How is management perceived at Datadog?

free lunches 3 times per week, fairly solid benefits, fun coworkers, good views from the office.

Complicated billing model that punishes customers Clueless leadership that doesn't act on suggestions or advice from employees "Leadership" likes to hire their friends for management roles (friends that have no idea how to manage a team). Some of these managers will ignore slack messages, ignore 1 on 1 meetings, have zero knowledge or advice for dealing with customers, and will spend their time fraternizing in the office while making plans to take more of their unlimited PTO, while they work to wrongly remove and ostracize people on their team. Zero coaching or strategy provided by managers - CSM's are expected to figure things out by themselves Managers will talk and pick and choose their "favorites" will treating others like they don't exist. Promotions are incredibly hard to come by, most CSM's will remain in their same roles regardless of how well they perform. Datadog even pays less for a CSA role that does the exact same role as a CSM. Excessive layers of approval to get out quotes or oder forms to customers. At least 10 different Datadog employees need to sign off before anything is executed. Severely understaffed on the "deal desk" team. Waiting weeks for order forms and then being punished when renewals are late. Base pay and commission are split. Commission checks are received quarterly and are never discussed with the employee. Did you lose $600 from your commission check? You will not get an explanation. I was told that these bonuses are subjective and that managers can pick and choose how much they want to pay and do not have provide any explanation. What kind of company can't even share a commission breakdown for work that's already been completed? This place is everything that's wrong with tech and the corporate world. More money, more money, more money, zero focus on employee development and culture. Some of the worst culture I've ever been a part of, absolutely disgusting.

Good office perks like snacks and catered food. Modern office space with nice amenities. Most coworkers are great.

A newer CSM people manager in Denver exhibits extremely inappropriate behavior toward women, frequently making them uncomfortable by undressing them with his eyes. Leadership at the director level lacks accountability and awareness, allowing toxic behaviors to exist. Despite positive culture among peers, poor management decisions and lack of oversight create an uncomfortable work environment.

The technical solutions team members are all helpful and willing to answer any your questions. The culture at Datadog was really great and inviting and the high energy and pace of working on top tier and cutting edge technologies. The product itself is amazing and the tools used to do your job are there such as numerous KB's, office hour type daily meetings for help with your customer ticket issues and weekly one on one with your direct manager. Great place to learn the support engineering model and expand your skills without any prior experience. Numerous perks and incentives (appears as eye candy to a engineer joining that industry) such as great full lunch meals and snacks and drinks of various kinds and paid health benefits and unlimited time off and fitness reimbursement are all great for making your time at the office enjoyable. Communication within the company is frank and frequent and informative which made you feel inclusive. Manager does have a genuine interest in your career but depends on how well your do your best each month - see cons.

Perks are great to make you feel that you are appreciated but keep on eye on how your manager and management perceive your work ethic if you do not meet your monthly goals. Company spends a lot on perks including full healthcare and unlimited timeoff. These perks may affect what your actualy market value salary could be working in a similar role with anther company competitor or not. Management focused too much on metrics and running analytics against your instead of actually investing in you and making your voice heard. Despite having numerous townhalls and open discussion sessions, workers were not listened to or given push back that things will eventually change if given enough time. Don't hold the metrics too high, they do not show the entire story of working as a support engineer. Allow for more time and don't try to reach a MTTR (mean tie to resolution) time when its not achievable or even feasible. Give enough time for onboarding and better plan embed and scheduled time off for leave of absence so that the manager you end up keeps going from one person to another in matter of months Promote people as they grow and allow them to take the risk in a new position and leave room for future promotions and positions as the company and team grows. Not all Support engineers want to be a developer. Foster a team that allows mobility and apply their strengths to benefit the whole team globally rather than have their next great idea dwindle. Restructure the Hack/Dev days to allow more time for learning and gaining insight to the Datadog product and allow time for industry certifications Hire more engineers that can help with the load when peak times come and adjust the metrics requirements accordingly when these peask and valley of voume support tickets come and go.

free lunches 3 times per week, fairly solid benefits, fun coworkers, good views from the office.

