engineering
Posted 2 weeks agoDatadog for Startups Founding Engineering Lead
at Datadoghq
San Francisco, United StatesHybrid
Responsibilities
- Run discovery calls with startup CTOs and engineering leads to identify quick wins, validate technical needs, and position Datadog against alternatives like Grafana, New Relic, Sentry, and Clickhouse
- Deliver tailored Datadog demos and help startups get instrumented quickly - removing friction, showcasing value, and ensuring smooth technical onboarding, particularly around AI/ML observability, infrastructure scaling, and security
- Build automation to improve internal team workflows - EX: outreach, reporting, the application process, and website updates
- Represent Datadog for Startups at accelerator demo days, hackathons, conferences, founder dinners, and workshops across San Francisco
- Build relationships across SF's startup ecosystem - founders, VCs, accelerator partners, and technical communities - and develop thought leadership content for technical founder audiences Who You Are:
Requirements
- A tinkerer with genuine, personal interest in AI and emerging technologies - you've used tools like Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, or Cursor outside of work and follow what's happening with agentic workflows, vibe coding, and codegen because you find it interesting
- Strong presence and communication skills - you can command a room of technical founders, run a compelling demo, and hold your own in an unscripted conversation with a CTO
- Datadog is the leading observability and security platform for the AI era, providing businesses with unified visibility across the technology stack to manage complexity at scale.
- It brings applications, infrastructure, data, models, and security into one place, using AI to detect and resolve issues before they impact customers.
- Trusted globally by Fortune 500 companies and high-growth AI leaders, Datadog enables businesses to move faster with clarity and confidence.
- Learn more about #DatadogLife on Instagram , LinkedIn, and Datadog Learning Center.
Experience
- 5-7+ years in solutions architecture, pre-sales engineering, technical consulting, or a similar customer-facing technical role at a SaaS or cloud company, with broad fluency across cloud infrastructure, containers, Kubernetes, CI/CD, and modern application frameworks
Benefits
- New hire stock equity (RSUs) and employee stock purchase plan (ESPP)
- Access to Inclusion Talks with a focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
- Datadog offers a competitive salary and equity package, and may include variable compensation.
- Actual compensation is based on factors such as the candidate's skills, qualifications, and experience.
- benefits for this role including healthcare, dental, parental planning, and mental health benefits, a 401(k) plan and match, paid time off, fitness reimbursements, and a discounted employee stock purchase plan.
- The reasonably estimated yearly salary for this role at Datadog is: $192,000 — $240,000 USD
Additional details
- The Datadog for Startups (DDFS) program helps the next generation of fast-scaling companies adopt best-in-class observability and security from day one.
- You'll be the first technical member on a lean, five-person team, owning the technical motion end-to-end: discovery calls, demos, startup enablement, forward-deployed engineering projects, and representing Datadog at founder events across San Francisco.
- This isn't a traditional SE seat - it's part solutions architect, part technical consultant, part startup evangelist, and it requires someone adaptable, proactive, and ready to take initiative without being told what to do next.
- At Datadog, we place value in our office culture - the relationships and collaboration it builds, and the creativity it brings to the table.
- We operate as a hybrid workplace to ensure our Datadogs can create a work-life harmony that best fits them. What You'll Do:
- Consultative mindset - you do the overview first, then go deep. You identify customer needs and quick wins in a first conversation, not just recite product features
- Adaptable and flexible - comfortable shifting between contexts, priorities, and audiences quickly, and thrive in ambiguity on a small, lean team
- Based in San Francisco and actively engaged in the local tech/startup community, with startup
- experience (founded a company, early-stage engineer, or consulting/advisory to founders) strongly preferred
- Datadog values people from all walks of life. We understand not everyone will meet all the above