---
title: 'Research Manager - Post-Training for Agents at Datadog'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/research-manager-post-training-for-agents-datadog-new-york-rj1tn36v3wvp'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-17'
---

# Research Manager - Post-Training for Agents at Datadog

- **Company:** Datadog
- **Location:** New York, NY
- **Compensation:** $244k–$305k
- **Posted:** 2026-10-13
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-17
- **Apply:** https://careers.datadoghq.com/detail/8279173/?gh_jid=8279173

## Job description

As a Research Manager within Datadog AI Research (DAIR), you will lead a team working on fundamental research in post-training and autonomous agents while remaining deeply engaged in the technical direction of the work. You will advance reinforcement learning, simulated environments, synthetic data generation, and evaluation methods for agents operating across complex real-world systems. You will provide technical leadership to a team of researchers and research engineers, mentor and develop highly technical talent, shape research direction, and collaborate with Datadog’s product and engineering teams to translate research advances into products. This role is designed for an exceptional researcher or technical leader who wants to maintain a strong hands-on research identity while developing and leading a high-performing team.

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:

- Lead research in agent post-training and reinforcement learning, setting the technical direction for ambitious research programs grounded in observability and security
- Guide and mentor researchers and research engineers while remaining closely involved in research strategy, experimentation, model development, and technical problem-solving
- Design and advance reinforcement learning approaches, post-training methods, and training loops for agents operating in complex environments
- Build simulated environments, synthetic data generation approaches, and evaluation frameworks that enable scalable agent training and rigorous measurement
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams across Research, Product, and Engineering to translate advances in autonomous agents into scalable Datadog capabilities
- Contribute to research publications, present at top-tier conferences such as NeurIPS, ICLR, and ICML, and help open-source key model artifacts and benchmarks

Who You Are:

- You hold a PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field, or have equivalent experience, with deep expertise in areas such as reinforcement learning, AI agents, post-training, or generative modeling
- You have demonstrated the ability to lead technically ambitious research at meaningful scale, whether in an industry research lab, startup, academic environment, or another research setting
- You have extensive hands-on experience designing or implementing reinforcement learning systems, agent training methods, simulated environments, synthetic data pipelines, or evaluation frameworks
- You have a track record of research impact through influential publications, significant model or system contributions, widely used research artifacts, or equivalent technical achievements
- You have operated at a senior technical level and have experience leading, mentoring, and developing teams of researchers or engineers, while remaining deeply hands-on in technical direction and execution
- You want to develop and support a research team while maintaining a strong technical identity, and you can communicate complex research findings effectively across technical and non-technical audiences

Datadog values people from all walks of life. We know 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 experience, we encourage you to apply.

Benefits and Growth:

- Competitive global benefits
- New hire stock equity (RSUs) and employee stock purchase plan (ESPP)
- Opportunity to collaborate closely with colleagues across the Datadog offices in New York City and Paris
- Opportunity to attend and present at conferences and meetups
- Intra-departmental mentor and buddy program for in-house networking
- An inclusive company culture, ability to join our Community Guilds (Datadog employee resource groups)

Benefits and Growth listed above may vary based on the country of your employment and the nature of your employment with Datadog.

#LI-Hybrid 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: $244,000—$305,000 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](https://www.instagram.com/datadoghq/?hl=en), [LinkedIn,](https://www.linkedin.com/company/datadog) and [Datadog Learning Center.](https://learn.datadoghq.com/)

Equal Opportunity at Datadog:

Datadog is proud to offer [equal employment opportunity](https://www.eeoc.gov/sites/default/files/2023-06/22-088_EEOC_KnowYourRights6.12ScreenRdr.pdf) 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](https://www.datadoghq.com/legal/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](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeoJeduEZ2NdZF_65uZmWUrCM-zee7yADXX1s6Xr9zAGq8iKA/viewform). 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](https://www.datadoghq.com/legal/applicant-candidate-privacy/). For information on our AI policy, please visit [Interviewing at Datadog AI Guidelines](https://www.datadoghq.com/legal/interviewing-at-datadog-ai-guidelines/).

## About Datadog

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Datadog provides a unified cloud monitoring and security platform for developers, IT operations, and business teams to gain end-to-end visibility across their entire technology stack.
- **Entity Type**: Public (NASDAQ: DDOG)
- **Headquarters**: New York, NY, United States
- **Founded**: 2010
- **Founders**: Olivier Pomel and Alexis Lê-Quôc

## Core Business
- **Primary industries**: Cloud monitoring, observability, application security, IT operations, DevOps
- **Target customers**: B2B – from SMBs to large enterprises, serving developers, IT operations, security teams, and business users
- **Mission/purpose**: “We are building the modern monitoring and security platform for developers, IT operations teams and business users in the cloud age.” [datadoghq.com](https://www.datadoghq.com/)