Complicated billing model that punishes customers Clueless leadership that doesn't act on suggestions or advice from employees "Leadership" likes to hire their friends for management roles (friends that have no idea how to manage a team). Some of these managers will ignore slack messages, ignore 1 on 1 meetings, have zero knowledge or advice for dealing with customers, and will spend their time fraternizing in the office while making plans to take more of their unlimited PTO, while they work to wrongly remove and ostracize people on their team. Zero coaching or strategy provided by managers - CSM's are expected to figure things out by themselves Managers will talk and pick and choose their "favorites" will treating others like they don't exist. Promotions are incredibly hard to come by, most CSM's will remain in their same roles regardless of how well they perform. Datadog even pays less for a CSA role that does the exact same role as a CSM. Excessive layers of approval to get out quotes or oder forms to customers. At least 10 different Datadog employees need to sign off before anything is executed. Severely understaffed on the "deal desk" team. Waiting weeks for order forms and then being punished when renewals are late. Base pay and commission are split. Commission checks are received quarterly and are never discussed with the employee. Did you lose $600 from your commission check? You will not get an explanation. I was told that these bonuses are subjective and that managers can pick and choose how much they want to pay and do not have provide any explanation. What kind of company can't even share a commission breakdown for work that's already been completed? This place is everything that's wrong with tech and the corporate world. More money, more money, more money, zero focus on employee development and culture. Some of the worst culture I've ever been a part of, absolutely disgusting.

Datadog as a company is doing great! It is a great software that is truly bringing visibility in one platform. CEO and CTO are the founders and they care about the product If you are in the office, lunch is great for the 3 days Even with hybrid mandate, it is really easy to still feel remote

TPS leadership is terrible and even worse is the TAM leadership team. TAM leadership is fully absent from the day-to-day work ICs are doing and it is very obvious that most managers are not technical and don't really understand the workload or what their team members should and shouldn't do.

Datadog has a very strong product and impressive technology, and many of the individual contributors are highly capable and committed. Compensation and benefits are competitive, and the company invests in modern offices and visible perks that create an attractive first impression.

Behind the polished employer branding, the management culture in parts of EMEA can be challenging. From the beginning, expectations are not always clearly defined and can change rapidly, making it difficult to understand how success is measured. Feedback is often informal and reactive rather than structured or constructive, and management style may lean toward micromanagement rather than trust and autonomy, very unpleasant and heavy work atmosphere. While office perks and amenities are emphasized (mostly snacks and Apple products), they sometimes feel like surface-level benefits that mask a harsher day-to-day reality. Decision-making lacks transparency, and HR involvement when concerns are raised is limited or comes very late. In this context, behaviors that could reasonably be perceived as inappropriate or harassing do not always appear to be addressed with the seriousness one would expect. More broadly, management responsibilities in some teams appear to be shaped more by prior internal exposure, informal networks, or cultural proximity than by demonstrated people-management competence, which undermines psychological safety and fairness.

Good culture around taking responsibility for your work while having a no-blame attitude for major problems, like "incidents". If you can find the right team that matches what you want you'll thrive, but otherwise may struggle with bureaucracy.

Comp reviews are done without any input from the employee. Performance reviews, decoupled from compensation, don't feel impactful - on a scale from 1-5 where 5 is beyond expectations, 5 isn't actually an option because the higher ups don't want those to be given out. In fact, a lot of decisions from higher ups impact the culture negatively, where they make decisions that are better handled by team leads and managers (people regular employees actually work with, talk to, and know). The theme of management is having a lax policy, then slowly killing it without clarity or communication. Promotions also happen without employee input. Hybrid policy, which used to be unclear, is now mandated from above, and tracked by badge swipes. "Unlimited" PTO is not so anymore - in the US it is tracked to be no more than some "average" they got of 15-25 days, up to manager discretion, but after the 25 they're told to decline additional. KPI's are made just to satisfy executives that don't have the best context for the teams that have to write them. Almost a third of the team I'm on are managers of some sort.

Most engineers at Datadog are high performers working on interesting and impactful projects. You'll likely learn a lot from being an engineer here and be exposed to new and relevant technology.

There is a lack of transparency between managers and engineers. The company likes to brag that it's never had to conduct layoffs, but they have a tendency to "disappear" engineers with no warning or formal process while citing performance. Managers are, unfortunately, not your allies here. Management expects engineers to onboard quickly with minimal support and guidance, and is quick to blame engineers for any missed deadlines

- Most of management is very technical - Great WLB

- In certain orgs, more people than projects - Recently began hiring non-technical management that talk more than they work - SWE 2 -> Senior can take 5+ years - Not many opportunities to go from Senior to Staff

Cool office with friendly teammates. Flexibility to pick your in-office days.

Wholly unqualified team managers, constantly changing performance metrics, and lack of care/concern for employees' personal circumstances. Work/life balance is non-existent. Workload is unsustainable. Zero discussion of career growth/progression.