Software Engineer - Applied AI, Defense Applications

Palantir is hiring a Software Engineer - Applied AI, Defense Applications in Washington DC, United States. It pays $145k-$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 Builds AI ●●●●: the job is building AI systems.
Tools and skills the posting cites include AI agents, fine tuning and evals.
Level lists 300 other open roles at Palantir.
The role was posted in the last few days.

AI in this role

Design and build AI agents for defense applications, focusing on agent experience, evals, fine-tuning, and scalable architectures.

ai-agentsfine-tuningevalscontext-managementsoftware-engineering

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

Palantir's Defense Applied AI product team builds products that help the modern warfighter leverage AI for their most mission-critical work. You will help own the entire end to end Agent experience in our products and work relentlessly to ensure they deliver value for our users, while maintaining a high bar for quality.

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 users to refine the UX of a particular workflow, the next you could be fine-tuning performance to enable low-latency or more accurate operational outcomes.

Our Product Development organization 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 both developers and end-users to work optimally. If you’re motivated to develop reliable, performant, and scalable AI products, this role offers the opportunity to make a significant impact on our products and the people who use them.

Core Responsibilities

Design and build AI agents that help defense and intelligence users investigate complex questions, analyze operational data, develop plans, and produce actionable work
Relentlessly focus on improving agent experience through data-driven evals across memory, tool and skill design, context management, fine-tuning, and more
Actively improve user workflows by collaborating with cross-functional teams, ensuring seamless experiences across product boundaries and a cohesive user experience
Build intuitive interfaces that let users direct agents, follow their progress, inspect supporting evidence, review proposed actions, and refine the resulting work
Own features from early experimentation through production deployment, working with users, designers, and engineers to turn specific mission needs into reliable, reusable product capabilities
Optimizing applications for speed and scalability through performance analysis and with high-scale, complex data

What We Value

Strong product instincts and attention to the details that make complex software intuitive and useful
Ability to communicate and collaborate with a variety of individuals, including engineers, users and non-technical team members
Experience building applications with LLMs, including tool design, context management, agent workflows, or evaluation
Willingness to learn and make decisions independently, the ability to ask questions effectively, and the skills to iterate directly with users and own core outcomes
Curiosity about emerging AI capabilities and sound judgment about where they can solve real user problems

What We Require

Experience coding in programming languages, such as Java, C++, Python, JavaScript, or similar languages
Strong software engineering skills and experience delivering production applications
Strong proficiency in React and Typescript
Engineering background in Computer Science, Mathematics, Software Engineering, Physics or similar field
Strong written and verbal communication skills and ability to iterate quickly with teammates, incorporating feedback and holding a high bar for quality
Active US Security clearance or eligibility and willingness to obtain a US Security clearance

Salary

The salary range for this position is estimated to be $145,000 - $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

Software Engineer - Applied AI, Defense Applications at Palantir rates 90 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.

●●●● 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

Software Engineer - Applied AI, Defense Applications is an open job at Palantir.
Level rates this role AI Level 4 of 4: Builds AI.
The listed salary is $145k-$200k a year.
The role is based in Washington, D.C..
The job was posted on November 2, 2026.
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

AI agentsFine-tuningEvalsContext ManagementSoftware Engineering

Also common in software engineer jobs at this level

Machine learning AWS Kubernetes Generative AI RAG Google Cloud

Pay

This job starts at: $145k
Typical software engineer job: $167k

This posting starts 13% below the typical software engineer job. See software engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
Walk me through fine-tuning a model: what data did you use, and how did you check the result?
Tell me about a project where evals was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where context management was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where software engineering was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: AI agents, Fine-tuning, Evals, Context Management, and Software Engineering. 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.
Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.

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