Engineering Manager I - Threat Detection, Applied AI

As Engineering Manager I for Threat Detection - Applied AI, you will lead the strategy, roadmap, and execution of the company Security’s applied AI investments in detection engineering and security incident response. You will build and grow a team dedicated to engineering AI systems for the company's unique detection and response needs. By integrating these solutions with our current platform, your team will drive the use of applied AI to optimize and speed up security operations. Some examples include detection‑authoring agents, model‑driven coverage analysis, autonomous threat hunting, alert triage and the evaluation infrastructure that holds these systems to a high bar of fidelity. Detection authorship is a shared responsibility across the organization, and your team contributes both by building the AI systems that author and tune detections and by writing detections directly when their domain expertise is the right tool. You will partner closely with our Security Incident & Response Team (SIRT), Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI), AI Engineering teams, and the company’s broader Security organization. This is a high‑impact leadership role: you will grow a high‑performing team of security and software engineers responsible for building and executing our AI and Security strategy. At the company, 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 the strategy, roadmap, and execution of the company Security’s shift to AI accelerated detection & response. Drive development of high‑fidelity detections as a shared responsibility across the organization, ensuring your team’s AI systems and direct contributions raise the bar on coverage and signal quality. Build, mentor, and grow a high‑performing team of engineers who design, train, and tune AI systems for security. Partner with the sister teams so your team’s deliverables are shipped reliably and leveraged by our security platform. Define and track program metrics: model and agent fidelity, evaluation pass rates, detection coverage, incident response readiness and your team’s measurable contribution to security operations metrics. Evangelize the team’s mission inside and outside the Threat Detection organization, communicating progress, tradeoffs, and bets clearly to security leadership and partner teams. Collaborate with the AI Engineering teams and other internal AI initiatives to build on shared infrastructure where it makes sense and invest in security‑specific tooling where it does not. Who You Are You have worked in a security operations, detection engineering or incident response role, building tooling and performing investigations and responding to incidents. Strong understanding of modern threat actor techniques and the detection engineering lifecycle. Technically credible, with the ability to review detection logic, code (e.g., Python), and the architecture of security AI systems. You have built automation systems for security operations workflows: case triage, investigation, response automation, or analyst tooling. You have prior experience at a SaaS or cloud infrastructure company where security scale and complexity are first‑order challenges. You operate with both rigor and pragmatism on AI/ML quality. You know when to ship a useful system, when to invest in evaluation, and when not to ship at all. Experienced people leader with a focus on mentorship, team growth, and inclusion. Nice to haves You have built and shipped agentic/ML systems to production. You understand the full lifecycle (data, training, evaluation, deployment, and monitoring) and have led teams through it. You have translated security research, threat intelligence, or analyst workflows into AI/ML systems. You have designed safety, guardrails, or human‑in‑the‑loop systems for autonomous AI in security domains. the company 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 Generous and competitive benefits package New hire stock equity (RSUs) and employee stock purchase plan Continuous career development and pathing opportunities Employee‑focused best in class onboarding Internal mentor and cross‑departmental buddy program Friendly and inclusive workplace culture the company 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, the company 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 the company is: $192,000 — $240,000 USD Equal Opportunity at the company the company 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. Accessibility the company endeavors to make our Careers Page accessible to all users. 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