Senior Forward Deployed Engineering Lead — Startups

FDE Times; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare

Equity

401(k) match

Paid time off

Job summary

Datadog is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineering Manager to shape the FDE program. You will work with leadership to expand the framework, build scalable processes, and extend the program’s reach across customer segments.

This role sits at the intersection of sales, engineering, and program design, requiring hands-on leadership and strong cross‑functional collaboration. You will travel as needed, influence product roadmaps through field feedback, and help the team deliver high-impact deployments

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in forward deployed engineering, solutions architecture, software engineering, or related technical fields.
• At least 3 years in a customer-facing technical role.
• 2+ years of engineering management or technical leadership experience.

Responsibilities

• Evolve and scale the FDE operating model end to end: engagement intake, scoping, sprint delivery, handoff to account teams, and success metrics.
• Build out a catalog of FDE offerings across observability, integrations, AI accelerators, CI/CD instrumentation, and cost optimization.
• Capture product gaps from deployments and translate into prioritized briefs for PM and Engineering.
• Hire, onboard, and develop FDEs; manage SWE and TSE secondments; coach on engagement and stakeholder communication.
• Identify high-value mini-product opportunities and drive lightweight sprints to create reusable assets.
• Lead coordination with Sales, Solutions Engineering, and Customer Success on account selection and executive reviews.

Skills

8+ years exp

Customer-facing tech

Leadership

Cloud native stacks

Tools

Kubernetes

AWS

GCP

Azure

CI/CD pipelines

Datadog

Job description

Datadog is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineering Manager to shape the FDE program. You will work with leadership to expand the framework, build scalable processes, and extend the program’s reach across customer segments.

This role sits at the intersection of sales, engineering, and program design, requiring hands-on leadership and strong cross‑functional collaboration. You will travel as needed, influence product roadmaps through field feedback, and help the team deliver high-impact deployments