Area Vice President, Sales Engineering

About the role

This is a strategic leadership role with regional and global impact. You will define the Sales Engineering strategy for North America and act as a regional voice in global discussions with Product Management, Engineering, and Go-To-Market teams ensuring that customer needs in North America influence Datadog’s global direction.

Responsibilities

• Recruit, develop, and lead a team of 3rd line SE Directors, fostering a culture of technical excellence, customer-centricity, and continuous growth.
• Define and drive the technical sales strategy across North America, and globally.
• Set the vision, priorities, and operating model for Sales Engineering, ensuring alignment with Datadog’s business objectives and local market dynamics.
• Partner with Sales Leadership to align on revenue targets, go-to-market initiatives, and strategic customer engagement across the region.
• Represent North America Sales Engineering globally, ensuring regional perspectives and requirements are reflected in Datadog’s product roadmap and GTM planning.
• Act as a trusted advisor to C-level and senior technical executives, demonstrating how Datadog solves critical observability, performance, and security challenges, especially given the rapid business adoption of AI.
• Provide executive support for high-stakes opportunities, offering guidance throughout complex sales cycles.
• Serve as an executive sponsor for strategic customers across North America.
• Promote value-based technical selling, empowering teams to deliver impactful business outcomes.
• Collaborate closely with Sales, Marketing, Product, Engineering, and Customer Success to align field execution and messaging.
• Use customer and field insights to advocate for innovation and regional needs within Product and Engineering.
• Influence Datadog’s product roadmap and go-to-market strategies through close collaboration with global stakeholders.
• Implement and scale pre-sales methodologies, tools, and KPIs to drive consistency and customer impact across North America.
• Analyze team performance and regional trends to drive data-driven improvements.
• Stay current on market trends, competitive landscape, customer pain points, and evolving partner ecosystems.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in Sales Engineering, Solutions Architecture, or similar pre-sales leadership roles, with multiple years of SE leadership experience or second line leadership.
• Proven expertise in enterprise SaaS, cloud, observability, AI, and security solutions, with a track record of driving technical sales success at scale.
• Strong executive presence and ability to engage and influence C-level stakeholders in large, complex organizations.
• Exceptional leadership, coaching, and team-building capabilities, with experience scaling high-impact teams.
• Proven track record in building customer relationships and willing to get in the field and help with top-down sales.
• Deep understanding of sales methodologies such as MEDDICC, Command of Message (CoM), or similar frameworks.

Skills

• Strategic thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• Experience with AI and machine learning technologies.
• Knowledge of cloud computing platforms and observability tools.

Benefits and Growth

Best-in-breed onboarding, generous global benefits, in-house mentor and buddy program, new hire stock equity (RSUs), employee stock purchase plan (ESPP), continuous professional development, product training, and career pathing. Additionally, Datadog offers a wide range of benefits including healthcare, dental, parental planning, and mental health benefits, a 401(k) plan, and a discounted employee stock purchase plan.