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Editor’s Note: Technical Recruiter Rachel Vogel speaks with Hiring Managers to learn more about their career journeys and life at Palantir.
Are you eager to join Palantir’s Early Talent program? Our Early Talent program focuses on engineering hiring for new grad roles and internships. In this blog post, we shine a spotlight on the amazing individuals who oversee the hiring process and give you a glimpse into their lives at Palantir. Get to know these accomplished professionals as they share their personal journeys, highlighting the mentors and experiences that have shaped their careers at Palantir. Learn how they embraced growth opportunities, became involved in the interview process, and forged meaningful connections with colleagues.
Get ready to connect, learn, and feel empowered as you prepare to embark on your own transformative career at Palantir.
What’s kept you at Palantir since you joined?
There are a few things that keep me at Palantir but ownership is definitely a big factor. Whether that’s owning specific projects or problem spaces, product and team outcomes, or driving my own career trajectory, Palantir has always met me where I wanted to grow. I’ve never felt boxed into one path and I’ve consistently been given real opportunities to take on more. The people make a huge difference, too. Everyone’s collaborative and genuinely oriented around user outcomes, not just their own slice of it. There’s a lot less focus on politics and bureaucracy than I’ve seen elsewhere, which makes it easier to just focus on doing good work that actually moves things forward. Palantir also strikes a rare balance between a big tech company and a startup. You have the infrastructure, resources, and support of a big tech company while also having the ownership, autonomy, and culture of a much smaller one.
If you are a mentor or lead, what has that taught you?
As a lead, I’ve really come to appreciate Palantir’s views on elevating people through their identified strengths while encouraging them to discover new ones they didn’t know they had. People have different strengths, and we understand that maximal impact comes from leaning into your spikes, and not always from being a generalist. We want people to find the point where their strengths and interests collide as that’s what often leads to exponential growth. Something else I’ve seen firsthand as a lead is just how much ownership we’re willing to hand to developers early on. Palantir trusts people with real responsibility from the start, and that high degree of responsibility is exactly what drives such fast, accelerated growth. When you’re genuinely accountable for meaningful work early, you’re forced to level up quickly, and I’ve watched people grow more in a year here than they might have in several somewhere else.
What’s been a highlight of your time at Palantir?
As an engineer on Gotham, I have the opportunity to go onsite and see my work in action. Instead of relying on secondhand information about how my projects impact a customer, I can stand in the room and engage in a real-time feedback loop with the people actively using the features and services I’ve built for them. It gives me a unique chance to see how much work moves the needle in a real, tangible way. Going onsite has also been an exciting and unique experience that I wouldn’t be able to experience at many other companies.
What is the work culture like for women at Palantir?
Amongst other things, as the technical lead of a team of 20 people, I’ve never really felt like my gender has been a factor. In my own job search, Palantir was the first time that I had a female interviewer. That representation was so valuable and empowering, so I started interviewing as soon as I could. Now, hopefully, I do the same for other women!
What’s been a highlight of your time at Palantir?
Sometimes in the London office, there’s a big group of us who do late-night karaoke (I love music and singing). We get guitars, a keyboard, and other instruments and just jam out to any and all songs. There was one time where we went into the biggest conference room in the office and there were around 15 of us singing at the top of our lungs so late into the night it turned into morning.
What is one of the most rewarding parts of working as a Commercial Forward Deployed Software Engineer?
Having a first-hand, tangible perspective on everything that I’m building. I love solving problems generally speaking, but being able to point to something and have the feeling of, “Wow, I did that” — saved someone time, saved money, unlocked opportunities for people, whatever it may be — there’s an immediate sense of reward for the work you do (which is not something I thought would be part of my day job when studying software engineering).
What is a memorable moment of yours at Palantir?
I joined a team that had this habit of building cardboard towns in the office. When we first opened up the NY office, this team flew out from California to build one there. They built a cardboard town and camped out in the office the entire first week to “christen” it. I was amused by it, but I decided to sleep in my bed that week instead.
What’s one of the most rewarding parts of working as a developer on Foundry?
It’s daunting, but every day, it’s rewarding to wake up, read the news headlines, and be able to draw a line to my own work. Ultimately, it is a job, but the work that I do on Gotham is also something that is part of society in a deeply meaningful way. Working on Gotham means very directly working on things that affect the war in Ukraine, which a lot of us are proud of.
Why did you want to become a hiring manager?
I’ve been at Palantir since 2011 and I’ve been pretty deeply invested in the culture here. I love to do stuff around the office — like hosting tea tasting and being around for mentorship. I want to make sure the workplace is somewhere you want to come to, and being a part of determining who joins the company is a huge part of that. I like being involved in finding the right culture fits and people who will view Palantir as a home.
What’s kept you at Palantir since you joined?
