Cognition
Medium (~300)
Datadog
Large (~6,000)
Best For
Cognition
Best for: Elite engineers who want to build frontier AI coding agents and own a meaningful equity stake
Datadog
Best for: Engineers who want strong comp and interesting scale challenges in cloud observability
Ratings
CognitionDatadog
3.8
4.2
Overall
3.2
3.8
Work-Life Balance
3.9
4.3
Culture & Values
3.8
4.4
Comp & Benefits
3.6
3.8
Senior Mgmt
3.6
4.0
Career Opps
👍 76% Recommend
👤 80% CEO Approval (Scott Wu)
👍 80% Recommend
👤 87% CEO Approval (Olivier Pomel)
Culture Values
Cognition only
No unique values
Datadog only
🌱 Learning & Growth
Shared
⚙️ Engineering-Driven🚀 Ship Fast & Iterate💎 Strong Comp & Equity🎯 Direct Product Impact
Pros & Cons
Cognition
- Elite engineering team with strong equity
- Cutting-edge AI agent work
- High-intensity startup pace
- In-person SF expectations
Datadog
- Excellent compensation and equity — stock has been a genuine wealth builder for early employees
- Strong engineering culture with smart coworkers and interesting technical challenges at scale
- Fast pace can lead to long hours and pressure to deliver, work-life balance varies by team
- Rapid growth has led to organizational growing pains and bureaucracy creeping in
Bottom Line
Cognition
Choose Cognition if you want world-class AI agent research (makers of Devin) with strong equity upside — but expect top-tier intensity and mandatory in-person in San Francisco.
Datadog
Choose Datadog if you want strong comp, interesting scale challenges in observability, and a fast-paced engineering culture — but expect long hours and growing bureaucracy.
Open Roles
Cognition — 62 jobs
💻 Engineering
21
💼 Sales / GTM
10
📊 Data
3
⚖️ Legal
2
⚙️ Operations
2
💰 Finance
1
👤 HR / People
1
📣 Marketing
1
🧠 ML / AI
1
Datadog — 422 jobs
💼 Sales / GTM
218
💻 Engineering
83
📋 Product
28
📣 Marketing
12
👤 HR / People
8
🧠 ML / AI
8
🎨 Design
6
⚖️ Legal
3
⚙️ Operations
3
📊 Data
2
💰 Finance
1
Summary
Cognition scores 3.8/5.0 on Glassdoor with a 3.2 work-life balance rating. Datadog scores 4.2/5.0 overall with a 3.8 WLB. That’s a 0.4-point gap on overall satisfaction.
Both companies share these culture values: Engineering-Driven, Ship Fast & Iterate, Strong Comp & Equity, Direct Product Impact. Datadog also emphasizes Learning & Growth.
On the hiring front, Cognition has 62 open roles and Datadog has 422 open roles.