Role Overview

The Datadog for Startups Engineering Lead role in San Francisco represents a unique opportunity to combine technical sales engineering with startup ecosystem growth at the world's leading observability and security platform. Datadog for Startups (DDFS) empowers fast-scaling companies to adopt best-in-class monitoring, APM, infrastructure monitoring, and cloud security from day one. As Engineering Lead, you'll bridge technical implementation with business development, helping top startups instrument Datadog, showcase quick wins, and position our platform as essential for scaling.

This hybrid role demands expertise across sales engineering, forward-deployed engineering, technical evangelism, and community building. One day you'll run discovery calls with CTOs, the next you'll host founder networking events or implement Datadog in production environments. Perfect for technical leaders passionate about startups and observability.

Key Responsibilities at Datadog

As DDFS Engineering Lead, your impact spans three critical areas:

• Technical Sales Engineering & FDE Management: Lead pre-program discovery validating technical needs, deliver customized Datadog demos showcasing AI-powered insights, infrastructure scaling, and security monitoring differentiators. Manage forward-deployed engineers embedded with startups, handle implementation, troubleshooting, and stakeholder communication.
• Ecosystem Growth & Awareness: Represent Datadog at accelerator demo days, hackathons, and conferences. Host webinars, founder dinners, workshops, and VC office hours. Develop thought leadership content and build relationships with San Francisco's top accelerators and venture firms.
• Program Improvements: Collaborate with DDFS team to automate sourcing-to-conversion workflows across Salesforce, Marketo, and internal systems, driving program scalability.

Success requires hands-on Datadog implementation skills plus strategic ecosystem leadership to attract high-potential startups into the program.

Qualifications & Requirements

Must-Have Qualifications:

• 5–7 years experience in sales engineering, solutions architecture, technical BD, forward-deployed engineering, or software engineering at SaaS/cloud companies
• Deep knowledge of modern startup tech stacks: cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure), Kubernetes, application frameworks, data platforms, developer tooling
• Proven track record engaging startups, founders, VCs, and technical decision-makers
• Exceptional communication: technical deep-dives for engineers, business storytelling for executives
• Builder mentality: shape hybrid technical/business roles while implementing Datadog hands-on
• Startup advocate passionate about helping early-stage companies scale with observability

Nice-to-Have Experience:

• Datadog product suite expertise and competitive knowledge (Grafana, New Relic, Sentry, ClickHouse)
• Former technical founder or engineering leader at startup
• Event speaking, developer advocacy, or technical marketing background
• VC/accelerator ecosystem relationships and GTM knowledge
• Salesforce/HubSpot proficiency for demand generation

Salary & Benefits

Datadog offers competitive compensation for San Francisco Engineering Leads including base salary range of $160,000-$220,000 (depending on experience), performance bonuses, and significant equity in our high-growth public company. Comprehensive benefits package includes:

• Family health, dental, vision insurance
• 401(k) matching
• Fitness reimbursements and wellness programs
• Commuter benefits for Bay Area employees
• Professional development budget
• Unlimited PTO and flexible scheduling
• Parental leave programs
• Datadog product credits

Why Join Datadog?

Be at the forefront of Datadog's global startup engagement from our San Francisco headquarters. Work with the next generation of unicorn founders while leveraging Datadog's market-leading observability platform used by 20,000+ organizations including Airbnb, Peloton, and Slack. This role offers unmatched exposure to startup ecosystems, hands-on technical leadership, and strategic business impact in a collaborative, high-growth environment.

Datadog's commitment to innovation positions you at the intersection of cloud-native observability, AI-driven insights, and security monitoring—critical for modern SaaS scaling. Join a team that's redefining how startups build reliable, secure applications at scale.

How to Apply

Ready to help startups scale with Datadog's observability platform? Submit your resume and a brief note on your favorite Datadog feature or startup observability challenge. San Francisco-based candidates preferred. Datadog is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to diversity.