The world’s hardest problems need the world’s smartest people.
The Role
As a Senior Backend Software Engineer, you'll lead the architecture and development of scalable backend services, ensuring high performance and coding standards while collaborating with cross-functional teams to enhance user workflows and build robust APIs.
Summary Generated by Built In
A World-Changing Company
Palantir builds the world’s leading software for data-driven decisions and operations. By bringing the right data to the people who need it, our platforms empower our partners to develop lifesaving drugs, forecast supply chain disruptions, locate missing children, and more.
The Role
Backend Software Engineers at Palantir build software at scale to transform how organisations use data. Our Software Engineers are involved throughout the product lifecycle, from idea generation, design, prototyping, and production delivery. You will collaborate closely with technical and non-technical teammates to understand our customers' problems and build products that solve them. We encourage movement across teams to share context, skills, and experience, so you'll learn about many different technologies and aspects of each product. Engineers work autonomously and make decisions independently, within a community that will support and challenge you as you grow and develop, becoming a strong technical contributor and engineering leader.
Your day-to-day workflow will vary, adapting to the requirements of our users and the technical challenges that arise. One day, you may find yourself collaborating with other engineers to architect a new system that enables a novel workflow, the next you could be fine-tuning performance to enable low-latency operational outcomes.
Our Product Development organisation is made up of small teams of Software Engineers. Each team focuses on a specific aspect of a product and work collaboratively to build cross functional capabilities, streamline user workflows and continuously improve our software's efficiency and reliability.
We’re hiring engineers who are passionate about solving real-world problems and empowering both developers and end-users to work optimally. If you’re motivated to develop reliable, performant, and scalable systems, and to design robust APIs and primitives, this role offers the opportunity to make a significant impact on our products and the people who use them.
Your day-to-day workflow will vary, adapting to the requirements of our users and the technical challenges that arise. One day, you may find yourself collaborating with other engineers to architect a new system that enables a novel workflow, the next you could be fine-tuning performance to enable low-latency operational outcomes.
Our Product Development organisation is made up of small teams of Software Engineers. Each team focuses on a specific aspect of a product and work collaboratively to build cross functional capabilities, streamline user workflows and continuously improve our software's efficiency and reliability.
We’re hiring engineers who are passionate about solving real-world problems and empowering both developers and end-users to work optimally. If you’re motivated to develop reliable, performant, and scalable systems, and to design robust APIs and primitives, this role offers the opportunity to make a significant impact on our products and the people who use them.
Frontline
Foundry Software Engineers may be offered the opportunity to Frontline, an exclusive program unlike any other. This unique, short-term assignment involves being embedded with customers, allowing you to work directly with users and gain firsthand insight into how our products are used and the challenges our customers face. Unlike traditional engineering roles, Frontline immerses you in complex, ambiguous problems, empowering you to deliver impactful solutions across some of the world’s most important industries and institutions.
Some of our most successful products were built on the factory floor, addressing real-world problems for the world's most important institutions. These products were developed by some of our most successful product engineers, who began their careers in roles aligned with Frontline responsibilities, gaining a deep understanding of both our technology and our customers.
Frontliners operate across a broad spectrum of responsibilities, much like a startup CTO. They work in small teams to own the end-to-end execution of high-stakes projects. This spectrum ranges from discussing architecture and building custom web apps to conducting workshops with users and strategizing with customer executives. No two days are alike, as each day is diverse and impactful. By witnessing how customers engage with Foundry and experiencing these pain points firsthand, you’ll gain unique insights that feed directly back into our development process, helping to refine and enhance our products.
Some of our most successful products were built on the factory floor, addressing real-world problems for the world's most important institutions. These products were developed by some of our most successful product engineers, who began their careers in roles aligned with Frontline responsibilities, gaining a deep understanding of both our technology and our customers.
Frontliners operate across a broad spectrum of responsibilities, much like a startup CTO. They work in small teams to own the end-to-end execution of high-stakes projects. This spectrum ranges from discussing architecture and building custom web apps to conducting workshops with users and strategizing with customer executives. No two days are alike, as each day is diverse and impactful. By witnessing how customers engage with Foundry and experiencing these pain points firsthand, you’ll gain unique insights that feed directly back into our development process, helping to refine and enhance our products.
