Manager I, Engineering - Applied AI - Natural Language & Conversational Interfaces

## Responsibilities - Lead and develop a team of engineers and applied scientists building NLQ translation systems, conversational agents, or AI-powered interfaces - Own the delivery of high-quality natural language capabilities, from semantic understanding and contextual retrieval to query generation and agentic reasoning - Build products that create data flywheels: design systems that capture user intent and feedback to continuously improve model quality and train differentiating capabilities - Drive evaluation and iteration practices for AI systems, including building offline and online evaluation pipelines to measure quality and detect drift - Partner with product managers and cross-functional teams to expand AI capabilities across the Datadog platform - Navigate the unique challenges of shipping LLM-powered products: balancing accuracy, latency, cost, and safety considerations - Support career growth for engineers through coaching, feedback, and fostering a culture of experimentation, innovation, and learning - Drive day-to-day execution and promote high standards for operational excellence, system reliability, and technical quality - Participate in hiring and help shape the future team as the organization grows - Contribute to cross-team collaboration and knowledge sharing across the broader AI organization ## Requirements - A technical leader with experience in AI, machine learning, or NLP systems - Proven experience building and shipping LLM-powered products, conversational AI, or natural language interfaces - A product builder who thinks beyond features, designing systems that generate data, learn from usage, and compound in value over time - Experience leading and mentoring engineers; ready to grow into broader leadership responsibilities - Strong technical expertise in one or more areas: large language models, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), semantic search, agentic systems, deep learning, or NLP - Comfortable working with Product to break down ambiguous problems, foster an experimental culture and iterate quickly on AI systems where quality is probabilistic - Familiarity with evaluation methodologies for AI systems, both offline benchmarks and online metrics - A people-focused manager able to develop and support strong engineering talent in a fast-moving domain - BS/MS/PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent professional experience ## Nice to Have - None specified ## Benefits - New hire stock equity (RSUs) and employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) - Continuous professional development, product training, and career pathing - An inclusive company culture with the ability to join Community Guilds (Datadog employee resource groups) - Free, global Spring Health benefits for employees and dependents age 6+ - Competitive global benefits - Giving programs 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.