## Products & Services
- **Infrastructure Monitoring**: Metrics collection and visualization for servers, containers, cloud services, and hybrid environments.
- **APM (Application Performance Monitoring)**: Trace and optimize application performance end-to-end.
- **Log Management**: Centralized log ingestion, analysis, and exploration with sensitive data scanning and audit trail.
- **Security**: Unified security and observability – including Cloud SIEM, Application Security Management, and runtime detection to defend against AI-powered attacks. [datadoghq.com](https://www.datadoghq.com/product/security/)
- **Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)**: Synthetic monitoring (browser & API tests) and Real User Monitoring (RUM) for frontend performance.
- **Bits AI**: AI agents that chat, investigate, and remediate issues; includes Watchdog for proactive anomaly detection.
- **Network Monitoring**: Analyze network traffic patterns across cloud environments.
- **Service Management** and **Software Delivery**: Incident response, workflow automation, CI Visibility, DORA Metrics, and OpenTelemetry support.
- **Database Monitoring** and **Data Streams Monitoring**: Deep visibility into databases and streaming pipelines.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: ~$39.9 billion (as of mid-2026) [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/datadog)
- **Key Metric**: FY2025 annual revenue of $3.43 billion [jobsbyculture.com](https://jobsbyculture.com/blog/working-at-datadog-2026)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Index Ventures (led Series C), with total funding of ~$1.67 billion including IPO proceeds. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/datadog)
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Recognized as a Leader in the **Gartner Magic Quadrant for Observability Platforms** and for **Digital Experience Monitoring**; also named a Leader in **The Forrester Wave: AIOps Platforms, Q2 2025**. [datadoghq.com](https://www.datadoghq.com/)
  - Headcount grew to approximately **10,100 employees** by April 2026 (up from ~8,100+ reported earlier). [jobsbyculture.com](https://jobsbyculture.com/blog/working-at-datadog-2026)
  - Maintains a strong Glassdoor rating of **4.2/5.0**, with ~80% of employees recommending to a friend. [jobsbyculture.com](https://jobsbyculture.com/blog/working-at-datadog-2026)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Unified platform**: Combines infrastructure monitoring, APM, log management, and security in a single solution – reducing tool sprawl.
- **AI-native capabilities**: Bits AI agents and Watchdog provide automated root-cause analysis, remediation, and proactive insights.
- **Industry recognition**: Consistently placed as a Leader in multiple analyst quadrants (Gartner, Forrester), validating product quality and market presence.
- **Scale and ecosystem**: 700+ integrations, a rich marketplace, and broad support for OpenTelemetry and other open standards.

## Strategic Focus
- **AI and automation**: Deep investment in AI-driven features (Bits AI, Watchdog, automated remediation) to reduce toil and improve mean-time-to-resolution.
- **Security observability**: Extending the platform to unify security and observability – a key differentiator as threats become more complex.
- **Global expansion**: Growing employee presence across the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific (53 countries) to serve a widening customer base. [careers.datadoghq.com](https://careers.datadoghq.com/)

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Transparent, inclusive, and engineering-driven. Diversity and inclusion are core values, with active Employee Resource Groups. [careers.datadoghq.com](https://careers.datadoghq.com/)
- **Flexibility**: Operates a flexible work environment supporting remote, hybrid, and office cultures – “Innovation happens everywhere”. [careers.datadoghq.com](https://careers.datadoghq.com/)
- **Benefits**: Generous benefits tailored by region, covering physical, mental, and financial wellness. [careers.datadoghq.com](https://careers.datadoghq.com/)
- **Growth**: 454 open positions globally (as of mid-2026) across engineering, sales, product, marketing, and technical solutions – with opportunities to work on cutting-edge observability and AI challenges. [jobsbyculture.com](https://jobsbyculture.com/blog/working-at-datadog-2026)
- **Ratings**: CEO Olivier Pomel enjoys ~87% approval; overall Glassdoor rating is 4.2/5.0 (Work-Life 3.8, Compensation 3.9, Culture 4.0). [jobsbyculture.com](https://jobsbyculture.com/blog/working-at-datadog-2026)

## Sources
1. [datadoghq.com](https://www.datadoghq.com/)
2. [careers.datadoghq.com](https://careers.datadoghq.com/)
3. [jobsbyculture.com](https://jobsbyculture.com/blog/working-at-datadog-2026)
4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/datadog)

## Other roles at Datadog

- [Director, Recruiting Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/director-recruiting-operations-datadog-boston-aht3kb2jzw0r) — Boston, MA / New York, NY
- [Senior Security Engineer - Platform Trust & Safety](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-security-engineer-platform-trust-safety-datadog-new-york-qsc3ct1gdjyf) — New York, NY
- [Senior Software Engineer - Husky Storage](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-husky-storage-datadog-boston-cc4yr3gy0zbz) — Boston, MA / New York, NY
- [Senior Security Engineer, Security Incident Response Team](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-security-engineer-security-incident-response-team-datadog-new-york-kc6sdzrs2jeb) — New York, NY
- [Product Manager II - RUM](https://feeny.ai/job/product-manager-ii-rum-datadog-new-york-t47hay8es2a4) — New York, NY
- [Senior Manager, Product Design - Security](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-manager-product-design-security-datadog-madrid-90tn5gcj817t) — Madrid, Spain / Paris, France
- [Technical Program Manager, Technical Solutions](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-program-manager-technical-solutions-datadog-boston-542n4zkmdrv7) — Boston, MA / New York, NY / San Francisco, CA
- [Product Operations Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/product-operations-manager-datadog-new-york-wn35dv7gmw54) — New York, NY
- [Manager, Sales Development - Denver](https://feeny.ai/job/manager-sales-development-denver-datadog-denver-0wwcx1ewqvkw) — Denver, CO
- [Senior Manager, Product Design - Security](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-manager-product-design-security-datadog-new-york-yjqxnkj80kg9) — New York, NY