Datadog

Datadog

Datadog for Startups - Forward Deployed Engineering Lead

San Francisco, California, USA · Full-time

Sponsorship not specified$192k-$240kDetected 1 day ago
AWSGCPAzureCloud PlatformsKubernetesCI/CDDatadogPlatform EngineeringLLMsAccessibilityProduct ManagementProduct StrategyStakeholder ManagementBusiness DevelopmentPerformance ManagementCustomer SuccessLeadershipCommunicationCollaborationMentoring

About the role

  • You are part field technical leader, part program architect, and part cross-functional connector.
  • Datadog values people from all walks of life.
  • We know not everyone will meet all the above qualifications on day one.

Responsibilities

  • Evolve and scale the FDE operating model end to end: engagement intake, scoping, sprint delivery, handoff back to account teams, and the success metrics (time-to-value, adoption lift, ARR influence, NPS) and reporting infrastructure that support them.
  • Build out a catalog of FDE offerings spanning observability quickstarts, custom integration development, LLM/AI observability accelerators, CI/CD pipeline instrumentation, and cost optimization deep dives, and contribute to their pricing and business models, including free-to-paid conversion plays, paid deployment packages, and post-deployment success motions.
  • Capture product and feature gaps uncovered during deployments, translate them into structured prioritized briefs, and partner with PM and Engineering to strengthen the field-feedback channel that informs roadmap decisions on a regular cadence.
  • Hire, onboard, and develop full-time FDEs, manage a rotating cohort of SWE and TSE secondments, build technical assessment frameworks suited to the customer-embedded nature of the role, and coach the team on engagement, scoping, stakeholder communication, and Datadog platform depth.
  • Identify high-value mini-product opportunities (integrations, dashboards, automation scripts, open-source tooling), drive lightweight engineering sprints that convert recurring customer needs into reusable assets, and maintain a prioritized build backlog informed by deployment learnings and competitive intelligence.
  • Help drive lightweight engineering sprints to convert recurring customer needs into reusable assets that scale across the FDE portfolio.
  • Partner with Sales, Solutions Engineering, Customer Success, and Business Development to identify which accounts enter the FDE motion, represent the function in QBRs and executive business reviews, and serve as a trusted advisor through complex deployment cycles.
  • Partner directly with leadership across Engineering, Product, Sales, Customer Success, and Business Development.
  • Develop expertise across cloud infrastructure, platform engineering, AI observability, deployment strategy, and customer-facing technical leadership.

Requirements

  • Have 8+ years of experience in forward deployed engineering, solutions architecture, software engineering, or related technical fields, including at least 3 years in a customer-facing technical role.
  • Have 2+ years of engineering management or technical leadership experience, including hiring, coaching, performance management, and cross-functional collaboration.
  • Have contributed to or scaled a technical program, practice, or new function within a high-growth technology company, with a track record of influencing product roadmaps through structured field feedback.
  • To conform to US export control regulations, candidates should be eligible for any required authorizations from the US government.
  • to conform to US export control regulations, some of these roles may require candidates to be eligible for any required authorizations from the US government.

Nice to have

  • Datadog experience is a strong plus.
  • Bring deep familiarity with modern cloud-native stacks (Kubernetes, AWS/GCP/Azure, microservices, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code) and hands-on experience with observability, monitoring, APM, or logging platforms

Compensation

  • $192,000 - $240,000 USD

Benefits

  • Datadog offers a competitive salary and equity package, and may include variable compensation.
  • Benefits and Growth listed above may vary based on the country of your employment and the nature of your employment with Datadog.
  • Learn more about #DatadogLife on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Datadog Learning Center.

Company info

  • Communicate exceptionally across audiences from engineering leads and CTOs to VP-level executives, bring strong commercial instinct for how technical decisions translate to ARR, churn risk, and expansion, navigate large matrixed organizations without direct authority, and are comfortable with significant travel to embed with customers.
  • 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.

Equal opportunity

  • We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.
  • Here are our Candidate Legal Notices for your reference.
  • Datadog endeavors to make our Careers Page accessible to all users.
  • If you would like to contact us regarding the accessibility of our website or need assistance completing the application process, please complete this form.

Visa & Work Authorization

  • To conform to US export control regulations, candidates should be eligible for any required authorizations from the US government
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This listing is sourced directly from Datadog's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.