Backend Software Engineer - Data Connectors

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 The Connectivity team builds the software that connects Palantir’s platform to customer systems. Our connectors integrate databases, enterprise applications, cloud storage, web services, and streaming systems, enabling customers to bring data into Foundry and write back to their operational systems. From large datasets to real-time events and user-driven interactions, these connections underpin the applications and AI workflows customers build with Foundry and AIP. You’ll build and maintain Foundry’s first-class connector suite and the shared infrastructure behind it. You’ll work across the stack, taking ownership of connector implementations, developer SDKs, and the systems that build, test, distribute, and run our connectivity software. A central part of this work is evolving and scaling a large, established codebase. You’ll move integrations from bespoke infrastructure onto shared platform capabilities, design SDKs that enable other teams and customers to build integrations independently, and safely retire older implementations. You’ll also build observability and diagnostic tools that help users understand, monitor, and troubleshoot their connections. You’ll own improvements from design through production and use what you learn from operating connectors to strengthen the platform they share. Technologies We Use: Java and Python for connectors, backend services, and developer SDKs Open-source technologies like Kafka, Kubernetes, Flink, Debezium, Iceberg Industry-standard build tooling, including Gradle and GitHub Shared job orchestration, streaming, serverless execution, and compute deployment platforms Core Responsibilities: Build and maintain Foundry’s first-class connectors, improving performance and extending support for imports, exports, change data capture, interactive queries, and writeback as external systems and customer needs evolve. Improve the infrastructure that builds, tests, packages, and distributes connectors and shared libraries, including tooling across our connector monorepo. Design and maintain connectivity SDKs for internal teams and end users, with clear APIs, documentation, testing utilities, and development workflows that make integrations easy to author and maintain. Collaborate with product teams to integrate connector execution with job orchestration, streaming, and serverless platforms. Lead incremental migrations onto shared infrastructure, manage compatibility, and retire older implementations while preserving the workflows customers depend on. Develop reusable security frameworks and tooling that make secure connectivity a consistent part of connector development and execution. Debug production issues and performance problems across the stack, turning recurring support problems into durable fixes, automated tests, and better observability. Establish shared testing frameworks, compatibility checks, and release practices that keep a large connector portfolio reliable and maintainable. Help prepare and maintain Palantir connectivity software for open-source use, including its APIs, packaging, documentation, and contributor experience. What We Value: An ownership mindset and a high bar for correctness, security, and automated testing, including responsibility for how software behaves in production. Pride in building and maintaining integrations over time, including the detailed work required to keep them reliable as upstream systems change. Engineering judgment that balances delivering new capabilities with simplifying existing systems and reducing operational burden. Empathy for developers and end users, reflected in usable SDKs, clear configuration, actionable errors, and useful diagnostics. Curiosity about unfamiliar systems and persistence in debugging problems across languages, APIs, services, networks, and execution environments. What We Require: 4+ years of professional software engineering experience developing external system connectors, with depth in areas such as developing batch and streaming data ingestion systems, third-party integration development, or monorepo and asset distribution frameworks. Operating on top of these technologies alone does not qualify. Deep expertise in Gradle, including developing custom plugins, managing multi-project builds, and optimizing build performance. Demonstrated ability to diagnose complex reliability and performance problems and improve systems through measured, incremental changes. Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to work effectively across teams, incorporate feedback, and hold a high bar for quality.