Founding Palantir Foundry Developer / Practice Lead

Unissant • Washington, DC

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

Unissant is seeking a Founding Palantir Foundry Developer / Practice Lead to establish and lead its Palantir Foundry practice. This role is for an entrepreneurial, hands-on technical leader who wants to build an emerging capability. The individual will be the initial technical leader, shaping how Unissant designs, builds, delivers, and scales Palantir Foundry solutions for federal customers. The position combines direct technical delivery with capability development, customer engagement, team building, and practice leadership. The successful candidate will build early customer solutions, establish development and delivery standards, create reusable assets, recruit and develop talent, and work with Unissant leadership to set priorities. This role requires operating comfortably in an environment where immediate client needs are critical, the long-term capability is being defined, and the individual has meaningful influence.

Requirements

• Five or more years of experience in software engineering, data engineering, data platforms, analytics engineering, cloud engineering, systems integration, or related technical disciplines.
• Three or more years of recent, hands-on Palantir Foundry development experience in a senior developer, technical lead, architect, forward-deployed, or comparable role.
• Demonstrated experience owning technical solutions from discovery and design through development, testing, deployment, customer adoption, and operational support.
• Hands-on experience developing and maintaining Foundry data pipelines, transforms, data products, Ontology models, workflows, and user-facing applications.
• Strong proficiency in Python and SQL, including the ability to use both languages for data transformation, integration, application development, testing, troubleshooting, and performance optimization.
• Experience designing and implementing data integration, data modeling, transformation, governance, validation, lineage, and role-based access-control practices in complex enterprise environments.
• Experience integrating structured and unstructured data from enterprise systems, APIs, databases, cloud platforms, and external data sources.
• Experience designing operational solutions that connect data, workflows, user decisions, and real-world mission outcomes.
• Familiarity with Foundry application-development capabilities, including Workshop, and the ability to build usable applications for technical and operational users.
• Working knowledge of cloud platforms, preferably AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud, and modern software-delivery practices such as Git, CI/CD, containerization, DevSecOps, and automated testing.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently in an ambiguous, early-stage, or build-oriented environment while maintaining delivery discipline and customer confidence.
• Strong client-facing, consultative, and presentation skills, including the ability to explain solution options, risks, technical tradeoffs, and delivery approaches to executives, mission stakeholders, and technical teams.
• Bachelor's Degree is required.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a DHS Public Trust.

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with Palantir AIP, AI-enabled workflows, model integration, or agent-based use cases is preferred.
• Demonstrated experience mentoring engineers, leading small technical teams, or creating technical standards and delivery practices is strongly preferred.
• Experience building or scaling a technical capability, practice, delivery function, or product-focused team is strongly preferred.
• Prior experience supporting DHS, CBP, Department of Defense, intelligence community, health, public-sector, or similarly complex federal mission customers is preferred.
• Master's Degree in a relevant technical or management field is preferred.
• Relevant equivalent professional experience may be considered in lieu of a degree, where permitted by contract and customer requirements.
• Palantir Foundry certification is preferred.
• Relevant cloud, data engineering, DevSecOps, agile, or technical leadership certifications are preferred. Examples may include AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, Databricks, SAFe, PMP, or comparable industry certifications.
• Active DHS Public Trust is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical design, development, delivery, and continuous improvement of Palantir Foundry solutions for federal customers.
• Design and build Foundry data pipelines, transformations, data products, Ontology models, workflows, operational applications, dashboards, and reusable technical assets.
• Translate customer mission needs, user workflows, and business requirements into practical Foundry solution designs and phased implementation plans.
• Design Ontology objects, relationships, actions, and workflows that support operational and analytical use cases.
• Develop integrations with enterprise applications, cloud platforms, APIs, databases, structured and unstructured data sources, and other customer systems.
• Build and maintain secure, scalable, governed data pipelines and data products that support reporting, analytics, operational workflows, and AI-enabled use cases.
• Apply Python, SQL, and other appropriate technologies to develop, optimize, test, and troubleshoot Foundry-based solutions.
• Develop user-facing applications and operational workflows using Foundry application-development capabilities, including Workshop and related tools.
• Establish technical standards, engineering practices, delivery methods, documentation expectations, reusable patterns, and implementation playbooks for the Palantir practice.
• Define and apply practical approaches for data quality, testing, validation, metadata, lineage, access control, security, governance, and solution sustainment.
• Serve as a senior technical lead in customer discussions, discovery sessions, technical demonstrations, solution reviews, proposal development, and capture activities.
• Partner with Unissant leadership to align practice growth, customer demand, staffing plans, technical investments, and delivery priorities.
• Help recruit, assess, onboard, mentor, and develop additional Palantir talent as the practice expands.
• Build a strong technical culture grounded in customer outcomes, engineering discipline, knowledge sharing, professional accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Evaluate emerging Palantir capabilities, including AIP and related platform features, and recommend practical applications for customer mission needs.
• Balance direct client delivery responsibilities with longer-term practice development, including repeatable offerings, technical accelerators, and market-relevant solution capabilities.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Innovative capabilities delivered to agencies that keep our nation healthy and safe.
• Domain expertise, data acumen, and technology know-how applied to achieve breakthrough results.
• Collaborative work environment.
• Advancement of missions and careers.
• Focus on honesty, integrity, and dependability.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior