Production Engineer - Database Operations in London

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.

Database Operations is responsible for the deployment and maintenance of the database layer that Palantir’s products depend on. As an engineer on the Database Operations team, you will design how databases are deployed and operated across a wide variety of environments, build the automation and observability that keep them healthy, and respond to the critical production issues that affect some of the world's most impactful use cases.

Core Responsibilities

• Build software that automates the routine work of deploying and running production databases.
• Participate in regular on-call rotations.
• Troubleshoot, diagnose, and remediate stability and reliability issues in production database systems.
• Participate in post-incident reviews and take ownership of follow up actions.
• Identify patterns across incidents, support tickets, and alerts, and translate those observations into proposals for systemic improvements to our fleet.
• Manage and execute large scale migrations of the fleet of databases we run.
• Partner with customer-facing teams during incidents and when setting up new database installations.
• Work with database engineering teams and infrastructure teams to build resilient and highly available database systems.
• Continuously invest in documentation, metrics, monitors and other troubleshooting tools.
• Hold the bar on engineering and operational standards through code reviews, design reviews, and feedback on operating procedures.
• Build deep expertise and experience in production systems (Kubernetes, cloud environments, Cassandra, Elasticsearch, etc.) and share that knowledge amongst the team.

What We Value

• Strong sense of ownership in ambiguous environments.
• Ability to collaborate and empathize under pressure.
• Curiosity and motivation to learn.
• Ability to operate with autonomy in a rapidly changing environment where priorities shift.
• First-principles thinking.
• Investment in the team around you.

What We Require

• Engineering background in Computer Science, Mathematics, Software Engineering, Physics or similar field.
• Experience writing code in a variety of programming languages such as Java, Python, and Go.
• Experience with cloud and orchestration technologies such as Kubernetes, Helm, AWS, GCP, Azure, and OpenShift.
• Experience with database technologies such as Cassandra, Elasticsearch and Kafka.
• A solid foundation in Linux and how distributed web services work.
• Familiarity with observability tools such as Grafana and Prometheus.
• Strong written and verbal communication and the ability to iterate quickly with teammates and incorporate feedback.

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 long-term growth, rather than rely on traditional career ladders. Paying attention to the needs of our community enables us to optimise 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. 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.

If you want to empower the world's most important institutions, you belong here. Palantir values excellence regardless of background. We are committed to making the application and hiring process accessible to everyone and will provide a reasonable accommodation for those living with a disability.