The Datadog for Startups (DDFS) program helps the next generation of fast-scaling companies adopt best-in-class observability and security from day one. As the DDFS Engineering Lead, you’ll combine technical sales engineering expertise with ecosystem growth leadership to attract top startups into the program, showcase Datadog’s value early, and position Datadog as an essential platform for scaling.
This role is ideal for someone who thrives at the intersection of startups, business development, technical evangelism, and software engineering—comfortable running a discovery call with a CTO one day, hosting a founder networking event the next, and even helping startups get Datadog instrumented quickly.
What You’ll Do:
1. Technical Sales Engineering & Forward-Deployed Engineering (FDE) project management
- Validate startup technical needs and current tooling during pre-program discovery.
- Deliver tailored demos that highlight Datadog’s differentiators, quick wins, and startup relevance (AI, infra scaling, security).
- Answer competitive engineering questions and position Datadog effectively against alternatives.
- Create urgency for adoption so startups realize value quickly within their credits period.
- Ensure a smooth technical onboarding experience by removing friction and showcasing “aha” moments.
- Help manage FDE engineering projects that are embedded directly with client sites, deeply understanding workflows, pain points, and business processes.
- Implement Datadog for clients, troubleshoot issues or connect clients to those in Datadog who can support.
- Translate technical details for business stakeholders and communicate customer needs back to product/engineering teams.
2. Ecosystem Growth & Awareness
- Represent Datadog for Startups at key events (accelerator demo days, hackathons, conferences).
- Host or co-host startup-focused webinars, dinners, workshops, and founder roundtables.
- Develop messaging, collateral, and thought leadership for founders and technical teams.
- Drive inbound interest and applications through community-building efforts.
- Work with the SF DDFS Lead to build and manage relationships with accelerators, VCs, and other ecosystem partners.
- Host office hours with select referral partner portfolio companies to actively communicate DDFS perks to their portfolios.
3. DDFS Program Improvements
- Help the DDFS team automate processes across the full lifecycle of startup sourcing to conversion across internal tools such as Salesforce, Marketo, etc.
Who You Are:
Must-Haves
- 5–7 years in sales engineering, solutions architecture, technical BD, forward-deployed engineer, software engineering at a SaaS/cloud company.
- Strong understanding of modern startup tech stacks, including cloud infrastructure, application frameworks, data platforms, and developer tooling
- Proven experience engaging with startups, founders, VCs, technical decision-makers and audiences.
- Excellent communication skills: equally effective in technical deep-dives and business-level storytelling.
- Builder: eager to shape a hybrid BD + technical role in a fast-scaling program while also able to get hands on and build both for DDFS and with startups using Datadog.
- Storyteller: able to translate technical differentiators into startup-relevant business value.
- Startup advocate: passionate about helping early-stage companies scale successfully with Datadog.
Nice-to-Haves
- Strong knowledge of Datadog’s product suite and observability/security ecosystem.
- A former technical founder or engineering leader at a startup.
- Experience running or speaking at startup/technical events.
- Background in developer advocacy, community building, or technical marketing.
- Knowledge of VC/accelerator ecosystems and startup go-to-market motion.
- Hands-on ability to articulate Datadog’s differentiators against competitors (Grafana, Sentry, Clickhouse, New Relic, etc.)
- CRM proficiency (Salesforce, HubSpot) and ability to manage demand-generation workflows.
Why Join Us:
- Be at the forefront of Datadog’s engagement with the global startup ecosystem.
- Shape a high-impact program where technical expertise and community growth intersect.
- Help the next wave of unicorns adopt world-class observability, security, and performance tooling from day one.
Benefits and Growth:
- New hire stock equity (RSUs) and employee stock purchase plan (ESPP)
- Intradepartmental mentor and buddy program for in-house networking
- An inclusive company culture, including Community Guilds (employee resource groups)
- Access to Inclusion Talks and internal panel discussions
- Free, global Spring Health benefits for employees and dependents age 6+
- Competitive global benefits and giving programs
Benefits and Growth listed above may vary based on the country of employment and the nature of employment with Datadog.
#LI-Hybrid
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. In addition, Datadog offers a wide range of best in class, comprehensive and inclusive employee 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:
$205,000—$240,000 USD
**About Datadog: **
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.
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Datadog is proud to offer equal employment opportunity to everyone regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, veteran status, and other characteristics protected by law. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. Here are our Candidate Legal Notices for your reference.
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