Working in the Mile-High City: Palantirian Perspectives on Denver

Denver has long attracted people who love living in a vibrant community and having access to a host of outdoor activities. Recently, Denver has also become a hub for many technology companies who look for exceptional talent — and Palantir is no exception, having made Denver its headquarters in 2020.

Palantir has over 20 offices in a number of world-class cities, including New York City, London, Washington, D.C., and Tokyo. So, you might ask, what is it about Denver that gives the city such a magnetic pull? Why have many Palantir employees chosen to start their Palantir careers in Denver or move to Denver from another city? To shed more light on life in the Mile-High City, we interviewed a few Denver Palantirians and asked them what it’s like to work at Palantir’s headquarters, who they get to work with, and what they do outside of work.

Why did you decide to move to Denver?

Alice Yu:
I grew up in the Midwest (proud Ohioan), but have spent more than the last decade living in Boston, New York, and San Francisco with stints around the UK, mainland Europe, and more with Palantir. Across all the time I’ve spent in different cities, I’ve continued to trend towards cities with more access to nature. While I loved my time in San Francisco for 7 years, I wanted to make a change. In particular, I wanted to live in an area that was decidedly less tech-centric, while still having a growing tech and engineering scene. Of course, Denver has beautiful weather, and honestly, I was sold on the first night of my visit before moving here watching the sunset over the mountains. Never gets old.

D.J. Angelini:
People here organize around activities, and as someone who gets a lot of enjoyment out of things like skiing and golf, it’s really easy to find a group of people to do those with. Because Denver is a transplant city, so many people who move here don’t know a lot of people initially and are actively trying to form a community. Living in Denver, I gain exposure to new people and opportunities that I might not have otherwise.

Joe Ellis:
I’ve also worked at my fair share of Palantir offices before moving to Denver, each of them for around 2 years: Palo Alto (our original headquarters), London, and New York. Over the years, my leadership responsibilities on the engineering team have grown, so naturally I’ve been invested more in building out the right kind of engineering organization. Our Denver office isn’t just our company’s headquarters, but also has emerged the central nervous system of our engineering group, so I really wanted to be here to help define what the culture of this office looks like over time.

What’s your role at Palantir, and what about working for Palantir in Denver did you find intriguing?

Alice Yu:
I oversee our Commercial portfolio and North American government healthcare work on our Privacy and Civil Liberties (PCL) team. This means that I work with our product teams to ensure that our architecture, applications, and platforms protect privacy, as well as with our deployment teams and clients to ensure responsible use of data with our products. This can range from working with our clients and teams to configure the product to optimally protect their most sensitive data to helping shape use cases and ensure ethical use of our software.

Palantir’s Denver office is still a growing space — it’s not as big as our offices in London and New York, for example. There’s a core nucleus of folks who come into the office every day and who’ve helped create an inclusive, friendly, and social environment. From a work standpoint, a lot of us here in the Denver office don’t work on the same things, so we’re always cross-pollinating and sharing our knowledge with each other, whether intentionally or by bumping into people in the hallways. Plus, the Denver office has a lot of team leads, so if you have a question or want to know what’s going on around Palantir — which I do all the time since I work across the company — someone here is bound to have the answer or know where to point you.

D.J. Angelini:
I’m a Technical Program Manager for Palantir Foundry. My role is focused on moving Foundry forward by organizing around platform-wide objectives, prioritizing the right projects, and leading execution for large engineering initiatives.

Denver is an engineering hub for Palantir’s product organization. The projects I’ve always worked on are large in scope and relate closely to Foundry’s engineering team, so I wanted to get closer to the action and solve tough engineering challenges. Moreover, there are so many teams represented here, so we’re able bounce ideas off one another when solutions are cross-functional.

Finally, I love that Denver has become a central visiting point for Palantir teams all around the globe, whether they’re meeting with leadership or hosting co-locations. This provides a lot of great opportunities to get to know the company at large.

Joe Ellis:
I oversee the engineering teams focused on the compute performance of Palantir Foundry. A lot of my time is spent thinking about the engineering decisions made in different parts of Foundry, which means I also care deeply about helping build the careers of our engineers. I also work closely with the Business Development (BD) team, because building a platform like Foundry requires us to understand how customers are using Foundry and how we can incorporate their priorities into the roadmap.

