Posted by employer 1 year ago
First seen on Joblaze 5 months ago
Last verified on the company career page 23 hours ago
Skills & Technologies
Requirements
- Education
- Master's degree
Not disclosed in this posting: years of experience, visa sponsorship.
Benefits
Joblaze summary
In this role, the Staff Software Engineer will focus on developing and enhancing features for Datadog's LLM Observability product, ensuring AI systems are monitored and optimized effectively. Key skills include a strong background in distributed systems, experience with LLMs, and a product-oriented mindset to navigate the evolving AI landscape. This position is ideal for seasoned engineers who thrive in dynamic environments and are eager to influence product direction. Datadog fosters a collaborative culture, emphasizing teamwork and continuous learning.
Joblaze insights
- Listed about 5 months ago — first seen on Joblaze April 14, 2026. Last confirmed on Datadog's careers page October 10, 2026.
- Salary band is above the typical range for AI/ML roles (median ~$190,000).
- Starts above 52% of 61 comparable staff ai/ml roles in United States that list AI/ML we track (median $230,000 across 28 companies). See AI/ML salary trends
- AI/ML appears in 32.5% of 280 comparable staff ai/ml roles in United States; Large Language Models appears in 3.6% of 280 comparable staff ai/ml roles in United States.
Quick facts
- Is the Staff Software Engineer - ML Observability role remote?
- It's hybrid — Datadog expects some on-site time in Boston, Massachusetts, USA; New York, New York, USA.
- What's the salary range?
- Datadog lists $234,000–$300,000 for this role.
- Where is the role based?
- Datadog is hiring for this position in Boston, Massachusetts, USA; New York, New York, USA.
- What's the tech stack?
- Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: AI/ML, Generative AI, Large Language Models, observability tools.
- What seniority level is this role?
- Datadog targets staff-level candidates for this position.
- Is this full-time or contract?
- Full-time for this Staff Software Engineer - ML Observability role at Datadog.
From the original posting
The ML Observability team builds cutting-edge tools to monitor, explain, and improve AI systems in production, particularly those leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI. We provide robust, scalable observability for AI workloads, including drift detection and model evaluation, and behavior tracing, enabling customers to ship AI with confidence.
As a Staff Engineer, you’ll lead the development of new features and foundational capabilities within Datadog’s LLM Observability product. You will shape product direction, drive experimentation, and apply your deep understanding of both AI systems and software engineering to solve open-ended problems in the fast-moving AI landscape. Your work will directly impact how our customers monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize LLM-based applications in production.
Join us in building the foundational tools that make AI systems observable, understandable, and reliable in the real world.
What You’ll Do:
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Drive design and implementation of LLM observability features.
- Ideate, prototype, and scale new product features to provide insights and drive improvements for generative AI systems
- Work cross-functionally with other eng teams, product, UX, and applied science to iterate fast and find product-market fit
- Develop and extend tools for tracing, evaluating, and debugging LLMs
- Influence architecture decisions and mentor engineers to build resilient, high-performance systems
- Stay close to customer pain points and use those insights to guide product and engineering priorities
- Stay current with industry trends and advancements in machine learning and observability, driving innovation within the team
Who You Are:
- You have a BS/MS/PhD in a Computer Science, Engineering or related scientific field or equivalent experience
- Deep understanding of distributed systems and scalable backend architectures
- Hands-on experience building and shipping LLM-powered or GenAI applications.
- Understanding of model internals, inference pipelines, evaluation techniques, and prompt engineering
- Ability to thrive in ambiguous, fast-changing spaces and have a product-oriented mindset
- You’re excited to shape the next generation of AI observability tools from the ground up
- Communicate clearly, think rigorously, and take pride in clean, maintainable code
- Experience with observability tools/platforms
Benefits and Growth:
- Get to build tools for software engineers, just like yourself. And use the tools we build to accelerate our development.
- Have a lot of influence on product direction and impact on the business .
- Work with skilled, knowledgeable, and kind teammates who are happy to teach and learn
- Competitive global benefits
- Continuous professional development
#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.
About Datadog:
Standard company text repeated across Datadog's postings is omitted here.