Forward Deployed Software Engineer - US Government

Palantir is hiring a Forward Deployed Software Engineer - US Government. It pays $135k-$200k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Palantir.

Level's read on this job

Level rates this forward deployed engineer role Little AI ●○○○: aI is not part of the work.
The posting mentions Postgres, Cassandra and Hadoop among its tools and skills.
Level classes it as a mid-level role.
Palantir has 301 other open roles on Level.

AI in this role

Forward Deployed Software Engineer building end-to-end custom applications and data solutions for government clients.

postgrescassandrahadoopsparkjavagroovytypescriptreactpython

software-engineeringsystem-designdata-integrationprototyping

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 Forward Deployed Software Engineers (FDSEs) understand our customers’ greatest pain points and design end-to-end solutions to address them. FDSEs solicit constant feedback on their work from both customers and colleagues, improving our products over time with rapid iteration cycles.

FDSEs deploy ground breaking technical solutions to solve our customers’ hardest problems. Projects often start with a nebulous question like “Why are we losing customers?” or “How can we more effectively identify instances of money laundering?” FDSEs lead the way in developing a solution, from high-level system design and prototyping to application development and data integration. As an FDSE, you leverage everything around you: Palantir products, open source technologies, and anything you and your team can build to drive real impact.

You work with customers around the globe, where you gain rare insight into the world’s most important industries and institutions. We help our customers detect insider trading, improve disaster relief, fight healthcare fraud, and more. Each mission presents different challenges, from the regulatory environment to the nature of the data to the user population. You will work to accommodate all aspects of an environment to drive real technical outcomes for our customers.

Whether you aspire to be an entrepreneur or an engineering leader, we believe Palantir is the best place — with the best colleagues — to learn how. You’ll learn how to unpack a problem and understand the costs and consequences of its solution. You’ll learn new technologies and languages, and even develop them yourself. You’ll work autonomously and make decisions independently, within a community that will support and challenge you as you grow and develop.

Technologies We Use

Core Palantir products provide the foundations for our deployments.
Custom applications built on top of core Palantir platforms.
Postgres, Cassandra, Hadoop, and Spark for distributed data storage and parallel computing.
Java and Groovy for our back-end applications and data integration tools.
Typescript, React, Leaflet, and d3 for our web technologies.
Python for data processing and analysis.
Palantir cloud infrastructure based on AWS EC2 and S3.

Our Principles

Impact: We take on meaningful and challenging projects that change the world for the better.
Dedication: We see projects through from beginning to end in spite of obstacles we may encounter.
Collaboration: We work internally with people from a variety of backgrounds — such as other FDSEs, product teams, and Deployment Strategists. We also work externally with our customers, often on site, to understand and solve their problems.
Trust: We trust each other to effectively manage time and priorities—we don't micromanage. We want to give people the space to think for themselves.
Growth: We push ourselves and our peers to improve themselves and the world around them.
Learning: We often face entirely novel problems, where we need to pick up a lot of new information and learn how to use it to make progress.

What We Value

Strong engineering background, preferred in fields such as Computer Science, Mathematics, Software Engineering, Physics.
Experience with logistics, materiel, sustainment, aviation, or readiness analysis is a plus.
Familiarity with data structures, storage systems, cloud infrastructure, front-end frameworks, and other technical tools.
Understanding of how technical decisions impact the user of what you’re building.
Strong coder with demonstrated proficiency in programming languages such as Python, Java, C++, TypeScript/JavaScript, or similar.
Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively in teams of technical and non-technical individuals, and comfortable working in a rapidly changing environment with dynamic objectives and iteration with users.
Skill and comfort working in a rapidly changing environment with dynamic objectives and iteration with users.
Demonstrated ability to continuously learn, work independently, and make decisions with minimal supervision.
Willingness and interest to travel as needed.

What We Require

Active US Security Clearance at or above the Top Secret level.

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.
Our benefits aim to promote health and wellbeing across all areas of Palantirians’ lives. We work to continuously improve our offerings and listen to our community as we design and update them. The list below details our available benefits and some of the perks that can be enjoyed as an employee of Palantir Technologies. Benefits • Employees (and their eligible dependents) can enroll in medical, dental, and vision insurance as well as voluntary life insurance • Employees are automatically covered by Palantir’s basic life, AD&D and disability insurance • Commuter benefits • Relocation assistance • Take what you need paid time off, not accrual based • 2 weeks paid time off built into the end of each year (subject to team and business needs) • 10 paid holidays throughout the calendar year • Supportive leave of absence program including time off for military service and medical events • Paid leave for new parents and subsidized back-up care for all parents • Fertility and family building benefits including but not limited to adoption, surrogacy, and preservation • Stipend to help with expenses that come with a new child • Employees can enroll in Palantir’s 401k plan 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 state 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 proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer for all, including but not limited to Veterans and those with disabilities. Palantir is 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).

If you would like to understand more about how your personal data will be processed by Palantir, please see our Privacy Policy.

How we rate this

Forward Deployed Software Engineer - US Government at Palantir rates 30 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.

Key facts

Forward Deployed Software Engineer - US Government is an open job at Palantir.
Level rates this role AI Level 1 of 4: Little AI.
The listed salary is $135k-$200k a year.
The role is based in Laurel, MD.
The job was posted on October 13, 2026.
Seniority: mid.
Applications are handled by Palantir. Apply on Palantir

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

Software EngineeringSystem DesignData IntegrationPrototypingPostgresCassandraHadoopSpark

Also common in forward deployed engineer jobs at this level

LLM Azure SQL Kubernetes Google Cloud Terraform

Pay

This job starts at: $135k
Typical forward deployed engineer job: $180k

This posting starts 25% below the typical forward deployed engineer job. See forward deployed engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where software engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where system design was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where data integration was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where prototyping was part of your work. What did you do?
Walk me through how you've used Postgres in your day-to-day work.

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Software Engineering, System Design, Data Integration, Prototyping, and Postgres. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.

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