Participation Plan

Time Off

Flexible paid time off covering vacation and sick leave
Leave programs, including parental, pregnancy health, medical, and bereavement leave

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: Since 2014, we've equipped more than 2,400 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 Cloudflare’s 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, we've 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. 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!

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 person's, 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 hr@cloudflare.com or via mail at 101 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94107.