Lisa O’Brien, Director of Employer Brand Marketing at Datadog
We are back with another Employer Branding Profile, and this time we’re showcasing Lisa O’Brien, the Director of Employer Brand Marketing at Datadog.
Lisa is one of those EB leaders who is equal parts strategic and practical.
She is thinking about attribution and funnel impact one minute and then analysing reputation sentiment online the next.
In this profile, she shares what is working at Datadog, what EB teams should be preparing for in 2026, and why every new EB pro should be learning AI right now.
How did you first get started in Employer Branding?
In an agency, at TMP Worldwide.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing Employer Brand teams right now?
The biggest challenge for employer brand teams right now is proving impact with trusted attribution.
Why it’s hard:
– Hiring is multi-touch and long, with dark social.
– Privacy rules and walled gardens hide referral paths.
– Inconsistent tagging and handoffs break data.
– Content volume is high, attention is scarce.
How do you measure success in Employer Brand at Datadog?
A range of things from Candidate Quality at events through to Funnel Metrics.
What role do you see employee-generated content playing in Employer Brand efforts?
It plays a major role. We highlight real work and real people.
We identify strong stories and surface content that shows how teams build and ship.
This gives candidates a clear view of the work and the culture at Datadog.
What have been your favorite campaigns, projects or initiatives you’ve worked on 2025?
Our team worked on some standout Day in the Life videos, like this one, created by Che Peh, on Datadog’s Instagram:
View this post on Instagram
If you had unlimited time and budget, what would be your Employer Brand “dream project”?
More brand building activities across channels like video, TV, outdoor, and Radio.
What advice would you give to someone who’s just entering the Employer Brand field?
Educate yourself on AI, including building GPTs and how to make sure you are being found by LLMs.
How do you think Employer Branding will evolve in 2026?
EB will function more like a growth team that proves its direct impact on hires.
Teams will track sourced and influenced hires and show channel impact by stage of the hiring process.
Employer Brand Marketing teams will use their opted-in audiences from communities, events, newsletters, and the careers site in a more integrated way.
AI will become a tool for creative, data analysis, checking content, reporting and more.
A huge thank you to Lisa for sharing her insights and giving us such a thoughtful look at how Datadog approaches Employer Brand today.
Her perspective on attribution, employee creators, and the growing role of AI captures the real, practical shifts happening across the field.
Whether you are revamping your EB strategy, experimenting with new content formats, or just trying to keep up with where talent marketing is heading, there is a lot to take from her approach.
We will be continuing this series with more EB leaders, so stay tuned for more profiles, insights, and ideas to help inspire your own work!
