Founding Engineer Jobs

Founding Engineer, Open Source Salary range — $225k – $300k | Equity — .15%-.35% | In-person NYC About Datalab Datalab trains models that read documents reliably at scale. The world's most important information is trapped in PDFs, scans, and files that can't easily be parsed, and getting it out correctly matters. From frontier AI labs processing training data to Fortune 500s like Siemens extracting decades of engineering records, Datalab is where businesses turn to when extraction has to be right. We’re at an 8-figure run rate with a team of 7. Anthropic is a customer. And we have hundreds more across FAANG, frontier AI labs, healthcare, finance, government, and legal. Our tools, chandra, surya, marker, and lift, have 70,000+ GitHub stars and broad developer mindshare. We're backed by founding members of OpenAI, FAIR, and Hugging Face. Role Overview We're looking for a Founding Engineer to develop and evangelize our open source repos. This includes chandra, surya, marker, pdftext, and lift, which collectively have over 70k Github stars. It also includes new tools we have yet to build and launch. As you work on our repos, you’ll also become the credible person to evangelize them. You’ll turn your own work into demos, benchmarks, tutorials, and launches. You’ll also support other launches across Datalab, especially when they touch open source components like the SDK. Our projects have real reach: 70k+ GitHub stars and users everywhere from frontier AI labs to Fortune 500s. Your job is to turn that reach into a thriving, engaged developer community through content, code, and showing up where developers already are. If you're the kind of engineer who’s energized by both building things and helping other people build, this is the role for you. Day to day: Own our open source repos and SDK: Drive chandra, surya, marker, lift, and our Python SDK forward as a hands-on contributor. Ship new features and improvements that the market cares about, help plan new versions, and own open-source launches end-to-end. This spans from the release itself to the demos, benchmarks, and content to evangelize the launch. Build demos and benchmarks. Build example apps, templates, and starter projects on top of Datalab's models and API that make it obvious what's possible and easy to remix. Publish benchmarks and evals that show, in code, how our models compare. Turn your work into content that teaches: Write technical blogs, guides, tutorials, and changelogs that help developers get started with marker, surya, chandra, lift, and our API, then go deep. Establish cookbooks and quickstart guides where we don't have them yet. Write content that helps developers differentiate between our platform / our models and our competitors (e.g., how to run evals). Close the loop with product: Bring developer feedback, friction points, and emerging needs back to engineering and product to help shape what we build next. Grow the community: Engage developers on GitHub, Discord, X, Reddit, and beyond. Celebrate contributors, answer questions, highlight cool projects, and add value in conversations rather than just promote. Be a visible, trusted voice for the platform online. Ideal Candidate You're a strong engineer who’s shipped things developers use, and you also love helping other people build. You know how to explain a complex idea simply, and you're as comfortable writing a tutorial or recording a demo as you are building a feature. 5+ years building production software, with meaningful open-source contributions Strong hands-on engineering skills; fluent in Python, shipping real, reproducible, well-tested code Track record of owning code end-to-end - design, implementation, release, and maintenance Able to create credible technical content - blogs, docs, tutorials, demos, or video - that developers actually read, watch, and use, because you understand the system deeply Comfortable representing your work publicly, whether in writing, on camera, or in online communities Comfortable with an early-stage startup - self-directed, hands-on, and happy to balance depth with shipping velocity Bonus points if you: Have experience with OCR, document AI, or structured extraction Have contributed to or maintained a widely-used open-source ML/vision/NLP project Have a growing audience on YouTube, X, or Twitch, or an active presence in developer communities Have used (and loved) marker, surya, chandra, or lift Interview process 30-minute video call to evaluate fit 1.5-hour in person meeting to build an architecture together Async code sharing + review phase (not a take-home project, you just share some code samples) Culture fit interviews with the team At this stage of the company, every interview is somewhat custom, so these phases may be rearranged slightly.

The Datadog for Startups (DDFS) program helps the next generation of fast-scaling companies adopt best-in-class observability and security from day one. We're looking for the technical engine of this program - someone who can sit across from a startup CTO, earn credibility in the first five minutes, and help them see how Datadog fits into their stack before they've even finished describing it. You'll be the first technical member on a lean, five-person team, owning the technical motion end-to-end: discovery calls, demos, startup enablement, forward-deployed engineering projects, and representing Datadog at founder events across San Francisco. This isn't a traditional SE seat - it's part solutions architect, part technical consultant, part startup evangelist, and it requires someone adaptable, proactive, and ready to take initiative without being told what to do next. At Datadog, we place value in our office culture - the relationships and collaboration it builds, and the creativity it brings to the table. We operate as a hybrid workplace to ensure our Datadogs can create a work-life harmony that best fits them. What You'll Do: Run discovery calls with startup CTOs and engineering leads to identify quick wins, validate technical needs, and position Datadog against alternatives like Grafana, New Relic, Sentry, and Clickhouse Deliver tailored Datadog demos and help startups get instrumented quickly - removing friction, showcasing value, and ensuring smooth technical onboarding, particularly around AI/ML observability, infrastructure scaling, and security Build automation to improve internal team workflows - EX: outreach, reporting, the application process, and website updates Represent Datadog for Startups at accelerator demo days, hackathons, conferences, founder dinners, and workshops across San Francisco Build relationships across SF's startup ecosystem - founders, VCs, accelerator partners, and technical communities - and develop thought leadership content for technical founder audiences Who You Are: 5-7+ years in solutions architecture, pre-sales engineering, technical consulting, or a similar customer-facing technical role at a SaaS or cloud company, with broad fluency across cloud infrastructure, containers, Kubernetes, CI/CD, and modern application frameworks A tinkerer with genuine, personal interest in AI and emerging technologies - you've used tools like Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, or Cursor outside of work and follow what's happening with agentic workflows, vibe coding, and codegen because you find it interesting Consultative mindset - you do the overview first, then go deep. You identify customer needs and quick wins in a first conversation, not just recite product features Strong presence and communication skills - you can command a room of technical founders, run a compelling demo, and hold your own in an unscripted conversation with a CTO Adaptable and flexible - comfortable shifting between contexts, priorities, and audiences quickly, and thrive in ambiguity on a small, lean team Based in San Francisco and actively engaged in the local tech/startup community, with startup experience (founded a company, early-stage engineer, or consulting/advisory to founders) strongly preferred 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. Benefits and Growth: New hire stock equity (RSUs) and employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) Continuous professional development, product training, and career pathing Intradepartmental mentor and buddy program for in-house networking An inclusive company culture, ability to join our Community Guilds (Datadog Affinity Slacks) Access to Inclusion Talks with a focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Free, global mental health benefits for employees and dependents age 6+ Competitive global benefits Benefits and Growth listed above may vary based on the country of your employment and the nature of your employment with Datadog. Datadog offers a competitive salary and equity package, and may include variable compensation. Actual compensation is based on factors such as the candidate's skills, qualifications, and experience. In addition, Datadog offers a wide range of best in class, comprehensive and inclusive employee benefits for this role including healthcare, dental, parental planning, and mental health benefits, a 401(k) plan and match, paid time off, fitness reimbursements, and a discounted employee stock purchase plan. The reasonably estimated yearly salary for this role at Datadog is: $200,000 — $250,000 USD 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. Datadog endeavors to make our Careers Page accessible to all users. If you would like to contact us regarding the accessibility of our website or need assistance completing the application process, please complete this form . This form is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications. Privacy and AI Guidelines: Any information you submit to Datadog as part of your application will be processed in accordance with Datadog’s Applicant and Candidate Privacy Notice . For information on our AI policy, please visit Interviewing at Datadog AI Guidelines .