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Palantir

Backend Software Engineer - Application Development

Palantir
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hybrid mid full-time London

First indexed 25 Apr 2026

Description

A Backend Software Engineer at Palantir builds software at scale to transform how organisations use data. You will collaborate closely with technical and non-technical teammates to understand our customers' problems and build products that solve them. We encourage movement across teams to share context, skills, and experience, so you'll learn about many different technologies and aspects of each product.

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 other engineers to architect a new system that enables a novel workflow, the next you could be fine-tuning performance to enable low-latency operational outcomes.

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 systems, and to design robust APIs and primitives, this role offers the opportunity to make a significant impact on our products and the people who use them.

Core Responsibilities:

  • Architecting, developing, and maintaining high-performance, scalable backend services that underpin our operational data and AI systems
  • Maintaining high coding standards through the development of guidelines, active participation in code reviews, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement and knowledge sharing among your team
  • Building robust APIs for use by front-end developers and interfacing external systems, and collaborating with front-end developers to integrate user-facing elements with server-side logic
  • Designing efficient data structures and algorithms to manage large-scale and high throughput data
  • Optimizing applications for speed and scalability through performance analysis
  • Actively improve user workflows by collaborating with cross-functional teams, ensuring seamless experiences across product boundaries and a cohesive user experience

Technologies We Use:

  • Different backend languages, including Java, Rust, Python, and Go
  • Distributed systems technologies such as Kafka, Cassandra, Elasticsearch, and Spark
  • Docker and Kubernetes for containerisation and orchestration
  • Industry-standard build tooling, including Gradle and GitHub

What We Value:

  • A deep understanding of server-side logic, efficient data handling, and distributed systems
  • Strong focus on creating user-oriented workflows and solutions, crossing product boundaries to deliver cohesive and solid user workflows that ensure a seamless and intuitive user experience
  • Experience building high-quality software in a fast-paced CI/CD development environment
  • Ability to work collaboratively in teams of technical and non-technical individuals and understand how technical decisions impact the people who will use what you're building
  • Skill and comfort working in a constantly evolving environment with dynamic objectives and iteration with users
  • Active UK Security clearance, or eligibility and willingness to obtain a UK Security clearance is beneficial but not necessary

What We Require:

  • Experience in designing and developing features and improvements, as well as supporting and maintaining, live backend systems
  • In-depth understanding of data structures, system architecture, API development for microservices frameworks, distributed systems, and other backend-related concepts and best practices
  • Engineering background in Computer Science, Mathematics, Software Engineering, Physics, or similar field
  • Strong coding skills with demonstrated proficiency in programming languages, such as Java, C++, Python, Rust, or similar languages
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills and ability to iterate quickly with teammates, incorporating feedback and holding a high bar for quality

Additional Information: 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.

This listing is enriched and indexed by YubHub. To apply, use the employer's original posting: https://jobs.lever.co/palantir/10dfc8bc-99ad-4ca2-ab76-853cb90a92c2