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The world’s hardest problems need the world’s smartest people.
The Role
As a Senior Software Engineer on Substrate, you will design and build managed Kubernetes product offerings, ensuring scale, security, and stability across various environments, while emphasizing automation and operational excellence.
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
Substrate is the team responsible for Palantir’s core production infrastructure — 100s of K8s clusters — from on-prem to the major cloud hyperscalers, whether they are internet-connected or air-gapped, small hardware footprint or large. As a Senior Software Engineer on Substrate, you will design and build Palantir’s managed Kubernetes product offerings across all these environments.
You and your team will be responsible for bootstrapping and operating the entire fleet of K8s clusters with zero manual steps by building industry leading tooling and contributing to core CNCF components. You will also be responsible for ensuring scale, stability and security across a matrix of compliance regimes and hosting infrastructure types. Your team culture emphasizes engineering rigor and operational excellence at scale. This means issues in production should be pre-empted and deeply root-caused, and investments in automation and self-healing systems are key.
If you’re excited about infrastructure at scale and working with Kubernetes, this is the right role for you.
Core Responsibilities
- Deliver a container runtime to challenging new environment types - new clouds, on premise, edge devices
- Build automation and establish standards for operating K8s securely at scale with zero manual ops overhead
- Drive innovation through adoption of novel K8s features and CNCF tools, making upstream contributions as needed
- Design the next generation of Palantir’s infrastructure through a deep understanding of internal systems and CNCF standards
What We Value
- Systems programming experience with strong proficiency in golang, C/C++ or equivalent
- Working knowledge or hands on experience of infrastructure automation tools such as Terraform, ansible, puppet or K8s operators, and competent coding in Go, Java, or equivalent for the purposes of automation or scripting
- Deep familiarity with hardware and OS configurations, diagnostic tooling, networking nuts and bolts
- Deep familiarity with containers (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes) at scale
- Experience working with a cloud provider (AWS/Azure/GCE), or sysadmin/SRE experience in data centers
- Experience designing, building, and operating high-scale observability or infrastructure systems
- Working knowledge of networking fundamentals, experience with CNIs or cloud networking infrastructure preferred
What We Require
- 4+ years of professional software development experience on core infrastructure with emphasis on operational excellence
- 2+ years of experience contributing to the system design or architecture (architecture, design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent
Salary
The estimated salary range for this position is estimated to be $145,000 - $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
- 4+ years of professional software development experience on core infrastructure
- 2+ years of experience contributing to system design or architecture
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent
Palantir Technologies Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is described as comprehensive and high quality, with some U.S. offices/roles featuring zero‑premium plans and company‑highlighted mental‑health support. This breadth and affordability are positioned as standouts in the package.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time off is framed as 'take‑what‑you‑need' and paired with a two‑week companywide December closure, providing both flexibility and predictable downtime. The combination of flexible PTO and the year‑end shutdown offers autonomy alongside guaranteed rest.
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Parental & Family Support — Parental benefits are presented as generous, including paid parental leave where not covered by law, a stipend for new parents, family‑care leave, childcare assistance, and flexible arrangements. Fertility, adoption, and surrogacy support are also highlighted.
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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
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