Production Engineer - Database Operations

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

Database Operations is responsible for the deployment and maintenance of the database layer that Palantir’s products depend on. As an engineer on the Database Operations team, you will design how databases are deployed and operated across a wide variety of environments, build the automation and observability that keep them healthy, and respond to the critical production issues that affect some of the world's most impactful use cases.

Core Responsibilities:
• Build software that automates the routine work of deploying and running production databases

• Participate in regular on-call rotations

• Troubleshoot, diagnose, and remediate stability and reliability issues in production database systems

• Participate in post-incident reviews and take ownership of follow up actions

• Identify patterns across incidents, support tickets, and alerts, and translate those observations into proposals for systemic improvements to our fleet

• Manage and execute large scale migrations of the fleet of databases we run

• Partner with customer-facing teams during incidents and when setting up new database installations

• Work with database engineering teams and infrastructure teams to build resilient and highly available database systems

• Continuously invest in documentation, metrics, monitors and other troubleshooting tools

• Hold the bar on engineering and operational standards through code reviews, design reviews, and feedback on operating procedures

• Build deep expertise and experience in production systems (Kubernetes, cloud environments, Cassandra, Elasticsearch, etc.) and share that knowledge amongst the team

What We Value:
• Strong sense of ownership in ambiguous environments. You step in to drive important outcomes when lines of responsibility are unclear.

• Ability to collaborate and empathize under pressure. You stay calm and work effectively during high-stakes incidents.

• Curiosity and motivation to learn. The systems and technologies you work on will change often, and you can quickly build the understanding to be effective through the changes.

• Ability to operate with autonomy in a rapidly changing environment where priorities shift.

• First-principles thinking. You want to thoroughly understand the systems you work on rather than applying band-aid fixes, and you ask questions to get there.

• Investment in the team around you. You share what you learn, give thoughtful feedback in reviews, and treat raising the team's overall capability as part of the job.

What We Require:
• Engineering background in Computer Science, Mathematics, Software Engineering, Physics or similar field.

• Experience writing code a variety of programming languages such as Java, Python, and Go, as part of a past role or personal projects.

• Experience with cloud and orchestration technologies such as Kubernetes, Helm, AWS, GCP, Azure, and OpenShift.

• Experience with database technologies such as Cassandra, Elasticsearch and Kafka.

• A solid foundation in Linux and how distributed web services work.

• Familiarity with observability tools such as Grafana and Prometheus.

• Strong written and verbal communication and the ability to iterate quickly with teammates and incorporate feedback.

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).