Palantir is having a moment. The software and defense tech company has been on a tear in 2025; its stock is up over 100% this year, as of Tuesday’s close. As shares soar, what about their employees’ paychecks?
Palantir is gaining ground with early-career talent — including some recruits who haven’t even started college — thanks to cushy software engineering salaries and a growing appetite among younger techies for defense tech work. The company is also riding a tone shift in Silicon Valley, where working with the government is no longer taboo.
Google, for instance, quietly dropped its ban on using its technology to build weapons in February. At elite universities like Stanford, a coding job at a defense tech company like Palantir or a drone startup is becoming as coveted as a traditional tech job, according to the San Francisco Standard.
Palantir builds software that helps institutions — both government agencies and commercial companies — manage and analyze their data. In addition to building defense software for the US and allied militaries, the company also makes AI tools for health systems like Mount Sinai and HCA Healthcare.
The company appears to be hiring across the board, with open roles ranging from entry-level software engineers to government-focused business development staff, according to its job listings. While compensation information isn’t publicized by most tech companies, including Palantir, public records from US work visa applications give some insight into pay for specific positions.
The data comes from filings from the first quarter of 2025 that companies submit to the US Department of Labor when hiring foreign workers on H-1B visas. Business Insider analyzed Palantir’s filings to see where it’s hiring — and what it’s paying. The figures only refer to foreign hires and only account for base pay, not the bonuses and stock awards that employees receive.
Unlike tech giants such as Microsoft, Google, and Meta, which each filed thousands of H-1B applications during the same period, Palantir submitted far fewer. That may be in part due to the nature of its government work; some of these roles at Palantir could require US security clearance, according to Palantir job postings reviewed by BI. Security clearance can only typically be granted to American citizens, according to the State Department.
Palantir didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.
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Here’s what Palantir is paying across key roles, from Forward Deployed Engineers to Machine Learning Researchers.
Deployment roles: Forward Deployed Engineers can make as much as $200,000 in base pay.
Forward Deployed Engineer: $143,000 to $200,000
Deployment Strategist: $120,000 to $160,000
Software Engineers can make up to $240,000 in base pay.
Software Engineer: $155,000 to $240,000
Machine Learning Researcher: $210,000 to $250,000
