Palantir Data Engineer

Guidehouse•Tysons, VA

19h•$113,000 - $188,000•Onsite

About The Position

We are seeking a Palantir Data Engineer to design, build, and operate ontology-driven data products in Palantir Foundry (SaaS). This role emphasizes semantic data modeling, entity-centric design, and ontology-backed analytics and operational workflows, rather than pure pipeline engineering alone. You will work closely with product owners, analysts, and mission stakeholders to translate real-world domains—such as case management, operations, and reporting—into well-governed ontologies composed of entities, relationships, properties, and actions. You will then implement and maintain the data pipelines and transformations that reliably populate and evolve those ontologies. This role is ideal for an engineer who enjoys ontology-first thinking, data product design, strong governance, and enabling both analytics and operational use cases from a shared semantic foundation.

Requirements

A Bachelor’s degree is required
A minimum of 3 years of experience building and operating production data pipelines and data models is required
Hands-on experience with Palantir Foundry, or strong data engineering experience with the ability to ramp quickly.
Palantir Foundry Ontology experience, including: Entity and relationship modeling, Ontology-backed actions and workflows, Permissioning and governance within the ontology
Strong proficiency in SQL and at least one data engineering language (Python preferred; Scala/Java acceptable).
Experience implementing ETL/ELT pipelines, incremental processing, and transformation best practices.
Familiarity with governance fundamentals, including metadata, lineage, access controls, and data quality.
Strong communication skills and experience working directly with product and mission stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Palantir Application Developer experience, building operational applications and workflows on top of the ontology.
Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
Palantir AIP experience, including: Ontology-backed document understanding and summarization, Entity extraction and enrichment, Human-in-the-loop review with governance controls
Generative AI–assisted coding experience, such as: Using AI copilots for pipeline development, transformations, ontology evolution, and code review, Applying generative AI to improve developer productivity while maintaining data quality and governance
Experience supporting ontology-first designs for case management systems.
Knowledge of entity resolution, relationship extraction, and graph-based modeling.
Familiarity with Databricks, Spark, or lakehouse architectures in hybrid environments.
Exposure to CI/CD practices for data pipelines and ontology changes.

Responsibilities

Design, implement, and maintain Palantir Foundry Ontologies, including entities, relationships, properties, actions, and permissions.
Translate business processes and domain requirements into clear, reusable entity and relationship models.
Ensure semantic consistency across datasets by enforcing standardized definitions, naming conventions, and relationship patterns.
Evolve ontologies over time while maintaining lineage, backward compatibility, and data contracts.
Design and implement ingestion pipelines into Foundry from APIs, relational databases, object storage, file drops, and external partners.
Build transformation logic that materializes ontological entities and relationships from raw and curated data sources.
Implement incremental processing and CDC patterns to keep ontology-backed data current.
Optimize pipeline performance and reliability while maintaining clarity between raw, curated, and ontology-backed layers.
Produce analysis-ready datasets that power case views, entity timelines, dashboards, cohort analysis, and trend reporting.
Enable self-service analytics by ensuring ontology-backed datasets are intuitive, well-documented, and reusable.
Support both human workflows (case review, operations) and analytical/ML consumption from the same semantic foundation.
Ensure datasets and entities are fully documented with ownership, descriptions, and business definitions.
Maintain end-to-end lineage from source systems through transformations into ontological entities.
Implement policy-based access controls and secure handling aligned to organizational and compliance requirements.
Operationalize data quality checks (freshness, completeness, validity) tied to mission-critical entities.
Monitor pipelines and ontology-backed datasets using metrics, logs, and alerts.
Troubleshoot failures, conduct root-cause analysis, and implement preventive improvements.
Support environment promotion practices (DEV / TEST / PRE-PROD / PROD) with repeatable and auditable processes.
Partner with platform engineering, security, analytics, and application teams to align ontology design with operational needs.
Communicate complex ontology and data concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Participate in design and architecture reviews related to ontology evolution and data modeling standards.

Benefits

Medical, Rx, Dental & Vision Insurance
Personal and Family Sick Time & Company Paid Holidays
Position may be eligible for a discretionary variable incentive bonus
Parental Leave and Adoption Assistance
401(k) Retirement Plan
Basic Life & Supplemental Life
Health Savings Account, Dental/Vision & Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
Student Loan PayDown
Tuition Reimbursement, Personal Development & Learning Opportunities
Skills Development & Certifications
Employee Referral Program
Corporate Sponsored Events & Community Outreach
Emergency Back-Up Childcare Program
Mobility Stipend