Backend Software Engineer - Application Development

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 developers and end-users to do their work optimally. If you’re motivated to develop reliable, performant, scalable systems and design robust APIs and primitives, below are some examples of the types of product work you’d get to do in this role:

Core Responsibilities

• Architecting, developing, and maintaining 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 containerisation 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 UK Security clearance, or eligibility and willingness to obtain a UK Security clearance is beneficial but not necessary

What We Require

• Experience in designing and developing 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

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 city and or country in which you are employed. If the posting is specified as Onsite, you are required to work from an office.

Palantir is committed to promoting a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We believe that all Palantirians share the responsibility of upholding our commitment to these values and encourage candidates from a wide range of backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences to join us in solving the world’s hardest problems.

Palantir is committed to making the job application process accessible to everyone. If you are living with a disability (visible or not visible) and need to request a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process, please reach out and let us know how we can help.

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