Building out a new engineering hub isn’t an opportunity that comes up often, and with this come a ton of questions. What kind of culture do we want to have here? Who should we hire, and for which projects? Where will we find those people? What skills do we want them to have? Whether we’re wondering which schools to hold events at to attract new talent or which existing teams might make sense to move to Denver, there are always unique and interesting things to figure out here. Of course, all of these questions are easier to manage when you have people from all across the business with whom to figure things out.

How would you describe the people you get to work with?

Alice Yu:
Palantirians as a whole are smart, intellectually curious, willing to ask the question behind the question, and love building things out based on first principles. In Denver in particular, you’ll find people from PD [Product Development], BD [Business Development], and ID [Internal Development], so no matter what you’re working on or who you need to consult, there are always people around to collaborate with.

D.J. Angelini:
I have the awesome opportunity to work with BD and PD teams here in Denver. I love how this office has a combination of USG [US Government], Commercial, Foundry, Gotham, and PI [Production Infrastructure] product groups. By working alongside them, I get a good understanding of what’s happening across the business, which is important to me because I work closely with engineers and can help guide our teams on what to prioritize.

Joe Ellis:
The people at Palantir are one of the driving forces behind me sticking around for so long. They’re ambitious, excited, curious, and thoughtful. I’ve always thought it important to surround yourself with the people who you want to be more like, and that really resonates at this company. Everyone at Palantir has “spikes” in different areas, and we all want to challenge each other while also helping each other out. I appreciate that we’re all driven toward the same mission and that Palantirians aren’t about competing with each other — we lift each other up.

What does Denver have to offer outside of work?

Alice Yu:
There are so many things to do in Denver, from the city to mountains. I love the proximity to the mountains and all they have to offer — I can’t overstate how the mountains here set the tone for the office. It’s the main backdrop out every window in the office. In the winter, if you’re a skier or snowboarder, you can go in the morning and then be back in the afternoon to hang out with friends at a brewery. Same for in the summer for hiking. We also sponsored Military Appreciation Nights for the Avs, Nuggets, and Mammoths this year, so that’s also made for incredible outings with people from the office.

D.J. Angelini:
This is a great place to be active. Whether you’re into hiking, playing tennis, skiing, or something else, these kinds of activities permeate throughout the community. I’ve really enjoyed exploring all that Denver has to offer.

Joe Ellis:
I like to think of Denver in two ways. Yes, it’s big enough that there are plenty of amazing places to go out and eat, have a drink, and watch a show or sporting event. But on the other hand, when you need a respite from the city, Denver is close to the woods, mountains, and other outdoor recreational areas. You get the best of both worlds.

What advice would you have for someone considering moving to Denver to work at Palantir, or someone already in Denver who’s considering a role at Palantir?

Alice Yu:
I think one of the most unique aspects of working at Palantir is how decentralized we are as a company. This means that to get a sense for how the company works, you need to constantly be meeting a lot of people and forming a sense of community. Denver is the perfect place to do that, since there’s such a special mix of people here, whether they recently joined or have been with the company since day 1. Working in Denver means you’ll get exposure to how Palantir’s journey has gone so far and where we’re headed.

D.J. Angelini:
If you want to be close to all the action and learn a lot about how the business is run, Denver is a great place to work. You’ll gain exposure to all facets of what makes Palantir, Palantir as well as the opportunity to help grow our office’s culture as we bring more people into the Denver fold.

Joe Ellis:
I echo what Alice said: talk to a ton of people. At Palantir, there’s tons of opportunities to make a contribution to the business, and you’ll have a high density of access to every department. Your job title is much less important than your ambition — reach outside of the box that you think you’re contained in.

Interested in learning even more about working in our Denver office? Want to say hi to us in person? Great news: we’re hosting an Open House the evening of Thursday, July 21, 2022! Come hang out with us while we answer your questions about what it’s like to work as a Palantir engineer in Denver. Plus, you’ll get the chance to see our Foundry and Gotham products in action.

Register here. We’re excited to meet you!

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Working in the Mile-High City: Palantirian Perspectives on Denver was originally published in Palantir Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.