Senior Software Engineer - Distributed Systems

Datadog Datadog · Enterprise · Boston, MA +8 · Remote · Dev Eng

Senior Software Engineer role focused on building and running foundational distributed systems platforms for Datadog's observability and security platform. The role involves designing, implementing, and operating fault-tolerant, horizontally scalable solutions that process billions of events per second in real-time, optimized for durability, high availability, and low latency. Experience with languages like Go, Java, Rust, or C++ and components like Kafka, Redis, Cassandra, and Elasticsearch is required. While the role is primarily focused on distributed systems infrastructure, it mentions the use and potential improvement of AI coding tools and building AI-enabled products as a bonus.

What you'd actually do

  1. Build fault-tolerant, horizontally scalable solutions running in multi-tenant environments
  2. Write in Go, Java Rust or C++, amongst other languages
  3. Use Kafka, Redis, Cassandra, Elasticsearch and other open-source components
  4. Own meaningful parts of our service, have an impact, grow with the company

Skills

Required

  • Distributed Systems
  • Backend Programming
  • Go
  • Java
  • Rust
  • C++
  • Kafka
  • Redis
  • Cassandra
  • Elasticsearch
  • High Durability
  • Low Latency
  • Scalability
  • Fault Tolerance
  • Multi-tenant Environments
  • AI Coding Tools

Nice to have

  • BS/MS/PhD in a scientific field or equivalent experience
  • Pushing boundaries of AI for software engineering
  • Building AI-enabled products

What the JD emphasized

  • 6+ years of experience
  • significant backend programming experience in one or more languages (Go, Java, Rust, C++)
  • exposed to working on problems (high durability / low latency /…)
  • demonstrated ability to use AI coding tools in day-to-day workflows and validate, critique, and refine AI-generated output