Our People /

An engineering culture

Engineers solve problems; you don't have to be a computer scientist or have any particular degree to be an engineer. Engineers seek to build things, they believe that ideas should be evaluated on their merits, and they speak up when something isn’t right. We come together as a team to solve the world’s hardest data problems — we are all engineers.

MEET US

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    Nathan

    Financial Analyst Palo Alto

    “Of all the great work we've done, our partnership with Team Rubicon on Sandy relief really resonated with me.”

    @PalantirTech
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    Keri

    AdminOps Palo Alto

    “It's incredible to watch the company grow at such an amazing rate, and still maintain the culture that makes Palantir such a great place to be!”

    @PalantirTech
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    Cristina

    PQ Engineer Palo Alto

    “I've seen our product change after I've suggested something. I can see my voice in the product. And then I read about our product having an impact on the world. That's the coolest.”

    @veva_g
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    Johnny

    Support Engineer Palo Alto

    “My schedule at Palantir can be very flexible – I can take breaks throughout the day to work out or make music. It's key to keeping my productivity and quality of life high.”

    @PalantirTech
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    Amanda

    Legal Ninja Palo Alto

    “I knew I would fit in when three of the lawyers that interviewed me were wearing flip flops. I love that I'm a part of such a can-do group. It’s about so much more than saying “yes” or “no.” We help enable things. We want to make the business be more flexible.”

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    Priya

    Forward Deployed Engineer D.C.

    “I learn so much every day. I wasn’t a Linux expert when I started – by any means – but now I know how to manage a stack. You can leverage other people’s expertise. In turn, I love contributing back to the environment.”

    @PalantirTech
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    Allie

    IT Desktop Support aka “Problem Squasher” Palo Alto

    “Coming to work every day and being able to make decisions for my team and implement them without any red tape is great. Plus, I get to use three computers at once and put up pink curtains in my office – and that’s awesome.”

    @allieontheweb
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    Dan

    Software Engineer Palo Alto

    “I've long enjoyed creating products that enable people to be more effective. But the real satisfaction comes from working on a product used in mission critical situations where lives are potentially on the line.”

    @PalantirTech
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    Mike

    Fellow D.C.

    “It’s one thing to have a group of smart people. But it’s another to have a group that is attacking critical problems with imagination and intensity. It’s as if we have a Special Forces team of computer scientists – they solve problems with focus, elegance, and intellectual heft.”



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A different kind of company

A company founded and built by engineers is a company that obsessively builds works of measurable substance. We’re not working on a better advertising play or whatever. We build software from scratch that the world needs to solve its most difficult data problems.
We ship software that helps people change the world for the better.

We seek out problems at places that matter, and solve them like a ‘traditional’ software company—by shipping software that works. We don’t mine data. We don’t collect data. We don’t build one-off solutions. We craft technologies that solve entire classes of problems— some of which we haven’t even encountered yet.

We’ve built some neat stuff. We’re nowhere near done.

Our work to date is a fraction of the technology we have imagined. The process of transforming data problems into human-driven solutions is just that: a process, not a task to be completed. As the technology grows and evolves, so do the people and our company.

  1. The engineer as artist

    Small teams,
    unlimited imagination

    It's been said that “there are no leashes at Palantir,” and it's true. We work on flat, decentralized teams with decision-making authority, and our people have the freedom to creatively approach, own and solve problems. We've intentionally chosen this path over a traditional hierarchy, and it works much more often than not.

    At Palantir, engineers get to really spread their wings and act as architects, hackers, and artists. It's a fulfilling way to work—and to live.

The best idea wins

"There are no prima
donnas in engineering."

Freeman Dyson

If you have a great idea and the will to see it through, you can effect great change. Nothing is off limits—we’re constantly looking for improvements in our products, our process and in our people. All voices are equal here—we hire people to have an opinion and be creative. We’re intolerant of politicking, ego, and power brokers. If your idea makes the most sense, that’s what we’re doing, regardless of the seniority or role of the person presenting the idea.

Nothing is permanent

"Successful software
always gets changed."

Frederick P. Brooks

Sometimes opportunities are here today and gone tomorrow. Sometimes a breakthrough on an intractable problem invalidates our previous efforts. And yes, sometimes we make mistakes.

Inventing the future requires detaching yourself from the past. While we ship a couple of polished product families, we’re just getting started when it comes to building the full ecosystem of technology we’ve imagined.

We iterate obsessively on everything we do, always collecting new information about the right way to solve a problem. Existing components and processes are supplanted by new, better solutions as they become apparent. For those who built the thing being discarded, this is a cause for celebration not sadness. Replacement is viewed as success: we have now reached the next plateau of functionality and design and iteration begins anew. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Keep focused on
the mission

"The hardest single part of
building a software system is deciding precisely what to build."

Frederick P. Brooks, The Mythical Man Month

We view software as a means of effecting change in the world, not as an end unto itself. Our mission is to help our users, the people doing the hard work on complex, real-world problems. We do this by writing software that enables effective data analysis against complicated, data-driven problems.

Our work is incredibly complex, touching on computer science, data science, software engineering, public policy, good governance, large-scale distributed systems, user behavior, efficient use of resources... to name a few. It would be easy to get hyper-focused on some small aspect of this large universe and spend way too much time and resources on perfecting something that’s good enough already.

By always staying focused on the problems our users are trying solve, we clarify our own thinking about the right way forward.

Read more about our mission focus.