Senior Software Engineer - Distributed Systems (Applied AI)

Datadog · Bordeaux, France; Grenoble, France; Lyon, France; Montpellier, France; Nantes, France; Nice, France; Paris, France; Sophia Antipolis, France · Dev Eng · listed October 2, 2026

The shape of it

Seniority
Senior
Where
Hybrid
Requirements listed
6
Length
718 words

In the posting’s own words

You'd be architecting the scalable systems that power both internal data science and external customers, while building influence over a team that's tackling real, meaty infrastructure problems every day. The core here is Kafka and Flink while collaborating with data scientists on signal systems that work at scale. Most backend engineers work in one or the other; you'd own both end-to-end.

What it asks for · 6

  • You have significant backend engineering experience building and operating distributed systems in production.
  • You have hands-on experience with Kafka and Flink, including designing or improving data processing pipelines at scale.
  • You can reason through tradeoffs in throughput, latency, reliability, and maintainability, and turn those decisions into clear designs and working code.
  • You enjoy collaborating with data scientists and engineering partners to translate open-ended requirements into dependable systems.
  • You can take ownership of a technical area while sharing context, reviewing designs, and supporting the growth of teammates.
  • You’re curious about using AI tools to improve how you build software and able to evaluate their output critically.

What the job covers

  • Design, build, and operate the backend systems that apply signal finding models at scale for internal data science teams and external customers.
  • Own Kafka and Flink components end to end, from architecture and implementation through production reliability, performance, and evolution.
  • Partner with data scientists to turn models and signal requirements into robust production workflows.
  • Improve the scalability, observability, and operational resilience of data processing systems as usage grows.
  • Lead technical decisions in your domain, collaborate across engineering teams, and help other engineers grow through design reviews and mentorship.

Tools and skills named

Cloud & infra
  • Datadog3×
  • Kafka3×
  • Distributed systems
  • Observability
Ways of working
  • Mentorship

Words the posting leans on

  • data7×
  • systems7×
  • backend4×
  • design4×
  • engineering4×
  • engineers4×
  • grow4×
  • scale4×
  • signal4×
  • build3×
  • data scientists3×
  • flink3×
  • kafka3×
  • production3×
  • building2×
  • collaborating2×

Counted from the posting after the mission statement and the legal notices are set aside. The ones near the top are the ones a screener is looking for.

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How this page was made

An automated read of a public job posting, fetched October 2, 2026 and last changed by Datadog on October 2, 2026. Every list above is pulled from the posting’s own sentences — nothing rewritten, nothing added, no judgment about the role or the company. Counts and seniority are read off the text by rule, so they can be wrong where the posting is unusual. The original is the only thing that binds. Openings close without warning; check the source before spending an evening on it.