DX / AX & Forward Engineering Lead

Datum’s mission is to help 1k clouds thrive in the AI era by unlocking internet superpowers for every builder . We’re working in the open to bring the foundational capabilities that all the big guys use (private networking, peering, direct interconnection, etc) into the hands of builders and modern “alt clouds” — no network team required. One of Datum’s core values is to be connectors: of applications, services, networks, and people. As such, this role (just like all roles at Datum) will work directly with users, customers, partners, and the broader community. Another key value is to be open by default, from how we license our code (AGPLv3) to how we communicate, engage with, and document our work. We believe this engenders trust from our customers and community, but also because open is the best way to build. It's more secure, more operable, and even more enjoyable. Still interested? Read on! About this role Datum’s most important core value is to be connectors: of people, businesses, apps, and networks. That’s why we’re on a mission to help the next 1k thrive in the AI era with an ecosystem-led network cloud. But increasingly, the user of that network isn't a person. It's an agent that is operating on behalf of someone, often without a browser, often without a human in the loop, and almost always with very low tolerance for ambiguity. We're framing Datum's priorities in this area explicitly: agentic experience first, developer experience second, human experience third. In our view, that doesn't deprioritize humans. Quite the opposite! In our view, when the user is an agent, every design decision moves upstream and into the hands of the people building the platform. No slick UI can paper over a confusing API and no support engineer on standby can fill in gaps in the docs. The judgment, taste, and rigor have to live in the system itself. This role leads that work. What you’ll do Lead agentic experience (AX) Own the design philosophy for how agents discover, understand, and get value from Datum, all without reading a marketing site, without a human in the loop, and without surprises Drive our investment in CLIs, declarative configs, and APIs as the primary surface area, more than ever Define and ship our approach to agent-parseable manifests (agent skills and beyond), MCP, and other canonical information agents need to act with confidence Push the platform toward deterministic, composable, well-typed primitives from first touch to final invoice Make "time to first successful tool call" a metric that the whole team is proud of Lead developer experience (DX) Own the developer experience end-to-end, from the browser to the command line Partner to keep documentation accurate, opinionated, and treated as a first-class deliverable (for humans and for the models that will read it) Maximize dopamine, minimize friction Stand up forward-deployed engineering Build out a small forward-deployed engineering function that works directly with AI-native providers, alt clouds , and partners on real production workloads Run those workloads yourself; find the friction firsthand; feed it back into the product Advocate for the governance, security, and control surfaces that make an agent-ready network cloud something enterprises and regulated industries can actually adopt Demonstrate engineering leadership Drive your roadmap by modeling Datum's values every day Distill customer and partner needs into clear problem statements that align priorities Make timely decisions; create structure where none exists; improve processes as you go Work in the open: we make money through our network and infra, not our software Who you are Background Operator at heart. You don't tolerate manual deployments or slow builds. You can implement the right glue no matter the language, and you have strong opinions about public and alt cloud experience from regular use. Builder for agents. You've built something an LLM or agent had to operate against, and you understand what makes it work or fall flat. You've worked with MCP or similar protocols and have opinions about where the ecosystem is breaking down. API and CLI taste. You've used a lot of CLIs, SDKs, or declarative APIs and you know what people (and now agents) actually love. Kubernetes is your jam. You know, love and hate Kubernetes as much as we do. Open source track record. Use, build, and contribute. This is the way. Non-negotiables Logistics: Overlap with NYC business hours and ability to travel to NYC, SF, etc High EQ: You read rooms, understand people, and navigate complexity with grace Hunger: You're driven by impact and energized by building something meaningful Humility: You check your ego, give credit freely, and focus on collective success Core attributes Hold the agent's perspective and the operator's perspective in your head at the same time. You have the taste to know what to build and ship Thrive in an async environment Simplify technical complexity through writing, demos, and the occasional talk Toggle between 30,000-foot vision and ground-level execution Genuinely passionate about digital infrastructure and the future of the industry What success looks like For Datum An agent can go from zero to a working Datum integration without a human in the loop Rock-solid APIs, squeaky-clean docs, and a developer experience that holds up at AI-native scale A forward-deployed engineering function that turns customer signal into product velocity Real traction with AI-native providers, alt clouds, and the ecosystems forming around them For you A platform to define what agentic infra should feel like, before the patterns are set The chance to keep the internet open, neutral, and operable for next gen clouds Strategic and operational leadership at a company that takes both seriously ------- Note: this isn't a DevRel role. It isn't a PM role. It isn't a solutions engineering gig. It's an engineering leadership role for someone with strong opinions about what good infrastructure tooling looks like, who is energized by ambiguity, and who believes the most important design challenge right now is the interface between autonomous systems and the humans responsible for them. If that's you, we'd love to talk. We believe in openness, clarity, and collaboration. To learn more about how Datum aims to operate, please review our public handbook .