Palantir is truly one of the few places where you can join straight from school as a new grad and cause a positive step change in the world. Ownership and fast iteration are key here and it means you don’t have to wait years to feel the impact of your work. It’s energizing to be handed real autonomy that early, and to know that the strength of your ideas matters more than your tenure.
If you are a mentor or lead, what has that taught you?
Mentorship at Palantir is a two-way street between the mentee and mentor. Just as you’re encouraging someone and helping them grow by delving into your own experiences, you’re also learning from their perspectives, questions, and skills and thus growing alongside them. It’s a symbiotic relationship that enables more authenticity and genuine opportunities for skill and career progression on both ends.
What’s been a highlight of your time at Palantir?
It’s been a highlight to see our products move from more academic states into real-world, operational systems. It’s one thing to build something in the abstract; but has been the most energizing own and ship production workflows to users in the field. When I first joined, it was a monthly occurrence to see our work in the news. These days it’s rare to not see a mention.
What is the most rewarding part of working as a US Government Forward Deployed Software Engineer?
Definitely the outcomes that we enable. I know it sounds cliche, but Palantir software is ingrained in some of the most mission-critical, operational workflows across the US Government — from the Army to the Department of Health and Human Services, and everything in between. That certainly comes with some downsides, like needing round-the-clock stability and scalability. But the upsides keep me energized everyday — knowing that people need the software we’re building — not for instant gratification or entertainment, but to run the institutions that safeguard our nation.
What keeps you at Palantir?
The blend of mission orientation, technical aptitude, and personality present in nearly every individual at this company is something truly unique. I always feel like there’s so much to learn from my peers, and I can genuinely say that I rarely ever have to work with someone that I find abrasive. I also love the culture of respect that we uphold — regardless of someone’s tenure or background, good ideas will be heard and valued.
What makes a candidate stand out to you?
A sincere alignment with Palantir workflows and culture. Technical skills can be learned, communication can be improved, but there is no substitute for motivation. On the flip side, nothing turns me off more than when a candidate disingenuously regurgitates what they think we want to hear. My biggest piece of advice to all prospective applicants would be to do your research on our technology, our workflows, and our ethos, and be real with yourself about whether this is the place for you.
How did you become interested in recruiting/being a Hiring Manager?
I have the opportunity to meet incredible people who are not at Palantir yet and provide them with a chance to join our team. The tech industry has historically faced challenges in managing diversity and I see the role as an opportunity to personally help address that. As a hiring manager, I get to meet people who may not be the exact shape of engineer we are used to seeing at Palantir and make a bet on them to succeed and bring a new perspective to our company.
What have you learned from being a mentor?
People have different ways of approaching a problem. Something that might work for me consistently might not be the best thing that works for my mentee. I’ve learned to sit back and observe how others navigate problems, so I can better support their growth and their path to success. I’m the type of person who likes to fill in the space in a conversation, but I’ve learned to value those who take the time to pause and absorb the broader context. These individuals often discover details that might be overlooked by those who are focused on moving quickly.
What’s your most memorable moment at Palantir?
A few years ago, we had karaoke at one of our holiday parties. It was actually right before I transitioned from being a Delta to a Dev. I sang my heart out in front of EVERYONE. A few weeks later, when I joined my new team and was catching up with my new mentor, he mentioned that someone absolutely butchered “Roxanne” by The Police at the holiday party… and I was like, “Hey, that was me!”
What’s one of the most rewarding parts of working as a Commercial Forward Deployed Software Engineer (FDSE)?
Seeing my work actually create change for customers like enabling them to do something they never thought possible, or improving a process they’ve struggled with. For example, my first project at Palantir was with Pacific Gas & Electric in California, working on their wildfire prevention program. We combined data from all across the enterprise — including where all of their wires were, predicted wildfire risk, weather data, and geographic features — to build a plan for which circuits should be buried underground over the next 5–10 years.
What have you learned from mentors at Palantir?
An attitude of “go where you’re needed.” My leads and mentors have consistently encouraged me to go where my skill set can make the biggest impact, especially on projects that I wouldn’t have picked as my first choice. Following that advice has led to some of my best projects and biggest growth opportunities.
Why did you join Palantir?
I was a cybersecurity consultant, an ethical white-hat hacker testing client security by trying to break into their systems. It was fun, but my clients cared more about the report I wrote at the end of the engagement instead of whether I actually found real vulnerabilities. I missed building things instead of breaking them, and I wasn’t using my software engineering skills anymore. A Palantir recruiter reached out to me out of the blue, and it felt like a job I could be really excited about. The type of projects I read about were super compelling, and I kept meeting great people along the way, which is what ultimately made me take the job.
We hope this blog post helped give you insight into the wonderful people who support Early Talent hiring at Palantir. We can’t wait to meet you.
Early Talent Hiring at Palantir was originally published in Palantir Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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