Staff Engineer - Data Semantics (OpenTelemetry)

Location: Hybrid in Madrid, Spain or Paris, France

Company

Datadog develops an observability platform and invests in OpenTelemetry-native infrastructure, semantic interoperability, and AI-powered workflows.

What you will do

• Lead the technical direction of the Data Semantics team while contributing hands-on to design, implementation, and delivery.
• Build and scale semantic infrastructure connecting OpenTelemetry, Datadog-native telemetry, cloud-provider telemetry, and customer-defined data models.
• Drive initiatives covering schema evolution, telemetry standardization, data insights, and semantic interoperability across Datadog products.
• Partner with engineering and product teams to define standards, align stakeholders, and deliver platform capabilities.
• Mentor engineers through design reviews, technical guidance, operational excellence, and career development.
• Participate in on-call rotations and investigate complex production incidents affecting critical platform services.

Requirements

• Significant experience designing, operating, and scaling large-scale data infrastructure, distributed systems, or high-throughput data platforms.
• Demonstrated Staff-level impact through technical leadership, architectural ownership, cross-team influence, and mentorship.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to drive alignment across engineering and product organizations without direct authority.
• Product-oriented mindset with the ability to connect platform investments to customer outcomes and business impact.
• Comfort operating in ambiguous problem spaces while balancing long-term platform strategy with pragmatic execution.

Nice to have

• Experience with schema design, metadata systems, OpenTelemetry, observability platforms, knowledge graphs, or AI-assisted developer tooling.

Culture & Benefits

• Hybrid workplace focused on collaboration and work-life harmony.
• Competitive benefits package, with details varying by employment country and employment type.
• New-hire stock equity through RSUs and an employee stock purchase plan.
• Continuous career development, career pathing, mentor support, and a cross-departmental buddy program.
• Employee-focused onboarding and an inclusive workplace culture.