Datadog
What's the Company Culture Like at Datadog?
Frequently Asked Questions
Datadog’s company culture is collaborative, technically ambitious and grounded in humility, curiosity, ownership, accountability and continuous learning.
- Humility, openness and accountability: Datadog describes its culture as “grounded in humility and a desire to learn,” and employees echo that in how they describe team norms. A director of engineering said, “To build team culture is to be open,” adding that transparent culture starts with leaders being willing to share what they do not know. An enterprise sales director described Datadog’s culture in one word: “Accountability,” pointing to ownership, manager support and growth opportunities.
- Ownership in a fast-moving environment: Employees describe Datadog as a place where people are trusted to take initiative and build. A security engineer said, “Datadog’s culture encourages engineers to take ownership of their work and push the boundaries of what’s possible.” A technical community employee also said individual contributors are given “autonomy and freedom” and encouraged to propose new ideas.
- Growth, belonging and support: Datadog supports culture through Community Guilds, manager-led events, Party Pups socials, sports clubs and team activities. In 2024, Datadog’s twice-yearly employee surveys had participation and favorability scores above 80%. Employees also describe a supportive environment, with a software engineer saying, “From day one at Datadog, everyone’s been approachable, supportive, and eager to help.”
- External signals:
- Employer Strengths: Employees on external review sites highlight Datadog’s culture, work-life balance, supportive colleagues, strong managers, benefits, learning opportunities, internal mobility and large-scale technical work.
- Positive Outlook: Employees on external review sites rate Datadog highly, giving it a 4.0 out of 5 rating as an employer, with a 78% recommendation rate, 92% CEO approval and 77% positive business outlook. (Glassdoor)
- Top-Rated Culture: Employees on external review sites also rate Datadog’s culture highly, giving it a 4.5 out of 5 culture score, an A overall culture rating and a 79% positive review sentiment. (Comparably)
Bottom line: Datadog’s culture is strongest around humility, ownership, technical ambition, continuous learning and supportive teams that move quickly while helping employees grow.
Teams at Datadog collaborate through cross-functional product work, customer-focused problem-solving, open feedback, bottom-up ideas and a “breaking down silos” mindset across engineering, product, design, data science, sales and technical solutions.
- Cross-functional product building: Datadog’s platform spans 26 products, which requires teams to work across observability, security, AI, cloud infrastructure, incident management and customer support. A product detection engineer said teams may work on different parts of the platform, but “come together and collaborate on various initiatives” to create a seamless customer experience.
- AI and data science partnerships: Datadog’s AI work highlights how collaboration happens across technical disciplines. A software engineer said the Bits AI team has “a deep relationship with data science” and has operated “in lockstep from day one,” helping both teams understand problems and see the customer impact of their work.
- Bottom-up experimentation: Collaboration at Datadog also includes self-directed ideas and experimentation. A senior software engineer said, “Most improvements to our agent come from bottom-up proposals from individual engineers,” adding that the team’s planning process encourages new ideas and shared measurement.
- Trust, feedback and influence: Datadog also promotes collaboration through open communication and stakeholder buy-in. A staff engineer’s “influence without authority” approach emphasizes understanding what matters to colleagues, minimizing their effort, offering help in return and preserving trust.
- External signals:
- Employer Strengths: Employees on external review sites highlight supportive colleagues, strong managers, collaboration, learning opportunities and large-scale technical work.
- Teamwork and Collaboration: External reviews describe Datadog teams as smart, passionate, hardworking, global and fun to work with, with employees citing strong communication and work ethic. (Comparably)
- Culture Signals: External reviews cite good people, pleasant and smart colleagues, strong work-life balance and a positive company culture. (Blind)
Bottom line: Datadog teams collaborate by combining customer context, product breadth, technical expertise, bottom-up innovation and cross-functional ownership to solve complex problems at scale.
Datadog recognizes employee work through feedback, promotions, internal mobility, manager sponsorship, team celebrations, learning forums and opportunities to turn impact into broader ownership.
- Recognition through feedback and celebration: Datadog employees describe recognition as part of everyday team culture. An engineer said, “I get really happy when I see team members calling out others’ achievements, or somebody taking on a critique and addressing it.” A mid-market sales team lead also described a team culture built around “healthy competition, constant learning, and celebrating together.”
- Recognition through advancement: Datadog recognizes impact through promotions, expanded scope and internal moves. Datadog’s ESG report notes 400 promotions and nearly 300 internal moves in the first half of 2024, while a talent management manager said about one in three Datadogs move internally each year through team moves, promotions or location changes.
- Recognition through manager sponsorship: Employees describe leaders as active sponsors of growth. An enterprise account executive said, “Leaders act as sponsors,” with regular check-ins, measurable milestones and stretch assignments helping employees build skills and visibility. A director of engineering said leadership means backing people up and ensuring they have what they need for the next step.
- Recognition through visibility and knowledge sharing: Datadog gives employees forums to share expertise through Learning Week, workshops, Brown Bag Talks, internal courses and team sessions. These programs help employees turn knowledge into broader influence while supporting a culture of learning.
- External signals:
- Employer Strengths: Employees on external review sites highlight supportive managers, strong teams, internal promotion, learning opportunities and career progression.
- Recognition and Rewards: External reviews cite competitive benefits, equity, ESPP, office perks and compensation signals, with Comparably ranking Datadog perks and benefits in the top 5% of similar-sized companies. (Comparably; Glassdoor)
- Culture Signals: Employees on external sites describe Datadog as a place with smart colleagues, strong collaboration and teams that celebrate wins and learn from failures. (Comparably)
Bottom line: Datadog recognizes employee work by connecting impact to feedback, visibility, career movement, manager support and team celebration.
