Network Engineering Intern (Summer 2026)
Cloudflare · In-Office
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About the role
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 Location: Austin, TX
Role Summary
Cloudflare operates one of the world's largest and most interconnected networks, spanning 335+ cities across every region of the globe. As a Network Engineering Intern on the Edge Network & Backbone team, you'll work under close mentorship from senior and principal network engineers on the real operational network that keeps that infrastructure running. From provisioning capacity to triaging faults, you'll be supported at every step by experienced engineers and AI-enabled tooling purpose-built for our network. This is a rare opportunity to enter the networking industry by gaining real experience with infrastructure that carries traffic for millions of websites and users — not a simulated lab environment.
Role Responsibilities
- Provision and configure network hardware and software as part of capacity expansion across Cloudflare's global edge network, following well-established playbooks under engineer guidance.
- Monitor network health and investigate non-urgent faults using Cloudflare's AI-enabled troubleshooting tooling, escalating where needed and documenting findings to help the broader team resolve issues faster.
- Triage and investigate network issues in collaboration with other internal teams, leveraging our internal tooling to accelerate diagnosis and resolution.
- Create and maintain operational documentation, runbooks, and knowledge-base articles that improve the efficiency of our team and tooling.
- Participate in structured troubleshooting sessions with senior engineers, building diagnostic skills across BGP, routing, and hardware faults in a production environment.
- Support network operations by contributing to shift handoffs, status updates, and incident tracking as part of the day-to-day ops rhythm.
Role Requirements (Must-Have Skills)
- Currently enrolled in or recently completed a degree in Networking, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline.
- Holds or is actively pursuing at least one industry networking certification (CCNA, JNCIA, or equivalent).
- Working knowledge of BGP and the OSI model, with the ability to reason through network problems layer by layer.
- Familiarity with at least one scripting language (Python, Bash, or similar), or demonstrated comfort using AI tools to write and adapt scripts for network automation tasks.
- Demonstrated ability to learn new technologies quickly, including vendor operating systems and internal tooling, under the guidance of a mentor.
- Strong written communication skills — you'll be writing documentation and ticket responses that engineers and customers will rely on.
Nice-to-Have Skills
- Hands-on experience with network operating systems across multiple vendors, such as Juniper, Cisco, or Arista.
- Understanding of anycast routing or how large-scale Internet networks distribute traffic.
- Experience with Linux system administration.
- Familiarity with optical transport technologies.
- Experience working in a customer-facing technical support environment.
A note on this role
This internship is deliberately operational in scope. You won't be handed a greenfield project to present at the end of the summer. Instead, you'll be embedded in a lean, high-trust team and expected to contribute to real infrastructure from week one. The upside: by the end of six months, you'll have hands-on production experience that most networking graduates take years to obtain. We're looking for candidates who see that as a feature, not a bug.
Internship Duration: 6 Months
Schedule: Full-time (3 days per week in office)
Compensation: 45/hr
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.
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