Forward Deployed Software Engineer - US Government - Federal Health and Civilian

Palantir Palantir · Enterprise · Washington, DC · Delta

Forward Deployed Software Engineers (FDSEs) work directly with customers to rapidly understand their hardest problems and build solutions against them. Projects often start with an open-ended question: _"How do we respond to a foodborne illness outbreak faster?"_ or _"Where is our medical supply chain failing patients?"_ Your job is to show up and solve them. In Federal Health/Civil, your responsibilities look like those of a startup CTO. You'll own end-to-end execution of high-stakes projects within small, high-ownership teams, spanning the full stack of execution: whiteboarding architecture with engineers, building data pipelines and operational workflows, deploying AI agents, advising customer executives, and driving strategy with your team - sometimes all in the same day.

What you'd actually do

  1. work directly with customers to rapidly understand their hardest problems and build solutions against them
  2. own end-to-end execution of high-stakes projects within small, high-ownership teams, spanning the full stack of execution: whiteboarding architecture with engineers, building data pipelines and operational workflows, deploying AI agents, advising customer executives, and driving strategy with your team - sometimes all in the same day
  3. unpack ambiguous problems and reason carefully about the cost and consequence of solutions
  4. work autonomously, make consequential decisions, and build with some of the country's most important institutions
  5. continuously learn, work independently, and make decisions with minimal supervision

Skills

Required

  • Strong engineering background, preferred in fields such as Computer Science, Mathematics, Software Engineering, Physics
  • Strong coder with demonstrated proficiency in programming languages such as Python, Java, C++, TypeScript/JavaScript, or similar
  • Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively in teams of technical and non-technical individuals, and comfortable working in a rapidly changing environment with dynamic objectives and iteration with users
  • Demonstrated ability to continuously learn, work independently, and make decisions with minimal supervision
  • Active U.S. security clearance at the Top Secret level, or willingness to obtain or upgrade to a Top Secret clearance

Nice to have

  • Experience with healthcare, logistics, aviation, or readiness analysis is a plus
  • Familiarity with AI agents, data structures, storage systems, cloud infrastructure, front-end frameworks, and other technical tools

What the JD emphasized

  • Active U.S. security clearance at the Top Secret level, or willingness to obtain or upgrade to a Top Secret clearance

Other signals

  • deploying AI agents
  • building data pipelines and operational workflows
  • understanding of how technical decisions impact the user