Director, Global Design & Construction
Cloudflare · Hybrid ·
- Work mode
- Hybrid
- Category
- Design
- Experience
- 12+ years
- Company size
- 1000+
- Salary
- USD 223,000 – 307,000 / year
Leads global design and construction of Cloudflare’s physical workspaces, blending AI-driven automation with human-centric creativity to optimize spaces, workflows, and cultural identity across locations.
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:
- San Francisco, CA
- Austin, TX
About the Role
We are looking for an innovative, tech-forward Director of Global Design & Construction to lead our physical environment strategy into its next evolution. This role demands a unique combination of high-level strategic vision, a passion for experimentation, creativity, and a relentless commitment to world-class physical execution.
First and foremost, you are a builder of impactful, high-performance spaces. You will be responsible for leading the end-to-end design and construction of workspaces that serve as the tangible, physical manifestation of the local Cloudflare culture.
At the same time, you are stepping into uncharted territory. To keep Cloudflare at the absolute forefront of our industry, we are up-leveling how we deliver projects by integrating an AI-first, data-driven approach. We are looking for a visionary leader who can think outside the box to identify and implement how AI can automate workflows, optimize budgets, and improve data-driven design decisions.
While automation and AI are the engines of efficiency in this role, the human element is its heart. Your creativity, physical hospitality, and human judgment will guide every project, ensuring our global spaces continuously evolve alongside our teams.
What You’ll Do
- Physical Execution & Cultural Identity: Lead the physical realization of Cloudflare’s global offices. Direct architects, general contractors, and artists to design and build spaces that authentically capture the vibe and culture of each local hub, ensuring every environment feels uniquely Cloudflare, inspiring, and functional.
- Conceptualize and execute the AI Workflow: Think outside the box to architect how AI and automation can revolutionize legacy design and construction phases. Map out and execute opportunities to eliminate manual bottlenecks across the entire project lifecycle - including vendor onboarding/benchmarking, contracting, cost estimation, budget/project tracking, and risk identification - by implementing automated review pipelines and data-driven quality controls.
- Drive Spatial Experimentation: Treat our workplaces as living laboratories. Conceptualize and implement pioneering internal qualitative and quantitative data-collection methods - such as tracking real-time utilization patterns and capturing continuous employee feedback loops - to architect data-driven proposals that evolve our global footprints based on your findings.
- Evolve the Design Framework: Use data insights and post-occupancy metrics to constantly challenge existing design assumptions. Lead formal change management efforts to iterate on our physical footprints and champion a generative design-supported “kit of parts” for global serviced offices, ensuring they fluidly adapt as work styles and distributed team needs change.
- Predictive Capital & Site Strategy: Collaborate with Real Estate and FP&A teams to direct predictive modeling concepts for site selection, due diligence, project cash flows, long-term financial reporting, and financial risk mitigation, steering the department toward highly optimized capital allocation.
- CapEx Budget Ownership & Financial Governance: Own and manage the global capital expenditure (CapEx) budget, delivering accurate multi-year financial forecasting, cost-variance reporting, and executive-level capital reporting.
- Executive Cross-Functional Leadership: Serve as the strategic bridge and primary liaison between internal executive business customers and external delivery partners (including architects, GCs, and furniture dealers). Ensure Physical Security, IT, Legal, and Workplace leadership are deeply aligned under a unified, technology-supported project pipeline and data layer that prioritizes the employee experience.
- Lifecycle Handover & Commissioning: Establish rigorous commissioning protocols to ensure flawless handovers from construction completion to local Workplace Operations teams.
- Global Pipeline Governance & Compliance: Oversee a global project pipeline across all international hubs and time zones, seamlessly balancing highly creative local refreshes with complex, large-scale 100,000+ square foot tenant improvement projects. Ensure all construction activities and global workflows are in strict compliance with local laws while maintaining a focus on sustainable, high-performance building standards.
Examples of Desirable Skills, Knowledge, and Experience
- Proven Seniority: 10-12+ years of experience leading interior design and complex construction project management, specifically within high-growth technology companies or global enterprises.
- Scale Mastery: A proven track record of successfully directing a global corporate office portfolio in excess of 250,000+ total square feet.
- Curiosity & Growth Mindset: A profound curiosity for how technology can optimize human interaction. You must be comfortable with ambiguity and excited by the challenge of building unprecedented internal tools from scratch rather than managing legacy workflows.
- Technical Integration: Knowledge of technical infrastructure (MEP systems, architectural principles, AV/IT) and a clear vision of how they connect with automated building systems.
- Sophisticated Communication: Outstanding leadership and collaboration skills, with a demonstrated ability to influence cross-functional executives and external partners across multiple time zones.
- Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a related field such as Architecture, Project Management, Interior Design, or Engineering.
- Global Mobility & Presence: Willingness to work in-office ~3 days a week to lead by example within our local workplace laboratory, with the flexibility to travel globally to oversee high-stakes project transformations.
Nice-to-Have Skills
- Certifications: LEED, WELL, or PMP Certifications.
- Advanced Technical Skills: Experience with AI-enhanced workflows, generative design platforms, or transitioning legacy portfolios into AI-assisted operational models.
Compensation
Compensation may be adjusted depending on work location.
- For Bay Area based hires: Estimated annual salary of $223,000 - $307,000
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.
: We released 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 [email protected] or via mail at 101 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94107.