Datadog
Large (~6,000)
Linear
Small (~80)
Best For
Datadog
Best for: Engineers who want strong comp and interesting scale challenges in cloud observability
Linear
Best for: Craftspeople who value deep work, async communication, and minimal meetings
Ratings
DatadogLinear
4.2
4.6
Overall
3.8
4.4
Work-Life Balance
4.3
4.8
Culture & Values
4.4
4.3
Comp & Benefits
3.8
4.5
Senior Mgmt
4.0
4.0
Career Opps
👍 80% Recommend
👤 87% CEO Approval (Olivier Pomel)
👍 95% Recommend
👤 95% CEO Approval (Karri Saarinen)
Culture Values
Datadog only
🚀 Ship Fast & Iterate🌱 Learning & Growth💎 Strong Comp & Equity
Linear only
🎧 Deep Work / Low Meetings🌐 Remote-Friendly📡 Async-First⚖️ Work-Life Balance
Shared
⚙️ Engineering-Driven🎯 Direct Product Impact
Pros & Cons
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
Linear
- Obsessive product craft — building the best-in-class PM tool teams genuinely love
- Deep work culture with no standups and minimal meetings — actually practiced
- Very small team = limited roles available at any given time
- High hiring bar means slow growth — patience required
Bottom Line
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.
Linear
Choose Linear if you want obsessive product craft with genuine work-life balance — but the team is tiny and hiring bar is extreme.
Open Roles
Datadog — 451 jobs
💼 Sales / GTM
217
💻 Engineering
118
📋 Product
28
📣 Marketing
15
👤 HR / People
8
🧠 ML / AI
8
🎨 Design
7
⚙️ Operations
6
⚖️ Legal
3
📊 Data
1
💰 Finance
1
Linear — 19 jobs
💻 Engineering
5
💼 Sales / GTM
5
🎨 Design
3
📣 Marketing
2
📋 Product
2
⚖️ Legal
1
🎧 Support
1
Summary
Datadog scores 4.2/5.0 on Glassdoor with a 3.8 work-life balance rating. Linear scores 4.6/5.0 overall with a 4.4 WLB. That’s a 0.4-point gap on overall satisfaction.
Both companies share these culture values: Engineering-Driven, Direct Product Impact. Datadog also emphasizes Ship Fast & Iterate, Learning & Growth, Strong Comp & Equity. Linear also emphasizes Deep Work / Low Meetings, Remote-Friendly, Async-First, Work-Life Balance.
On the hiring front, Datadog has 451 open roles and Linear has 19 open roles.