Job description
About Datadog:
We’re on a mission to build the best platform in the world for engineers to understand, scale, and secure their systems, applications, and teams. We operate at high scale, trillions of data points per day, allowing for seamless collaboration and problem-solving among Dev, Ops and Security teams globally for tens of thousands of companies. Our culture values pragmatism, honesty, and simplicity to solve hard problems the right way.
The Team:
The Security Research team at Datadog is at the forefront of Cloud Security, DevSecOps, Threat Intelligence, and now Generative AI Security research. Our researchers consistently discover critical vulnerabilities, catch sophisticated threat actors in customer environments, and share groundbreaking research via our Security Labs research blog and at top-tier security conferences.
As a Generative AI Security Researcher, you’ll chart your own course, diving deep into cutting-edge Generative AI technologies and autonomously pioneering new approaches to their security. You’ll partner closely with some of the brightest minds in cloud security, threat research, and detection engineering. Your findings won’t just stay within Datadog, they’ll be showcased globally, elevating your research on the most prestigious stages in our field. Your research will shape industry-leading protection and detection capabilities in Datadog’s products.
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:
- Drive strategic research initiatives on Generative AI security by proposing, validating, and executing innovative projects.
- Conduct hands-on research to discover and demonstrate vulnerabilities, attack vectors, adversarial methods, and misconfigurations in Generative AI and large language model (LLM) technologies.
- Create proof-of-concept attacks, simulations, and demonstrations to illustrate vulnerabilities and defensive strategies clearly.
- Serve as a subject matter expert in Generative AI and collaborate with product management, engineering, and detection engineering teams to translate research findings into actionable product improvements.
- Author and present impactful blog posts, webinars, and conference presentations to educate the broader security and AI community.
- Engage closely with cloud providers, AI vendors, and open-source communities to responsibly disclose and remediate identified security issues.
- Track, research and experiment with the latest tactics, techniques & procedures for attacking and defending Generative AI infrastructure.
- Partner with our Threat Research and Detection Engineering teams to build detection content from industry-leading research.
- Collaborate with highly technical customers about their security, listen to their needs, and work with the team to solve their problems
- Build proof of concept attacks and demonstrate how Datadog’s products can detect these attacks.
Who You Are:
- You have deep knowledge of common Generative AI technologies and frameworks (MCP, A2A, LangGraph, CrewAI, etc.)
- You have a deep understanding of vulnerabilities specific to Generative AI, such as prompt injection, model poisoning, etc.
- You are knowledgeable with the OWASP Top 10 for LLMs, and/or how common web security concepts (access controls, input handling, API security) apply to LLM models.
- You have experience working in offensive security roles (penetration testing, red teaming) or vulnerability research with a focus on cloud or SaaS production environments/technologies.
- You are comfortable with taking ambiguous requirements and creating a research plan, with measurable and tangible outcomes, as well as getting buy-in on the plan from stakeholders autonomously.
- You are comfortable presenting and documenting your research findings with others: either internally at your current role, or publicly in conference talks and blog posts.
- You are humble, precise, and thorough. You don’t just discover security issues, you can explain and bring others with you.
- You are passionate about collaborating with stakeholders like detection engineers, product managers, software engineers, customers and other researchers.
- You can comfortably write software to solve problems with and without AI tooling, and build systems for research purposes (eg. Go, Python, Rust, etc.).
- You are a strong communicator, both verbal and written.
Bonus Points:
- Experience working in a Security Research organization.
- A proven track record in discovering, disclosing, and documenting vulnerabilities.
- Experience presenting your research at large conferences.
- Experience working in an OKR driven environment.
Datadog 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:
- 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.
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:
$187,000—$240,000 USD
About Datadog:
Datadog (NASDAQ: DDOG) is a global SaaS business, delivering a rare combination of growth and profitability. We are on a mission to break down silos and solve complexity in the cloud age by enabling digital transformation, cloud migration, and infrastructure monitoring of our customers’ entire technology stacks. Built by engineers, for engineers, Datadog is used by organizations of all sizes across a wide range of industries. Together, we champion professional development, diversity of thought, innovation, and work excellence to empower continuous growth. Join the pack and become part of a collaborative, pragmatic, and thoughtful people-first community where we solve tough problems, take smart risks, and celebrate one another. Learn more about #DatadogLife on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Datadog Learning Center.
Equal Opportunity at Datadog:
Datadog is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer and 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 more. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. Here are our Candidate Legal Notices for your reference.
Your Privacy:
Any information you submit to Datadog as part of your application will be processed in accordance with Datadog’s Applicant and Candidate Privacy Notice.
