SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Palantir is hiring a Senior Software Engineer to work on query engines within the Foundry platform. This role focuses on building backend systems that enable data-driven decision-making at scale.
You will be responsible for designing and implementing query planning and optimization capabilities, extending execution engines with new features, and improving query operators, parallelism, memory management, and data movement. Key responsibilities include developing Foundry's Iceberg catalog and engine integrations, building shared transformation semantics and execution interfaces, and improving incremental processing for efficient pipeline execution. You'll investigate correctness and performance issues across planning, execution, and storage layers, and work with product teams and customers to translate operational needs into engine capabilities.
The tech stack includes Java, Scala, Rust, and Python, with heavy use of Apache Spark, Apache DataFusion, Apache Comet, Velox, Apache Iceberg, Apache Arrow, and Apache Parquet. You'll work with industry-standard build tooling including Gradle, Cargo, and GitHub.
Palantir values ownership mindset, curiosity about data systems internals, strong debugging skills, practical performance optimization grounded in profiling, and the ability to apply deep systems engineering to real-world problems. The company encourages movement across teams and offers a unique "Frontline" program where engineers can be embedded with customers to gain firsthand insight into product usage and customer challenges.
The role is hybrid, with Palantir encouraging in-office work to foster connectivity and innovation, though many teams offer flexibility for one or two days per week working from home.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 4+ years of professional software engineering experience building and operating production systems
- Engineering background in Computer Science, Mathematics, Software Engineering, Physics, or equivalent practical experience
- Strong coding skills with demonstrated proficiency in Java, Rust, Scala, or C++
- Experience developing database engines, distributed data processing systems, storage systems, or comparable infrastructure, with depth in query planning, execution, or performance optimization
- Strong foundations in algorithms, data structures, and concurrency, with experience diagnosing correctness and performance problems in complex systems
- Strong written and verbal communication skills and ability to work effectively across teams
