Backend Software Engineer - Data Connectors

Palantir is hiring a Backend Software Engineer - Data Connectors in New York, United States. It pays $135k-$200k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Palantir.

Level's read on this job

On Level's scale, this software engineer role is Little AI ●○○○: aI is not part of the work.
Level classifies it as a mid-level role.
Level lists 304 other open roles at Palantir.
The role was posted within the past week.

AI in this role

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 The Connectivity team builds the software that connects Palantir’s platform to customer systems. Our connectors integrate databases, enterprise applications, cloud storage, web services, and streaming systems, enabling customers to bring data into Foundry and write back to their operational systems. From large datasets to real-time events and user-driven interactions, these connections underpin the applications and AI workflows customers build with Foundry and AIP. You’ll build and maintain Foundry’s first-class connector suite and the shared infrastructure behind it. You’ll work across the stack, taking ownership of connector implementations, developer SDKs, and the systems that build, test, distribute, and run our connectivity software. A central part of this work is evolving and scaling a large, established codebase. You’ll move integrations from bespoke infrastructure onto shared platform capabilities, design SDKs that enable other teams and customers to build integrations independently, and safely retire older implementations. You’ll also build observability and diagnostic tools that help users understand, monitor, and troubleshoot their connections. You’ll own improvements from design through production and use what you learn from operating connectors to strengthen the platform they share.

Technologies We Use

Java and Python for connectors, backend services, and developer SDKs
Open-source technologies like Kafka, Kubernetes, Flink, Debezium, Iceberg
Industry-standard build tooling, including Gradle and GitHub
Shared job orchestration, streaming, serverless execution, and compute deployment platforms

Core Responsibilities

Build and maintain Foundry’s first-class connectors, improving performance and extending support for imports, exports, change data capture, interactive queries, and writeback as external systems and customer needs evolve.
Improve the infrastructure that builds, tests, packages, and distributes connectors and shared libraries, including tooling across our connector monorepo.
Design and maintain connectivity SDKs for internal teams and end users, with clear APIs, documentation, testing utilities, and development workflows that make integrations easy to author and maintain.
Collaborate with product teams to integrate connector execution with job orchestration, streaming, and serverless platforms.
Lead incremental migrations onto shared infrastructure, manage compatibility, and retire older implementations while preserving the workflows customers depend on.
Develop reusable security frameworks and tooling that make secure connectivity a consistent part of connector development and execution.
Debug production issues and performance problems across the stack, turning recurring support problems into durable fixes, automated tests, and better observability.
Establish shared testing frameworks, compatibility checks, and release practices that keep a large connector portfolio reliable and maintainable.
Help prepare and maintain Palantir connectivity software for open-source use, including its APIs, packaging, documentation, and contributor experience.

What We Value

An ownership mindset and a high bar for correctness, security, and automated testing, including responsibility for how software behaves in production.
Pride in building and maintaining integrations over time, including the detailed work required to keep them reliable as upstream systems change.
Engineering judgment that balances delivering new capabilities with simplifying existing systems and reducing operational burden.
Empathy for developers and end users, reflected in usable SDKs, clear configuration, actionable errors, and useful diagnostics.
Curiosity about unfamiliar systems and persistence in debugging problems across languages, APIs, services, networks, and execution environments.

What We Require

4+ years of professional software engineering experience developing external system connectors, with depth in areas such as developing batch and streaming data ingestion systems, third-party integration development, or monorepo and asset distribution frameworks. Operating on top of these technologies alone does not qualify.
Deep expertise in Gradle, including developing custom plugins, managing multi-project builds, and optimizing build performance.
Demonstrated ability to diagnose complex reliability and performance problems and improve systems through measured, incremental changes.
Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to work effectively across teams, incorporate feedback, and hold a high bar for quality.

Salary The estimated salary range for this position is estimated to be $135,000 - $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.

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. 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. 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).

How we rate this

Backend Software Engineer - Data Connectors at Palantir rates 26 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Little AI. AI is not part of the work.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.