Datadog's Candidate Tradeoffs
If you’re weighing whether Datadog is the right fit, these are the core tradeoffs to consider.
- Datadog places greater emphasis on a collaborative, supportive team environment than on highly independent, individual-first work styles.
Datadog Employee Perspectives
To build team culture is to be open. I want to build a safe place where employees can come to one-on-one meetings with me and share their challenges or concerns and address what we can do better and what they don’t know. It’s about openness and humbleness. I always ask people on my team their opinions on what they think we should do. We can’t have a transparent culture if openness is not coming from me as well.
Describe your company culture in one word. What made you pick that word?
Accountability! I know it doesn’t sound like the most glamorous word, but for me it’s my favorite thing about Datadog. Datadog has both a best-in-class product and a strong sales culture that creates real growth opportunities for reps and makes fast-paced career progression possible. We have a culture where ownership is recognized and celebrated and managers empower their teams to develop into leaders. You can set ambitious goals and challenge yourself to achieve them knowing that the company will support your career growth.
How long have you been with the company, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
I joined Datadog four years ago and have had four promotions in four years — few companies match how quickly Datadog recognizes and rewards impact. I started as an enterprise account executive. I was relatively junior but had come from a strong playbook culture and due to my forecasting skills and ability to execute, I was able to land a net new logo in my first few months. From there I was promoted to senior strategic account executive then to major account executive where I was trusted with one of the region’s largest accounts.
This year I stepped into a new role as director of enterprise sales for Germany, and my role is now focused on enabling the next generation of reps. It’s an exciting next step. I moved into leadership to help people grow in a competitive field, whether that’s building pipeline skills or staying resilient through a tough six-month cycle to close a strategic deal. Coaching ambitious team members is what drives me.
Datadog’s culture is built around continuous learning, collaboration, and helping employees grow through open feedback. Team members are encouraged to recognize one another’s achievements, learn from constructive critique, and approach challenges with accountability rather than blame.
“At Datadog we have a very positive feedback culture that helps foster growth. It's about accountability, not blame or micromanagement. I get really happy when I see team members calling out others’ achievements, or somebody taking on a critique and addressing it.”
Datadog’s product culture gives employees the opportunity to grow alongside expanding teams while contributing to work that spans products and disciplines. Supportive managers, cross-functional collaboration, and exposure to colleagues from different backgrounds help create an enriching environment where people can stretch, learn, and do meaningful work.
“Since I joined Datadog, the Product Design team has grown exponentially, and being part of this scalability process is an incredible experience. We have the chance to have outstanding managers that encourage us to go above and beyond. This has allowed me to work on an array of cross-product projects, which allows me to collaborate with people from very different backgrounds, making the whole experience very enriching.”
Datadog Employee Reviews
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What People Are Saying About Datadog
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People-First Culture: Inclusion programs, employee-led resource groups, wellness offerings, and thoughtful onboarding signal attention to well-being and belonging. Benefits and development investments indicate that identities and contributions are intended to be recognized.
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Learning & Knowledge Sharing: Structured onboarding, mentorship, ongoing training, and clear mobility pathways reinforce continuous skill growth. Cross-functional growth stories and opportunities to lead projects show learning is operationalized day to day.
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Recognition, Pride & Shared Success: Celebrations of wins and public acknowledgment of impact are described across groups. Individuals note feeling appreciated and seeing their contributions visibly recognized.
Datadog's Benefits
Employee feedback used to shape policies and strategy
Encourages autonomy and ownership from employees
Managers offer consistent feedback loops
Provides modern technology across teams
Provides resources to build team camaraderie
Quarterly engagement surveys to gauge employee satisfaction
Flexibility provided during personal challenges
Has employee-led culture committees
Offers an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
Offers company-sponsored happy hours
Datadog provides monthly, and annual, Party-Pups to connect with colleagues across your office. Themes vary from paint nights, to dart throwing, to lego building.
Offers company-sponsored outings
We pride ourselves on our engaging company outings that create an environment for all teams to interact with one another outside of the day-to-day work.
Offers Employee Resource Groups
Offers fitness stipend
Your health is a priority. Datadog reimburses 75% of qualified fitness-related expenses up to $100 a month.for you, your spouse or domestic partner, and dependents under 18.
Offers wellness programs
Your health is a priority. Datadog reimburses 75% of qualified expenses up to $100 a month.for you, your spouse or domestic partner, and dependents under 18.
Partners with nonprofits
Provides opportunities to volunteer in the local community
Datadog Cares is our philanthropy program. Our aim is to support our global communities and help our employees support causes that are meaningful to them through donation & volunteering opportunities.
Provides recreational clubs
Defined policies promoting a professional, respectful workplace
Documented policies and procedures to protect employee privacy and data
Hosts in-person all-hands meetings
All-Paws are held every quarter live in our NYC office and live-streamed for all other offices where employees have the opportunity to engage with our CEO and Senior Leadership directly.
Hosts in-person revenue kickoff meetings
Implements team-based strategic planning
Leadership is transparent and communicative
Mistakes are treated as learning opportunities
Open office floor plan to encourage communication and collaboration
Policies promote a low-ego, team-driven culture
Prioritizes real-world impact of work in decision-making processes
Promotes a people-first, social culture
Promotes a strong in-person office culture
Uses an OKR operational model to clearly define goals and priorities
Utilizes an open door policy that encourages accessibility
Allows work from home occasionally
Offers a remote work program
We operate as a hybrid workplace, with two days being from home. Pending manager approval, Datadog also allows employees to work fully remote.
Provides work from home flexibility
Utilizes a flexible work schedule
Utilizes a hybrid work model
