Cloudflare says its internship program will see a “significant increase” in 2026, as the American internet security company plots an almost 2,000 per cent rise in its annual intake.

The company said last week it aimed to hire 1,111 interns in 2026 — a nod to its private browsing platform 1.1.1.1 — but confirmed to Information Age its Australian office in Sydney would not be included in the program.

Cloudflare said it expected to hire interns at locations in the United States (Austin, San Francisco, and New York City), India (Bengaluru), Portugal (Lisbon), and the United Kingdom (London).

The firm has around 5,000 employees worldwide, including over 120 in Australia.

The company’s internship program typically takes on around 60 people each year — while larger tech companies such as Meta, Google, and Microsoft typically take hundreds.

Asked why Cloudflare’s expanded internship program would not include Australia, a spokesperson said interns would be "located at offices where they can sit with their teams, along with cross functional teams to fully embed and help them understand our business”.

“We also aim to have internships focused in a few key offices to focus on educational programming and ensure interns are supported with a community of fellow students and new graduates around them,” they said.

Cloudflare’s paid internships would see interns work three-to-four days a week for around three months, the company said.


Cloudflare is known for ICT services in networking, cybersecurity, and internet content delivery. Image: Shutterstock

‘Getting a job out of school has never been harder’

Cloudflare executives acknowledged last week that some technology companies had reduced their headcounts or their number of entry-level roles amid the rise of generative artificial intelligence, including AI agents.

“We think this misreads the moment completely, so we’re heading in the opposite direction,” wrote Chief People Officer Kelly Russell, Chief Technology Officer Dane Knecht, and Recruiting Manager Judy Cheong in a blog post.

“… We need the innovation and fresh approach of a talented new generation of leaders.”

Asked whether it had seen a reduction in the number of its own entry-level roles, a Cloudflare spokesperson told Information Age the company’s hiring practices “tend to stay consistent across years and trends".

Cloudflare’s website listed four open roles in Australia at the time of writing — all of which were senior positions.

The company said between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of its interns tended to end up in a full-time job at the firm.

“Based on this summer’s intern cohort and the latest acceptances, we're tracking for a higher than industry average,” the spokesperson added.

In February, recruiting platform Handshake reported a 30 per cent drop in technology industry internships between January 2023 and January 2025, despite the sector receiving about twice as many applications as the average across all industries.

Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince said, “Now, when getting a job out of school has never been harder, we’re leaning in and offering a training ground for the next generation.”

He argued the company was bucking the downward trend in a similar way to when it doubled its intern numbers to around 100 during the COVID-19 pandemic “when other companies were cutting back”.


Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince says the company is going against the grain by offering many more internships in 2026. Image: Cloudflare / Supplied

Interns expected to ‘ramp up’ AI with new ideas

Cloudflare decided to significantly increase its intern intake “to ramp up the creative and widespread application of AI with a fresh approach”, senior company leaders wrote.

“We want this group to challenge our assumptions,” they said.

“They will be tasked with looking at our customers’ needs, our products and features, our network, and our operations to find novel ways to utilise AI.

"… We believe that by empowering a large, diverse cohort of bright minds who have grown up as digital and now AI natives, we will unlock innovations we haven’t even imagined yet.”

The senior leaders said Cloudflare saw AI tools as “not replacements for new hires — but ways to multiply how new hires can contribute to a team”.

Those applying for software engineering internships were even encouraged to build an AI-powered application to get “a leg up” on the competition — reflecting the trend of more companies adding AI tasks to their interview processes.

Prince said while many companies believed AI was "a way to replace jobs”, Cloudflare saw the next generation “as a way to bring the best uses of AI into Cloudflare”.

“There’s a lot we can learn from interns who grew up building with AI as a first-class tool,” he said.