Senior Software Engineer - Autonomous Systems

Palantir Technologies
Washington, D.C.2026-07-22Full-time

About the job

We are seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join a customer-facing product engineering team focused on developing advanced Command and Control (C2) and Agentic Autonomy Software for Autonomous Systems for use in operational and tactical missions. This role involves building, integrating, and deploying state-of-the-art software solutions that combine sensors, actuators, unmanned vehicles, and intelligent decision-making systems including self-hosted and commercial LLMs to enable users to employ and manage robotic and autonomous systems across a variety of mission sets.

Responsibilities

Design, implement, and optimize software for mission-critical autonomous systems using modern technologies and methodologies

Develop algorithms to process data from heterogeneous sensors for real-time state estimation and threat detection

Build LLM and AI-driven systems capable of assessing threats and rapidly making decisions to deploy responses to those threats

Develop integrations with a range of sensors, effectors, and autonomous platforms

Engineer scalable, reliable, and fail-safe systems capable of functioning in high-stakes environments

Partner with multidisciplinary teams, including robotics experts, hardware engineers, and system integrators, to deliver integrated solutions

Qualifications

Minimum

5+ years of professional software development experience

2+ years of experience contributing to the system design or architecture (architecture, design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems

2+ years of experience as a mentor, tech lead or leading an engineering team

Strong proficiency in Rust, Python, C++, or Java

Bachelor's/Master's/PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or related fields

Active US Security clearance or eligibility and willingness to obtain a US Security clearance

Preferred

Proven experience in software development for autonomous systems, embedded systems, or robotics

Knowledge of AI/ML, sensor processing, or swarm behaviors is highly desirable

Knowledge of LLM toolchains and implementation of agents into complex real time data workflows

Ability to manage complexity, optimize for performance, and think critically under pressure

Experience deploying and maintaining robust production systems