Principal Manager , ISP/Telco Engagement

Team: Integrated Network Strategy
Type: Full-time
Role Summary and Scope
Cloudflare seeks an exceptional, action-oriented leader to serve as the strategic bridge between our core infrastructure and the largest Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and telecom operators. This is a high-impact role within the Integrated Network Strategy team, demanding a blend of deep technical knowledge, executive-level commercial negotiation skill, the ability to mitigate major network risks, and a proven ability to identify and foster mutual growth opportunities with partners.
The role carries a critical and non-negotiable focus on leading network strategy and partner engagement within India. However, the successful candidate will be expected to rapidly scale their leadership and responsibility to cover the broader Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, including the Middle East and Africa (MEA), ensuring the health, capacity, and advanced capability of Cloudflare's network across these high-growth markets.
Core Responsibilities (What You'll Drive)

• Executive Partner Leadership: Cultivate and expand C-level and SVP-level relationships across major Indian and regional telcos to guarantee the long-term health, capacity, and strategic positioning of Cloudflare's network, including identifying and exploring potential product or service resale partnerships.
• Advanced Edge Enablement: Drive strategic deployments and technical integration to enable Edge Compute, Storage, and GPU resources within partner infrastructure, supporting sophisticated AI and developer workloads across the region.
• Capacity & Commercial Strategy: Drive the long-term capacity planning process, providing actionable intelligence and negotiating competitive unit rates by deeply understanding the associated cost impacts.
• Infrastructure Optimization: Strategically balance server efficiency, compute robustness, and data center colocation constraints to ensure highly scalable service delivery across all served networks.
• Advanced Network Engineering: Apply a deep technical understanding of BGP routing and the commercial cause-and-effect of traffic management policies between ASNs to ensure optimal and resilient flow across the expanded territory.
• Resiliency & Risk Mitigation (CRITICAL):
• Act as the single point of contact during severe network incidents, coordinating urgent cross-functional resolution efforts.
• Diagnose root causes and proactively mitigate recurrence risk, including assessing the resiliency of backbone infrastructure (domestic vs. international and terrestrial vs. submarine assets).
• Oversee and execute embedded partner deployments and CDN/edge caching integration requirements.

Essential Qualifications & Experience

• Executive Presence: 15+ years of experience in telecom, infrastructure, or cloud technology, with a focus on network build-out across APJC.
• India Market Expertise: Mandatory, established executive-level relationships with top ISPs and telecom operators in India.
• Edge & Compute Expertise: Extensive experience managing embedded partner deployments for edge caching and CDN requirements. This must include technical knowledge of deploying infrastructure to support Edge Compute, Storage, and GPU enablement for modern AI and developer applications.
• CDN & Colocation Knowledge: Proven knowledge of server hardware efficiency (density, power draw, performance/watt) and the technical/commercial requirements of carrier-neutral data center colocation.
• Network Depth: Deep technical proficiency in BGP routing, peering relationships, and traffic management policy and its direct impact on network performance and commercial metrics.
• Crisis Leadership: Strong crisis management skills and demonstrated ability to lead urgent, cross-functional resolution efforts under intense pressure.
• Strategic Partnership Acumen: Proven experience in building strategic business relationships with large Telcos or ISPs, including identifying and fostering potential joint go-to-market or channel opportunities.

What Makes This Role Exceptional

• Strategic Growth Trajectory: Own the critical India market while rapidly growing your responsibilities to drive infrastructure strategy across the wider APAC, Middle East, and Africa regions.
• Next-Gen Impact: Be the leader responsible for scaling Cloudflare's infrastructure, transitioning it from a high-capacity network to a next-generation compute and AI-ready platform.
• Global Visibility: Drive real-time business outcomes with senior-level visibility and collaboration across global infrastructure and product teams.