Software Engineer – Edge AI Systems

Location - Seattle, WA (Hybrid) - Hybrid work arrangement based in Seattle with up to 25% travel to customer and deployment sites.

Compensation - $145,000 – $275,000 Base + RSUs

Visa - US Citizens Only (Must be eligible for US Security Clearance)

Company - Palantir Technologies

Industry - Artificial Intelligence, Defense Technology, Edge AI, Autonomous Systems, Robotics, Distributed Systems, National Security

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About the Company

Palantir is building next-generation AI systems that operate at the tactical edge, enabling autonomous decision-making across defense and national security environments.

The Edge AI Systems team develops advanced LLM-powered autonomous systems capable of running directly on constrained edge hardware. These systems integrate with drones, sensors, radar platforms, autonomous vehicles, and mission-critical defense infrastructure where reliability, latency, and security are essential.

Working directly with defense customers, engineers rapidly build, evaluate, deploy, and optimize AI agents capable of operating in disconnected environments with limited compute resources. This team combines cutting-edge research with production engineering, deploying AI systems into real-world tactical environments.

As a Software Engineer on the Edge AI Systems team, you'll work across AI infrastructure, model optimization, edge deployment, distributed systems, and autonomous agent development while collaborating closely with AI researchers, systems engineers, and defense customers.

This is an opportunity to work on some of the most technically ambitious AI systems being deployed today while solving complex engineering problems at the intersection of LLMs, robotics, edge computing, and national security.

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What You'll Do

• Design and build production-grade Edge AI systems for tactical defense applications
• Train, fine-tune, and deploy LLMs optimized for constrained edge hardware
• Develop autonomous multi-agent systems supporting mission-critical workflows
• Integrate AI agents with drones, sensors, effectors, robotics, and autonomous systems
• Optimize model inference across CPUs, GPUs, and specialized edge accelerators
• Benchmark, evaluate, and improve agent reliability, latency, and performance
• Build scalable AI infrastructure supporting production deployments
• Develop robust software capable of operating in disconnected and resource-constrained environments
• Implement reliable, fault-tolerant distributed systems for high-stakes deployments
• Collaborate closely with AI researchers, systems engineers, and defense customers
• Improve model runtime performance using modern optimization techniques
• Build production AI systems using PyTorch, Hugging Face, LangChain, vLLM, and related frameworks
• Participate in customer deployments and operational testing
• Help shape the future architecture of Palantir's Edge AI platform

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Ideal Candidate Background

Experience Requirements

• 4–10 years of professional software engineering experience
• Experience building production AI or distributed systems
• Experience developing LLM applications or AI agent systems
• Experience deploying production software in high-reliability environments
• Experience contributing to large-scale system architecture
• Experience building software requiring performance optimization
• Experience operating production systems supporting mission-critical applications
• Experience collaborating across engineering, product, and customer teams
• Strong ownership mentality with experience delivering complex technical projects
• Experience in defense, robotics, aerospace, autonomous systems, or applied AI preferred

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Technical Requirements

• Strong Python, Rust, or C++ programming experience
• Experience building LLM-powered applications or AI agents
• Strong understanding of distributed systems and scalable architectures
• Experience with PyTorch, Hugging Face Transformers, LangChain, or vLLM
• Experience deploying AI models into production
• Experience optimizing inference performance for edge hardware
• Experience with multi-agent architectures and agent orchestration
• Experience with model evaluation, benchmarking, and testing
• Strong systems programming and debugging skills
• Experience building reliable production infrastructure
• Familiarity with edge AI optimization tools (TVM, Ollama, TensorFlow Lite, Mojo, etc.) preferred
• Strong software testing and reliability engineering practices

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Education

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Engineering, or related quantitative field
• Strong computer science fundamentals
• Strong understanding of algorithms, distributed systems, and software architecture

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Soft Skills

• Exceptional problem-solving ability
• Strong engineering ownership
• Excellent communication skills
• Comfortable working directly with customers
• High execution velocity
• Comfortable operating in ambiguous environments
• Strong systems thinking
• Passion for AI, distributed systems, and autonomous technologies
• Ability to work on highly complex engineering challenges
• Willingness to travel for customer deployments

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Compensation & Benefits

• Base Salary: $145,000 – $275,000
• RSUs
• Comprehensive Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance
• Retirement Benefits
• Hybrid Work Environment
• Opportunity to work directly with cutting-edge AI systems
• Exposure to advanced LLM, autonomous systems, and defense technologies
• Work alongside world-class AI researchers and engineers
• Direct customer deployment experience
• Opportunity to build AI systems operating in real-world tactical environments

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Why Join

This is an opportunity to help build some of the world's most advanced Edge AI systems operating in real-world defense environments.

You'll work on cutting-edge LLM agents, autonomous systems, edge optimization, and distributed AI platforms that directly interact with drones, sensors, robotics, and tactical hardware.

If you enjoy solving extremely difficult engineering problems, deploying AI systems into production, working across software and hardware boundaries, and building technology that operates where reliability truly matters, this role offers exceptional technical depth and impact.