Research Intern (Summer 2025)
Content + Source + Freshness • 14 Dec 2025 • 95% confidence
Offer value
Moderate value as an internship position offering experience in cutting-edge research with potential growth opportunities.
- Experience with advanced research projects within a reputable company
- Offering mentorship and networking opportunities
- Flexible work structure conducive to students
- Limited financial compensation for interns
Pros
- Access to advanced research projects and technologies.
- Mentorship from experienced professionals in the field.
- Flexible work hours enabling a good work-life balance.
Cons
- Internship may not guarantee a full-time offer.
- Limited compensation for work provided.
- Candidates must demonstrate significant initiative.
Who it's for
Intern / Student • Hybrid / Flexible
Good fit
- Students pursuing careers in technology and research.
- Individuals passionate about learning in a tech-driven environment.
- Interns looking for meaningful projects.
Not recommended for
- Experienced professionals looking for full-time roles.
- Candidates not interested in research activities.
- Individuals uncomfortable working in less structured environments.
Motivation fit
Key skills
About the job
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.
We realize people do not fit into neat boxes. We are looking for curious and empathetic individuals who are committed to developing themselves and learning new skills, and we are ready to help you do that. We cannot complete our mission without building a diverse and inclusive team. We hire the best people based on an evaluation of their potential and support them throughout their time at Cloudflare. Come join us!
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
About the department
Cloudflare’s Research Team pursues strategic projects that have a large impact on Cloudflare systems and the Internet at large. Our focus is on solving difficult problems to connect and protect users, applications, and data, while helping to make the Internet to be resilient and transparent.
In our quest to help make a better Internet, we frequently find ourselves exploring open problems at the boundaries of knowledge in scalable security, privacy, and systems, using techniques including AI/ML and performance analysis. We make cutting edge research contributions in-house, as well as in collaboration with academia, Internet standards organizations like the IETF, and more!
Our team includes experts in applied cryptography, privacy, network architectures and protocols, measurement, cache optimization, machine learning for systems, and time series analysis. We seek interns that augment our existing expertise as well as those who are working in broadly related areas. We have a vast set of potential projects focussed on our current priorities. We also welcome new ideas via concrete proposals that, more than just satisfying curiosity, may help to improve Cloudflare or aspects of the Internet and surrounding technologies touched by Cloudflare. We are, after all, researchers at heart and love learning, too!
More information about Cloudflare's approach to research can be found here.
What you'll do
Cloudflare's Research Team solves difficult problems in security, privacy, and systems at scale. This involves engineering, data analysis, open source software development, protocol design, implementation of primitives, with lots of measurement alongside.
Successful candidates will be matched to suitable projects in on-going research directions. Current research streams delve into:
- advancing application privacy
- transitioning to a post-quantum Internet
- improving network connection performance
- understanding vulnerabilities of the Internet infrastructure
- using AI/ML models for performance optimization,
- maximizing systems efficiency.
General Research Intern Requirements
- Evidence of tackling hard or open-ended problems.
- Proven track record of peer-reviewed research, open-source software contributions, or standards development, that is commensurate with level of training --- students at all levels are welcome to apply.
- Evidence of ability to work in multiple languages -- Go, Rust, Javascript, C/C++, or Python are particularly desirable.
- Experience (and love) for debugging to ensure the system works in all cases.
- Experience with a continuous integration workflow, and use of source control (we use git)
- Willing and eager to share knowledge, with the skills to do so.
Additional Requirements
Knowledge or experience with at least one of the following:
- Computer networking protocols (TCP/IP, DNS, BGP, QUIC, etc.) and related algorithms
- Machine learning analysis, ideally in systems or network optimization
- Authentication protocols, applied cryptography, PKI and SSL/TLS
- Operating or distributed systems analysis or development
- Measurement for network and computer systems
Bonus Points:
- Proven track record of independently driving projects in a fast-paced environment
- Experience working in groups, or with multiple stakeholders.
- Strong systems level programming skills.
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: We equip politically and artistically important organizations and journalists 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: We created 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.
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!
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.
