Software Engineer - Apollo Systems

Palantir; Washington; On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Palantir seeks a Software Engineer for the Apollo team to build and operate a large-scale distributed system enabling remote Kubernetes cluster management and fast reconstruction from a portable artifact. You will design backup/restore for Kubernetes, use proprietary compression, and optimize the OCI-based container artifact store.

Expect collaboration across technical and non-technical teams. You’ll contribute at the intersection of container tech, storage formats, and distributed systems, with

Responsibilities

• Build and operate a large-scale distributed system to manage remote operation and maintenance of Kubernetes clusters.
• Design and implement backup and restore solutions for Kubernetes leveraging compression infrastructure.
• Develop and optimize a container artifact store based on the OCI distribution spec.
• Own the development lifecycle from ideation through design, implementation, to operation and support, collaborating with diverse stakeholders.

Skills

Distributed systems

Kubernetes

Container technologies

Storage optimization

Edge computing awareness

Tools

OCI distribution spec

Docker

Job description

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

Apollo is Palantir’s autonomous software management and deployment platform. It enables seamless, continuous delivery of mission-critical software (Foundry, Gotham, AIP) across a vast range of environments: on-prem, public cloud, disconnected (air-gapped) networks, and highly regulated settings (including IL-5 and FedRAMP).

As a Software Engineer on the Apollo team, you’ll build and operate a large-scale distributed system to allow the remote operation and maintenance of Kubernetes clusters. Our mission is to extract the entire state of a cluster into a portable, high-performance artifact within minutes, enabling full and almost instant cluster reconstruction from the ground up—all while pushing the limits of speed, reliability, and scale.

You’ll design and implement backup and restore solutions for Kubernetes, leveraging proprietary compression infrastructure tailored to Palantir’s unique deployment models. You’ll also build and optimize our container artifact store, which is based on the OCI (Open Container Initiative) distribution spec—the industry standard for storing and distributing container images and artifacts. You’ll own the backbone of every environment Apollo supports, from hyperscalers to Army trucks.

If you’re excited by challenges at the intersection of container technologies like OCI and docker, storage, and distributed systems, you’ll find opportunities here to dive deep into storage formats and low-level optimizations, where milliseconds matter. As we increasingly automate cluster creation and management on diverse hardware, you’ll play a key role in scaling Palantir’s presence at the edge and solving tough distributed systems problems. You’ll own the full development lifecycle—from idea generation and design, through implementation, to operation and support—while collaborating closely with both technical and non-technical stakeholders to deliver robust, impactful infrastructure. The usage of AI tools (Claude Code/Codex/Copilot) is highly encouraged!