Backend Software Engineer - Defense

The Role

Palantir's defense product vertical builds mission-critical products for the modern warfighter. We provide a complete ecosystem where customers can securely integrate and visualize their data, and build sophisticated programs such as common operating pictures, alert-triaging inboxes, and resource allocation planning tools driven by rich-ML models.

Backend Software Engineers at Palantir build software at scale to transform how organizations use data. You will be involved throughout the product lifecycle, from idea generation, design, prototyping, and production delivery, collaborating closely with technical and non-technical teammates.

Example Projects

• Build for high-scale, collaborative, geospatial workflows (Gaia)
• Design sophisticated frameworks to enable complex workflows across applications in a single workspace
• Develop the next generation of real-time collaborative tooling and data-analysis solutions (Secure Collaboration)

Core Responsibilities

• Architecting, developing, and maintaining high-performance, scalable backend services that underpin operational data and AI systems.
• Maintaining high coding standards through guidelines, active code reviews, and continuous improvement.
• Building robust APIs for use by front-end developers and external systems, collaborating on integration.
• Designing efficient data structures and algorithms to manage large-scale, high-throughput data.
• Optimizing applications for speed and scalability through performance analysis.
• Actively improving user workflows by collaborating with cross-functional teams.

What We Require

• Experience in designing, developing, supporting, and maintaining live backend systems.
• In-depth understanding of data structures, system architecture, API development for microservices frameworks, distributed systems, and backend best practices.
• Engineering background in Computer Science, Mathematics, Software Engineering, Physics, or a similar field.
• Strong coding skills with demonstrated proficiency in programming languages such as Java, C++, Python, Rust, or similar.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Eligibility and willingness to obtain a US Security clearance.

Technologies We Use

• Languages: Java, Rust, Python, Go
• Distributed Systems: Kafka, Cassandra, Elasticsearch, Spark
• Infrastructure: Docker, Kubernetes, Gradle, GitHub