Datadog
Large (~6,000)
Perplexity AI
Mid (~500)
Best For
Datadog
Best for: Engineers who want strong comp and interesting scale challenges in cloud observability
Perplexity AI
Best for: Builders who thrive on speed and want massive user-facing impact at a rocketship
Ratings
DatadogPerplexity AI
4.2
4.7
Overall
3.8
3.3
Work-Life Balance
4.3
4.8
Culture & Values
4.4
4.5
Comp & Benefits
3.8
4.5
Senior Mgmt
4.0
4.2
Career Opps
👍 80% Recommend
👤 87% CEO Approval (Olivier Pomel)
👍 92% Recommend
👤 95% CEO Approval (Aravind Srinivas)
Culture Values
Datadog only
No unique values
Perplexity AI only
No unique values
Shared
⚙️ Engineering-Driven🚀 Ship Fast & Iterate🌱 Learning & Growth🎯 Direct Product Impact💎 Strong Comp & Equity
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
Perplexity AI
- Fastest-growing AI product — real users, real revenue, genuine product-market fit
- Small team, massive impact per engineer — your work ships to millions quickly
- Startup intensity — expect long hours and high expectations
- Growing pains as the team scales — roles and responsibilities shift frequently
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.
Perplexity AI
Choose Perplexity if you want the fastest-growing AI product and huge per-engineer impact — but expect startup intensity.
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
Perplexity AI — 79 jobs
💻 Engineering
44
🧠 ML / AI
6
📊 Data
5
💼 Sales / GTM
4
⚖️ Legal
3
⚙️ Operations
3
📣 Marketing
2
🎧 Support
2
👤 HR / People
1
📋 Product
1
Summary
Datadog scores 4.2/5.0 on Glassdoor with a 3.8 work-life balance rating. Perplexity AI scores 4.7/5.0 overall with a 3.3 WLB. That’s a 0.5-point gap on overall satisfaction.
Both companies share these culture values: Engineering-Driven, Ship Fast & Iterate, Learning & Growth, Direct Product Impact, Strong Comp & Equity.
On the hiring front, Datadog has 451 open roles and Perplexity AI has 79 open roles.