Software Engineer - Linux kernel / eBPF (APM)

The eBPF APM team is building a zero-instrumentation observability solution that automatically discovers services on every host supports both plaintext and TLS-encrypted traffic classifies Layer 7 protocols decodes service-level traffic and reports RED (requests errors duration) metrics. Leveraging deep expertise in eBPF the team operates across a wide range of Linux kernel versions distributions and complex customer environments. In addition to low-level networking the team solves challenges related to protocol versioning TLS detection across diverse languages and runtimes and resilient performance in production systems.

Were looking for a senior engineer with strong systems-level thinking and a good understanding of Linux. You should be comfortable working close to the kernel ideally with experience in eBPF or with a strong desire to dive into it. Proficiency in Go is essential and familiarity with networking protocols TLS internals or distributed tracing is a strong advantage.

Youll join a high-impact team tackling ambitious technical challengeslike decoding traffic across multiple protocols and ensuring high-fidelity metrics in complex real-world environments. Youll be expected to lead design and implementation efforts contribute to roadmap planning and collaborate across teams to ensure our solution remains robust scalable and frictionless for our users.

This role is a great fit for engineers who thrive on low-level performance-sensitive problems and want to shape the future of observability through cutting-edge kernel technology.

At Datadog we place value in our office culture - the relationships that it builds the creativity it brings to the table and the collaboration of being together. We operate as a hybrid workplace to ensure our employees can create a work-life harmony that best fits them.

What Youll Do:

• Design and build core components of our zero-instrumentation APM product using eBPF and Go
• Develop systems to auto-discover services classify L7 protocols and extract RED metrics from both plaintext and TLS traffic
• Solve complex challenges around protocol parsing encryption handling and performance at the kernel level
• Ensure broad compatibility across Linux kernel versions distributions and diverse customer environments
• Collaborate across teams to drive technical direction improve reliability and scale the system for production use

Who You Are:

• You have significant experience in backend or systems-level development with strong proficiency in Go or similar languages
• Youre comfortable working close to the Linux kernel and have experience (or interest) in eBPF networking or observability tooling
• You care deeply about performance and efficiency
• Youve built or operated scalable systems in complex environments and understand how to design for reliability and compatibility
• You thrive in a fast-paced technically deep environment and are excited to solve hard problems with a small focused team

Datadog values people from all walks of life. We understand not everyone will meet all the above qualifications on day one. Thats okay. If youre 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 employee resource groups)
• Access to Inclusion Talks our Internal panel discussions
• 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.