Core Responsiblities
- Leading the architecture, development, and maintenance of high-performance, scalable backend services that underpin our operational data and AI systems
- Maintaining high coding standards through the development of guidelines, active participation in code reviews, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement and knowledge sharing among your team
- Building robust APIs for use by front-end developers and interfacing external systems, and collaborating with front-end developers to integrate user-facing elements with server-side logic
- Designing efficient data structures and algorithms to manage large-scale and high throughput data
- Optimizing applications for speed and scalability through performance analysis
- Actively improve user workflows by collaborating with cross-functional teams, ensuring seamless experiences across product boundaries and a cohesive user experience
Technologies We Use
- Different backend languages, including Java, Rust, Python and Go
- Distributed systems technologies such as Kafka, Cassandra, Elasticsearch and Spark
- Docker and Kubernetes for containerization and orchestration
- Industry-standard build tooling, including Gradle and GitHub
What We Value
- A deep understanding of server-side logic, efficient data handling, and distributed systems
- Strong focus on creating user-oriented workflows and solutions, crossing product boundaries to deliver cohesive and solid user workflows that ensure a seamless and intuitive user experience
- Experience building high-quality software in a fast-paced CI/CD development environment
- Ability to work collaboratively in teams of technical and non-technical individuals and understand how technical decisions impact the people who will use what you're building
- Skill and comfort working in a constantly evolving environment with dynamic objectives and iteration with users
- Active US Security clearance, or eligibility and willingness to obtain a US Security clearance is beneficial but not necessary
What We Require
- 6+ years experience in designing, developing, and leading features and improvements, as well as supporting and maintaining, live backend systems
- In-depth understanding of data structures, system architecture, API development for microservices frameworks, distributed systems and other backend-related concepts and best practices
- Engineering background in Computer Science, Mathematics, Software Engineering, Physics or similar field
- Strong coding skills with demonstrated proficiency in programming languages, such as Java, C++, Python, Rust, or similar languages
- Strong written and verbal communication skills and ability to iterate quickly with teammates, incorporating feedback and holding a high bar for quality
Salary
The estimated salary range for this position is estimated to be $135,000 - $200,000/year. Total compensation for this position may also include Restricted Stock units, sign-on bonus and other potential future incentives. Further note that total compensation for this position will be determined by each individual’s relevant qualifications, work experience, skills, and other factors. This estimate excludes the value of any potential sign-on bonus; the value of any benefits offered; and the potential future value of any long-term incentives.
Our benefits aim to promote health and wellbeing across all areas of Palantirians’ lives. We work to continuously improve our offerings and listen to our community as we design and update them. The list below details our available benefits and some of the perks that can be enjoyed as an employee of Palantir Technologies.
Benefits
• Employees (and their eligible dependents) can enroll in medical, dental, and vision insurance as well as voluntary life insurance
• Employees are automatically covered by Palantir’s basic life, AD&D and disability insurance
• Commuter benefits
• Relocation assistance
• Take what you need paid time off, not accrual based
• 2 weeks paid time off built into the end of each year (subject to team and business needs)
• 10 paid holidays throughout the calendar year
• Supportive leave of absence program including time off for military service and medical events
• Paid leave for new parents and subsidized back-up care for all parents
• Fertility and family building benefits including but not limited to adoption, surrogacy, and preservation
• Stipend to help with expenses that come with a new child
• Employees can enroll in Palantir’s 401k plan
Life at Palantir
We want every Palantirian to achieve their best outcomes, that’s why we celebrate individuals’ strengths, skills, and interests, from your first interview to your longterm growth, rather than rely on traditional career ladders. Paying attention to the needs of our community enables us to optimize our opportunities to grow and helps ensure many pathways to success at Palantir. Promoting health and well-being across all areas of Palantirians’ lives is just one of the ways we’re investing in our community. Learn more at Life at Palantir and note that our offerings may vary by region.
In keeping consistent with Palantir’s values and culture, we believe employees are “better together” and in-person work affords the opportunity for more creative outcomes. Therefore, we encourage employees to work from our offices to foster connectivity and innovation. Many teams do offer hybrid options (WFH a day or two a week), allowing our employees to strike the right trade-off for their personal productivity. Based on business need, there are a few roles that allow for “Remote” work on an exceptional basis. If you are applying for one of these roles, you must work from the state in which you are employed. If the posting is specified as Onsite, you are required to work from an office.
If you want to empower the world's most important institutions, you belong here. Palantir values excellence regardless of background. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer for all, including but not limited to Veterans and those with disabilities. Palantir is committed to making the application and hiring process accessible to everyone and will provide a reasonable accommodation for those living with a disability. If you need an accommodation for the application or hiring process, please reach out and let us know how we can help.
Please note that you will never be asked to submit a payment or share financial information to participate in our interview process. If you suspect that you've been contacted by a scammer, we recommend you cease all communication with the individual and consider reporting them to the relevant authorities, such as the US FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
If you would like to understand more about how your personal data will be processed by Palantir, please see our Privacy Policy.
If you would like to understand more about how your personal data will be processed by Palantir, please see our Privacy Policy.
Skills Required
- 6+ years experience in backend systems development
- In-depth understanding of data structures and system architecture
- Engineering background in Computer Science, Mathematics, Software Engineering, or similar
- Strong coding skills in Java, C++, Python, or Rust
- Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate
Palantir Technologies Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare benefits for employees and dependents are positioned as exceeding industry average, with feedback suggesting very low or no employee premiums and solid plan options. Mental‑health resources like virtual therapy, coaching, and wellness offerings further strengthen the package.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave, a new‑parent stipend, family‑care leave, and fertility/adoption support are prominently highlighted. UK materials also reference gender‑affirming healthcare and fertility support, indicating breadth in family‑oriented offerings.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — A “take‑what‑you‑need” PTO approach is complemented by a two‑week December office closure. Together these provide notable flexibility and additional downtime built into the year.
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The Company
What We Do
At Palantir, we're helping the world's most important institutions use their data to solve their most urgent problems. Palantir software helps the world's most important institutions integrate, analyze, and act on their data — unlocking answers to questions they couldn't ask before. From delivering disaster relief to building safer automobiles, we're honored to help make our partners better at their most important work. Together with our customers, we're building the future of national security, healthcare, energy, finance, manufacturing, and more.
Why Work With Us
We build the software that powers the world's most important institutions — the hospitals, militaries, intelligence agencies, and industrial operators that can't afford to fail. The consequence of our work is what makes us different.
Palantir Technologies Offices
OnSite Workspace
Typical time on-site:
