Datadog for Startups Engineering Lead
Leads technical sales engineering and ecosystem growth for Datadog's startup program, delivering demos, managing FDE projects, building partnerships, and automating processes. Requires 5-7 years in sales engineering or software engineering at SaaS/cloud companies with startup tech stack expertise.
About the job
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 highlighting Datadog’s differentiators, quick wins, and startup relevance (AI, infra scaling, security).
- Answer competitive engineering questions and position Datadog effectively.
- Create urgency for adoption and ensure smooth technical onboarding.
- Manage FDE engineering projects embedded with clients.
- Implement Datadog for clients, troubleshoot issues, and translate technical details for stakeholders.
2. Ecosystem Growth & Awareness
- Represent Datadog at key events (accelerator demo days, hackathons, conferences).
- Host startup-focused webinars, dinners, workshops, and founder roundtables.
- Develop messaging, collateral, and thought leadership.
- Drive inbound interest through community-building.
- Build relationships with accelerators, VCs, and ecosystem partners.
- Host office hours with referral partner portfolio companies.
3. DDFS Program Improvements
- Help automate processes across the startup lifecycle using internal tools like Salesforce and Marketo.
Who You Are
Must-Haves
- 5–7 years in sales engineering, solutions architecture, technical BD, forward-deployed engineer, or software engineering at a SaaS/cloud company.
- Strong understanding of modern startup tech stacks (cloud infrastructure, application frameworks, data platforms, developer tooling).
- Proven experience engaging with startups, founders, VCs, and technical decision-makers.
- Excellent communication skills for technical deep-dives and business storytelling.
- Builder mindset to shape hybrid BD + technical role and get hands-on with Datadog.
- Storyteller able to translate technical differentiators into business value.
- Passionate startup advocate.
Nice-to-Haves
- Strong knowledge of Datadog’s product suite and observability/security ecosystem.
- 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.
- Hands-on ability to articulate Datadog’s differentiators against competitors (Grafana, Sentry, Clickhouse, New Relic).
- CRM proficiency (Salesforce, HubSpot) and demand-generation workflows.
Skills
Datadog, Salesforce, Marketo, Sales Engineering, Solutions Architecture, Cloud Infrastructure, Observability, Security, CRM, HubSpot
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