Lead Vulnerability Management Engineer

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 About the role Reporting to the Director of Vulnerability Management, the Lead Vulnerability Management Engineer will serve as the technical authority for the program, focusing on the architecture, systems design, and long-term technology strategy for Cloudflare's vulnerability management capabilities. You will lead the evaluation and integration of advanced security technologies and systems across global infrastructure and cloud environments. As a senior technical lead, you will work closely with Engineering, Infrastructure, and Product teams to architect scalable remediation workflows and drive effective risk reduction. A key focus of this role is leveraging emerging technologies, including AI, to automate the vulnerability lifecycle and enhance operational efficiency. We are looking for a highly technical, proactive leader capable of designing complex integrations and managing large-scale remediation initiatives. This role may require flexibility to be on-call outside of standard working hours to address technical issues as needed. Responsibilities • Serve as the primary technical lead for the Vulnerability Management team, providing architectural guidance and mentoring team members on complex technical challenges. • Lead the architecture, systems design, technology evaluation, and systems integration for the global VM program, ensuring tooling is effectively embedded across the technology stack. • Oversee and conduct advanced vulnerability scanning, performing in-depth validation of findings to verify accuracy, filter false positives, and lead the triage and prioritization of critical risks. • Collaborate closely with technology owners and establish strong, trust-based relationships with engineering teams to drive the remediation or mitigation of complex vulnerabilities. • Strategically manage and track the remediation backlog, maintaining a high-level view of risk reduction progress and reporting on systemic security trends. • Design and implement AI-driven solutions to manage the vulnerability lifecycle and automate repetitive operational tasks within the vulnerability management domain. • Contribute to the continuous improvement of global vulnerability management standards, procedures, and playbooks. • Act as the primary technical liaison for the GRC team, translating complex technical vulnerabilities and mitigations into clear compliance context to support continuous readiness for audits (e.g., SOC-2, PCI-DSS, FedRAMP). • Own the technical reporting and evidence generation process for internal and external audits, ensuring scanning cadences and remediation workflows consistently meet or exceed compliance baselines. • Interpret evolving regulatory and compliance requirements into actionable technical scanning policies, ensuring newly mandated checks are quickly integrated into the active scanning program Desirable Skills, Knowledge, and Experience: • Solid understanding of modern security frameworks (e.g., SOC-2, NIST, PCI) and their application in enterprise environments. • 5+ years of Vulnerability Management experience, with a proven track record in a senior or lead technical capacity. • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Security, or security certifications in a related field. • Strong communication (written and verbal) and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively collaborate with technical and non-technical teams. • A strong understanding of vulnerability risk scoring (e.g., CVSS, EPSS) and how to apply these risk assessment methodologies in a business context to support remediation. • Hands-on experience with vulnerability scanning platforms (e.g., Qualys, Nessus, Rapid7 InsightVM). • Strong analytical skills to identify patterns in data and distinguish between theoretical risk and actual exploitability. • Demonstrated experience using AI to develop and manage complex workflows and applications. • Proven experience supporting GRC or external audit cycles (e.g., PCI-DSS, SOC-2, ISO 27001) by providing technical evidence, explaining compensating controls, or articulating risk-acceptance justifications. • The ability to translate high-level compliance policies and regulatory requirements into precise, technical vulnerability scanning configurations and remediation SLAs. Bonus points: • Experience with scripting languages (e.g., Python) for automation. • Experience with speci