← Back to results

Staff Software Engineer - Watchdog Anomaly Detection

Lead the architecture of large-scale distributed systems for automated anomaly detection at Datadog.

Location
New York, New York, United States
Compensation
$244k–$305k/yr
Level
staff
Type
full time · Hybrid

Posted by employer 1 day ago

First seen on Joblaze 1 hour ago

Last verified on the company career page 1 hour ago

Skills & Technologies

What you'll build

  • Lead the architecture of large-scale distributed systems
  • Design and improve high-throughput streaming and batch processing pipelines
  • Drive technical initiatives to modernize existing systems
  • Partner with engineering leaders and product managers
  • Provide technical leadership across engineering teams

Must have

  • Extensive experience designing large-scale distributed systems
  • Strong understanding of streaming and batch processing architectures
  • Experience leading complex architectural initiatives

Nice to have

  • Experience with Flink, Kafka, Cassandra, Go, or Python
  • Familiarity with machine learning systems

Not disclosed in this posting: years of experience, visa sponsorship.

Benefits

401k Match Equity/Stock Options Paid Time Off Fitness Reimbursements Health Insurance

Joblaze summary

In this role, the Staff Software Engineer will lead the design and evolution of large-scale distributed systems that enhance automated anomaly detection across Datadog's platform. Key skills include expertise in streaming and batch processing architectures, with a focus on high-throughput data handling and system reliability. This position is ideal for seasoned engineers who have a strong background in backend platforms and can drive technical strategy while collaborating with cross-functional teams. Datadog fosters a collaborative environment that emphasizes knowledge sharing and professional growth.

Joblaze insights

  • Listed today — first seen on Joblaze October 22, 2026. Last confirmed on Datadog's careers page October 22, 2026.
  • Salary band is above the typical range for Backend roles (median ~$180,750).
  • Starts above 83% of 80 comparable staff backend roles in United States that list Go we track (median $213,400 across 35 companies). See Go salary trends
  • Go appears in 33% of 306 comparable staff backend roles in United States; Flink appears in 1% of 306 comparable staff backend roles in United States.

Quick facts

Is the Staff Software Engineer - Watchdog Anomaly Detection role remote?
It's hybrid — Datadog expects some on-site time in New York, New York, United States.
What's the salary range?
Datadog lists $244,000–$305,000 for this role.
Where is the role based?
Datadog is hiring for this position in New York, New York, United States.
What's the tech stack?
Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: Cassandra, Flink, Go, Kafka, Python.
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 - Watchdog Anomaly Detection role at Datadog.

From the original posting

Datadog is looking for a Staff Software Engineer to help shape the future of our anomaly detection platform. Our team builds and operates high-scale distributed systems that process streaming and batch data, working alongside machine learning systems to automatically identify potential issues in our customers' environments. As we expand these capabilities across Datadog's products, you'll play a key role in defining the technical direction, evolving our architecture, and building systems that surface meaningful insights to customers without requiring manual configuration. This is an opportunity to solve complex engineering challenges at scale while influencing the direction of a platform that powers critical customer experiences.

What You’ll Do:

  • Lead the architecture and evolution of large-scale distributed systems that power automated anomaly detection across Datadog's platform.
  • Design and improve high-throughput streaming and batch processing pipelines, enabling timely and reliable detection of potential issues in customer environments.
  • Drive technical initiatives to simplify, consolidate, and modernize existing systems, improving scalability, maintainability, and operational efficiency.
  • Partner with engineering leaders, product managers, and data scientists to define the long-term technical strategy for anomaly detection and its integration with alerting capabilities.
  • Shape how anomaly detection capabilities are delivered across Datadog products, helping customers identify meaningful issues without requiring manual configuration.
  • Provide technical leadership across engineering teams, influencing architectural decisions and aligning solutions with broader product and platform goals.

Who You Are:

  • You have extensive experience designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed systems, particularly high-throughput or data-intensive backend platforms.
  • You have a strong understanding of streaming and batch processing architectures, including the challenges of processing large volumes of data with low latency.
  • You have experience leading complex architectural initiatives, making technical tradeoffs, and improving the reliability and maintainability of production systems.
  • You can drive technical strategy beyond your immediate team, collaborating with engineering leaders and product partners to translate customer needs into scalable platform solutions.
  • You are comfortable working across technologies and learning new systems; experience with technologies such as Flink, Kafka, Cassandra, Go, or Python is a plus.
  • You bring a product-oriented mindset and can connect technical decisions to customer outcomes; familiarity with machine learning systems or deploying models in production is a plus, but not required.

Benefits and Growth:

  • Opportunities to grow as a technical leader while influencing the architecture and direction of shared capabilities used across Datadog products.
  • Exposure to complex engineering challenges involving large-scale distributed systems, real-time data processing, and machine learning.
  • Collaboration with experienced engineers, product managers, and data scientists across multiple teams.
  • Opportunities to develop expertise in platform architecture, technical strategy, and cross-functional engineering leadership.
  • A collaborative engineering environment that encourages knowledge sharing, continuous learning, and 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.

The reasonably estimated yearly salary for this role at Datadog is:
$244,000—$305,000 USD

About Datadog:

Standard company text repeated across Datadog's postings is omitted here.

Similar positions

Datadog
Staff Software Engineer - Frontend
Datadog · New York, New York, USA
Datadog
Datadog
Manager I, Engineering - Anomaly Detection
Datadog · New York, New York, USA
Datadog
Staff Engineer - Data Platform Experience
Datadog · Dublin, Ireland; Madrid, Spain; Paris, France
Datadog
Senior Applied Scientist
Datadog · New York, New York, USA