Area Vice President, Sales Engineering

the company is looking for a visionary Senior Leader of Sales Engineering (SE) to lead and scale a high-performing team of SE Directors in North America across Enterprise, Majors, and Public Sector accounts.

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 the company’s global direction.

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.

Executive Leadership & Organizational Growth

• Recruit, develop, and lead a team 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 the company’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 the company’s product roadmap and GTM planning.

Customer Partnership & Advocacy

• Act as a trusted advisor to C‑level and senior technical executives, demonstrating how the company 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.

Cross‑functional Collaboration & Global Influence

• 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 the company’s product roadmap and go‑to‑market strategies through close collaboration with global stakeholders.

Operational Excellence

• 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.

• 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 sale.
• Deep understanding of sales methodologies such as MEDDICC, Command of Message (CoM), or similar frameworks.
• The general travel expectation is 25%, though during peak periods it may increase to 50%.

• Best‑in‑breed onboarding
• Generous global benefits
• Intra‑departmental mentor and buddy program for in‑house networking
• New hire stock equity (RSUs) and employee stock purchase plan (ESPP)
• Continuous professional development, product training, and career pathing
• An inclusive company culture, able to join our Community Guilds and Inclusion Talks

the company offers a competitive salary and equity package, and may include variable compensation. Actual compensation is based on…