Vivek Arora / Software Engineer at Palantir
Infrastructure and product engineer with 4 years of experience shipping software in high-consequence, constrained environments.
How I work
I like hard systems problems at the boundary of reliability, security, and real-world users. The best work pairs deep technical investigation with the judgment to make a meaningful difference for the people depending on it.
01 / Selected work
Database infrastructure · 2025
Built a Kubernetes-native autoscaler that uses Elasticsearch and cluster telemetry to make workload-aware decisions across node sets — reducing costly over-provisioning while eliminating manual capacity operations during load spikes.
Capacity efficiency · Database infrastructure
Created a CPU rectifier for Elasticsearch Helm deployments that correctly evaluates dynamic master and data node sets. The design established a pattern later used to accelerate Postgres rectification.
Security & auditability · IRS
Designed and shipped a real-time IRS auditing service that compares user-scoped query results with authorized baselines as searches execute, preserving an auditable record of potentially unauthorized taxpayer-data access.
Production reliability · FDA
Proactively built a custom Squid traffic-control service for a constrained FDA deployment. It detects abnormal connection pressure during high-change periods and temporarily sheds nonessential traffic, protecting shared infrastructure and preserving service availability.
Observability · Elasticsearch fleet
Developed a bounded-cardinality Top-N metrics system with exponentially decaying sampling to surface the indices that matter. Extended it from latency into volume, separating slow, hot, and overloaded workloads.
Product delivery · Regulated data platform
Worked directly with domain-expert users on a regulated data platform, learning their review workflows and iterating in short feedback loops. Turned an initially skeptical user group into active partners by pairing fast execution with a deep understanding of their day-to-day work.
04 / In the field
At Palantir, I’ve deployed, debugged, and modernized software where failure is not abstract: regulated environments, sensitive data, and demanding production infrastructure.
Received the FDA Information Technology Excellence Award for collaborative work migrating and integrating the Complex Product Database into the Palantir platform.
Led a zero-downtime modernization of a legacy, on-premises production stack.
Operated and scaled critical search infrastructure during periods of elevated demand.
Built an in-platform PDF Q&A tool in 2022, later demonstrated across public-sector organizations.
05 / About
I’m a software engineer at Palantir focused on database infrastructure. Before that, I worked directly with federal teams to bring consequential software into constrained environments.
I’m drawn to ambitious teams working on infrastructure, AI products, reliability, and systems where sound engineering earns trust over time.
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