Staff Software Engineer - K9 Security

About the Role

This position is within Datadog’s Security Agent team, responsible for core security functionalities across Workload Protection, Vulnerability Management, Cloud Security products, and other emerging security offerings. As a Staff Software Engineer, you will spearhead the design and development of low-level Linux instrumentation and runtime security technologies. Your work will empower customers to detect threats, monitor system activity, and secure cloud-native workloads at scale. You will tackle complex technical challenges involving eBPF, Linux kernel internals, performance-critical systems, and large-scale data collection, while also influencing technical strategy across various product teams. This role promises significant ownership, broad organizational impact, and the opportunity to define the future direction of Datadog’s security platform.

Datadog values its office culture – the relationships and collaboration it builds and the creativity it brings. They operate as a hybrid workplace to ensure their employees can achieve a work-life harmony that best suits them.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the architecture and development of security agent capabilities that power runtime threat detection and workload protection across Datadog Security products.
• Design and build reusable eBPF-based monitoring functionality for process, file, and network visibility within Linux environments.
• Drive end-to-end delivery of new features, from technical strategy and design through implementation, testing, and rollout.
• Establish and evolve testing methodologies to enhance platform coverage, detection quality, reliability, and performance.
• Collaborate with product, security, infrastructure, and engineering teams to deliver shared platform capabilities utilized across multiple Datadog products.
• Provide technical leadership by influencing engineering direction, mentoring peers, and resolving complex cross-functional challenges.

Who You Are

• You possess extensive experience building software within Linux environments, including a strong understanding of Linux internals, kernel APIs, or systems programming.
• You have hands-on experience with eBPF, kernel-level instrumentation, driver development, networking systems, agent development, or similar low-level technologies.
• You have a proven track record of building and operating systems where performance and reliability are paramount.
• You are experienced in building and maintaining production software across a variety of Linux distributions and kernel versions.
• You are product-minded and customer-focused, balancing technical excellence with tangible customer impact and usability.
• You have demonstrated technical leadership capabilities, influencing architectural decisions and execution across teams, and communicating effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences.

Datadog values individuals from all backgrounds. We recognize that not everyone may meet every qualification on day one. If you are passionate about technology and eager to develop your skills, we strongly encourage you to apply.

Benefits and Growth

• New hire stock equity (RSUs) and Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP).
• Opportunities for continuous professional development, product training, and career pathing.
• An intradepartmental mentor and buddy program to foster in-house networking.
• An inclusive company culture, with the option to join our Community Guilds (Datadog employee resource groups).
• Competitive global benefits package.
• Company-sponsored giving programs.

Please note: The Benefits and Growth outlined above may differ based on your country of employment and the nature of your employment with Datadog.

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. Here are our Candidate Legal Notices for your reference.

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