Senior Design Manager - Design Systems

Datadog, Inc.; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 204,000 - 255,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

New hire stock equity (RSUs)

Employee stock purchase plan (ESPP)

Professional development

Mentor program

Inclusive culture

Community Guilds

Inclusion Talks

Mental health benefits

Competitive global benefits

Job summary

Datadog, Inc. is seeking a hands-on design leader to own DRUIDS, the design system used across Datadog surfaces. You will lead designers and design engineers, set quality standards, and partner with product teams to define the system's direction and roadmap.

You will balance design excellence with engineering feasibility, communicate clearly, and grow the team as the system evolves in a hybrid, engineering-forward culture.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in product design.
• 3+ years managing a design team.
• READ and write front-end code and discuss it with engineers.
• Ability to shape design system direction with a point of view.

Responsibilities

• Define DRUIDS scope and roadmap with product partners.
• Lead and grow a design system team of designers and design engineers.
• Establish quality bar for components, patterns and principles.
• Shape tooling and workflows to enable design across ships.

Skills

Product design

Design leadership

Frontend literacy

Communication

Relationship building

Mentoring

Job description

The way products get built is changing. Agents write a growing share of shipped interfaces, designers work in code, and a design system's output is bigger than a component library. At Datadog we're redefining ours for that world, and evolving how the product looks and feels at the same time.

DRUIDS is the design system behind every Datadog surface, used daily by more than a hundred designers and thousands of engineers across thirty-plus products. You'll lead the team that owns it: designers and design engineers who set the system's direction, hold the quality bar for what ships, and build the tools that make designing in code the default way to work. The team partners closely with product designers, frontend engineers and PMs across the company.

This is a hands‑on leadership role in a technical, engineering‑forward company. You'll be expected to have a point of view and defend it, to be the person the design org asks about quality, and to make the call when work isn't good enough yet. Much of what a design system should be right now hasn't been settled — here or anywhere else. If you're a designer who never stopped making things, and you'd rather decide what a system should be than maintain one that already exists, this is the role.

At Datadog, we place value in our office culture - the relationships and collaboration it builds and the creativity it brings to the table. We operate as a hybrid workplace to ensure our Datadogs can create a work-life harmony that best fits them.

What You’ll Do

• Decide what DRUIDS owns, what it ships, and what stays with product teams.
• Own where the system goes next. Have a view on what a design system should be, and argue for it.
• Turn direction into a roadmap, and work with partners on what gets built and when.
• Coach the designers and design engineers on your team, be clear about what each person owns, and hire as the team grows.

Own craft and quality

• Own the craft and quality of components, patterns, and principles.
• Decide what's good enough to go into DRUIDS.
• Raise the quality of the product through the system, and through the way design gets made here.
• Say when work isn't good enough.

Own the tooling the system runs on

• Own the tooling that makes the system usable, and the workflows people use to build with it.
• Work out how design quality gets evaluated, by people and by agents, and where that belongs in how software gets shipped.
• Decide what the system ships beyond components, and which formats and surfaces it needs to reach.

Stay close to product design

• Keep a pulse on what’s getting built and where teams are struggling.
• Define how the system shows up for product teams — the touchpoints, relationships and working models needed to support them.
• Make the system something teams want to use.

Who You Are

• You have 8+ years in product design, 3+ of them managing.
• You've managed a design system team and grown it.
• You read and write front‑end code, and can have conversations about it.
• You design, have opinions and a point of view.
• You are a clear communicator.
• Your feedback improves quality and direction.
• You can build relationships with fellow leaders and influence them
• You've developed reports, and you've handled people who weren't performing.
• You want to work in an engineering‑forward company.

About Datadog

Datadog values people from all walks of life. We understand not everyone will meet all the above qualifications on day one. That's okay. If you’re passionate about technology and want to grow your skills, we encourage you to apply.

Benefits and Growth:

• New hire stock equity (RSUs) and employee stock purchase plan (ESPP)
• Continuous professional development, product training, and career pathing
• Intradepartmental mentor and buddy program for in‑house networking
• An inclusive company culture, ability to join our Community Guilds (Datadog employee resource groups)
• Access to Inclusion Talks, our internal panel discussions
• Free, global mental health benefits for employees and dependents age 6+
• Competitive global benefits

Benefits and Growth listed above may vary based on the country of your employment and the nature of your employment with Datadog.

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:

$204,000—$255,000 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.

Equal Opportunity at Datadog:

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.

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