Founding Palantir Foundry Developer / Practice Lead

Unissant; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Unissant, Inc. is seeking a founding Palantir Foundry Developer / Practice Lead to establish a new Palantir Foundry practice for federal customers in the Washington, DC area.

The role blends hands-on development with capability development, customer engagement, and practice leadership. As the founding technical lead, you will shape design standards, build early customer solutions, recruit and mentor talent, and influence priorities as the practice matures.

Qualifications

• Five+ years of software/data engineering or related technical disciplines.
• Three+ years of hands-on Palantir Foundry development in senior roles.
• Proven track record owning technical solutions end-to-end.
• Strong Python and SQL for data transformation and application development.
• Experience with cloud platforms and modern software-delivery practices.

Responsibilities

• Lead design, development, delivery, and improvement of Palantir Foundry solutions for federal clients.
• Design Foundry data pipelines, Ontology models, dashboards, and assets.
• Translate mission needs into practical Foundry designs and phased plans.
• Develop integrations with enterprise systems, APIs, databases, and data sources.
• Establish technical standards and reusable patterns for the practice.
• Mentor engineers and help recruit talent as the practice grows.

Skills

Palantir Foundry

Python

SQL

Cloud platforms

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Master's Degree (preferred)

Tools

Palantir Foundry

Workshop

Git

CI/CD

Containers/DevSecOps

Job description

Unissant, Inc. delivers innovative capabilities to the agencies that keep our nation healthy and safe. We apply our domain expertise, data acumen, and technology know-how to achieve breakthrough results for our clients. Working collaboratively, we advance missions and careers through a focus on honesty, integrity, and dependability. We continuously look for talent, excited to join that effort. To learn more about our exciting organization, please visit us at www.unissant.com.

We are seeking a Founding Palantir Foundry Developer / Practice Lead to join our team and establish Unissant's Palantir Foundry practice.

The ideal candidate is an entrepreneurial, hands-on technical leader who wants to build, not simply support, an emerging capability. This individual will serve as the initial technical leader for the practice, shaping how Unissant designs, builds, delivers, and scales Palantir Foundry solutions for federal customers. The role combines direct technical delivery with capability development, customer engagement, team building, and practice leadership.

This is not a standard developer role. The Founding Palantir Foundry Developer / Practice Lead will be expected to build early customer solutions, establish practical development and delivery standards, create reusable assets, help recruit and develop technical talent, and work with Unissant leadership to set priorities as the practice matures. The successful candidate can operate comfortably in an environment where the immediate client need matters, the long-term capability is still being defined, and the person in the role will have meaningful influence over both.

Essential Duties and 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, as appropriate.
• 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.

Work Experience and Job Skills:

• 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.
• Familiarity with Palantir AIP, AI-enabled workflows, model integration, or agent-based use cases is preferred.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Education:

• Bachelor's Degree is required. Preferred field of study in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, Information Technology, Information Systems, Engineering, Mathematics, or related field of study.
• 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.

Certificates, Licenses and Registrations:

• 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.

Communication Skills:

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to lead technical discussions, customer discovery sessions, demonstrations, solution reviews, and executive briefings.
• Ability to translate complex Palantir, data, AI, and integration concepts into clear mission, operational, and business terms.
• Strong consultative listening and facilitation skills, including the ability to uncover the operational need beneath a stated technical request.
• Ability to write clear, concise, and persuasive technical content, including solution designs, implementation plans, technical standards, proposals, and delivery documentation, in a highly confidential manner.

Clearance Requirements:

• Ability to obtain and maintain a DHS Public Trust, active DHS Public Trust is preferred

Travel:

• This position is expected to work in a hybrid capacity in the Washington, DC / Herndon, VA area to support customer meetings, team collaboration, and business needs.
• Exceptional candidates located outside the Washington, DC metropolitan area may be considered; however, they must be able and willing to travel to the area and to customer locations as required.

Environmental Requirements:

• Mainly a routine office environment.
• May be required to lift up to ten (10) pounds.
• Flexible in working extended hours.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by the individual(s) assigned to this position. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, and skills required. Unissant management reserves the right to modify, add, or remove duties and to assign other duties as necessary. In addition, where applicable and available, reasonable accommodation(s) may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions of this position.

Please note: Candidate(s) will be required to go through pre-employment screening.

Unissant, Inc. is a proud Equal Opportunity Employer! (EOE; M/F/Disability/Vets)