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# Performance Engineer, Kernel and Memory

- **Company:** CloudFlare
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Salary:** $79,040 - $93,600
- **Contract:** Temporary contract
- **Skills:** Artificial Intelligence, Linux, Distributed Systems, Memory Management, Linux Kernel, System Programming, Virtual Memory, Cloudflare
- **Published:** October 16, 2026
- **Apply:** https://www.jofdav.com/jobs/60126080-performance-engineer-kernel-and-memory

## About the Role

* Deep expertise in the Linux kernel memory-management subsystem: the page allocator, virtual memory and memory mapping, reclaim, and the locking and concurrency that hold it together.
 * A track record of upstream Linux contribution, ideally including maintainership or sustained work in MM or an adjacent subsystem.
 * Strong systems programming in C, with the judgement to make high-risk changes to shared infrastructure safely.
 * Ability to dive deep into a complex codebase while keeping the fleet-wide picture in mind, and to own a problem and its outcome rather than a single patch.
 * Clear communication with engineers across many teams, since the symptoms of an MM problem usually show up far from the MM code.

Bonuses

 * Strong understanding of Linux kernel internals pertaining to memory management
 * Experience troubleshooting and resolving performance issues in large-scale distributed systems.
 * Experience with large scale configuration/deployment management.

## Description

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., * Land your work upstream. We expect MM changes to go to mainline first and want you to keep doing the maintainership and review work that earns standing in the community.

 * Build and extend low-overhead kernel instrumentation (tracepoints, BPF, perf) so we keep measuring before we change, and prove the impact afterwards.
 * Partner with kernel, networking, storage, and product engineers across the company to turn observed system behavior into concrete MM improvements.
 * Set technical direction for how Cloudflare uses, tunes, and evolves kernel memory management as we push utilization higher.