A Day in the Life of a Palantir Forward Deployed Software Engineer

Nov 2, 2020

Brian is a Forward Deployed Software Engineer (FDSE) at Palantir, currently focused on delivering data integration solutions to a US Department of Defense customer. The article uses his experience to explain the FDSE role.

You're a Forward Deployed Software Engineer. What is that?

A Forward Deployed Software Engineer (FDSE), or "Delta," is a software engineer who embeds directly with customers to configure Palantir's existing software platforms to solve their toughest problems. While a traditional software engineer focuses on creating a single capability that can be used for many customers, FDSEs focus on enabling many capabilities for a single customer.

The role requires a broad skillset ranging from software development to data engineering to customer engagement and creative problem-solving. FDSEs must decide what products are being deployed, why they are being deployed, and how to set up workflows that use those products to address the customer's specific needs. They do not just answer those questions; they implement the solution with end users.

Is an FDSE similar to a consultant?

Palantir's answer is no. FDSEs are described as technically creative builders who can also deliver solutions quickly. Because Foundry and Gotham already provide substantial platform capability, FDSEs can compose the right architecture of features or add new components without reinventing the wheel for each customer.

Why choose this role instead of a traditional software engineer role?

The appeal is the rapid cycle between creating solutions and seeing them in action. The article emphasizes immediate customer feedback, short deployment timelines, and the ability to work across changing domains such as cyber, healthcare, and defense.

Do traditional software engineering principles still matter?

Yes. The article stresses that sensitive and important work still requires rigorous software engineering in the field, including engineering reviews, code reviews, deployability optimization, maintenance, monitoring, and production discipline.

FDSEs also have a key responsibility to carry technical expertise from the field back into business development and product development teams. Configuration solutions that first solve one customer's needs can later become product additions that help many other customers.

What's a typical day like?

A typical day mixes designing, writing, and testing workflows; configuring Gotham to unlock functionality; data model work; stability improvements; and communication with customers and teammates. The article also emphasizes time spent learning from other deployments and reusing internal knowledge.

What technical challenges show up in the role?

• Building, scaling, and maintaining terabyte-scale data pipelines for mission-critical workflows.
• Configuring access controls and workflows around regulatory and compliance requirements.
• Designing, building, testing, deploying, and maintaining workflows for non-technical users.
• Investigating production outages, identifying root causes, deploying fixes, and coordinating communication across product, deployment, and customer teams.

What's hardest about the role?

The hardest part described is directing focus: choosing the most valuable problem to work on in a landscape where product capabilities and customer needs keep changing.