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Senior Incident and Escalations Manager

Datadog· GSE / Global Support Engineering
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Sydneyfull-timePosted 1w ago

About the role

Incidents and escalation management role within Datadog's Global Support Engineering team. Responsible for leading complex incidents and escalations, coordinating cross-functional response, and driving improvements in incident handling and preventive monitoring. Hybrid workplace with global scope.

Responsibilities

  • Lead the response to our most complex, ambiguous, and high-impact incidents and escalations from start to finish. Set the response strategy, drive cross-functional coordination, and maintain clear ownership through resolution.
  • Navigate competing priorities across multiple critical customer situations, independently assessing business and technical impact and determining the appropriate response and escalation strategy.
  • Represent IEM to regional Support, Sales, and Engineering leadership, building the standing and relationships that let you drive a response when a situation moves faster than process allows.
  • Lead communications during highly sensitive, public, or large-scale incidents, adapting communication strategies for customers, internal leadership, and other stakeholders.
  • Act as a trusted incident and escalation partner across Support, Engineering, Product, and other teams, influencing decisions and driving alignment when ownership or the path to resolution is unclear.
  • Lead high-impact, cross-functional projects that improve how Datadog manages incidents and escalations at scale, identifying systemic gaps and translating them into sustainable operational improvements.
  • Establish and evolve incident and escalation best practices, documentation, runbooks, and training, raising the quality and consistency of response across the organization.
  • Mentor and develop other IEMs or GSEs members, provide guidance during complex situations, contribute to interviewing and hiring, and help raise the operational bar for the team.
  • Design and champion proactive monitoring and detection strategies that surface customer-impacting risks earlier and enable teams to act before issues escalate.
  • Identify systemic patterns across incidents, escalations, customer infrastructure, and product behavior, and influence Engineering and Product partners to address root causes and reduce recurrence.

Qualifications

  • 8+ years of related professional experience, including at least 4 years of incident management and customer escalations in SaaS/cloud/observability environments
  • Hands-on technical experience in roles such as Support Engineering, Site Reliability Engineering, Solutions Architecture, or similar
  • Strong understanding of cloud computing, distributed systems, and modern software architectures; scripting in Python, JavaScript, or shell is a plus
  • Ability to lead through ambiguity in high-pressure situations and determine effective incident/escalation strategies
  • Experience as sole or senior incident responder in a region/timezone with cross-cultural collaboration
  • Experience identifying systemic patterns and translating them into operational or technical improvements
  • Proven track record driving cross-functional projects from concept to delivery
  • Exceptional written and verbal English communication skills
  • Bachelor's degree in CS/Info Tech/Engineering or equivalent practical experience

Skills

Required:Incident managementCustomer escalation handlingCross-functional leadershipCommunication
Nice to have:Scripting (Python/JavaScript/shell)

Benefits

  • Generous and competitive US benefits
  • New hire stock equity (RSUs) and employee stock purchase plan
  • Continuous career development and pathing opportunities
  • Product training to develop an in-depth understanding of our product and space
  • Best in breed onboarding
  • Internal mentor and buddy program cross-departmentally
  • Friendly and inclusive workplace culture
Last updated Oct 22, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

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