Who we work with
Forward deployed and AI platform engineers for consultancies and Palantir partners
Kernavique supplies Palantir Foundry and AIP forward deployed engineers, LLM and MLOps engineers, and AI infrastructure engineers on contract to the consultancies and Palantir partners that already hold the delivery contract. Engineers join individually or as a team under a lead, through their own companies, for a defined scope and term. We also cover programs that slip or grow, and search for the leaders when you build a standing practice.
Last updated
AI platform consultancies
What you are up against
The client sets the start date
Once a program is signed, the start date belongs to the client, and it will not move to suit a hiring plan. Engineers on contract fill the gap when a program starts before a permanent hire can join.
Platform skill is only half the role
Forward deployed work happens inside the client’s operations, with its users and its data. An engineer needs to know Foundry and AIP and also to run a working session with an operations team and explain a pipeline to the program sponsor.
Programs change shape
Programs slip, extend and add workstreams. Holding permanent headcount for work that is not yet signed is a risk; leaving a signed extension without engineers is another.
A permanent hire is expensive to get wrong
In ads we read on October 11, 2026, Palantir offers $135,000 to $200,000 a year for a Forward Deployed AI Engineer in New York, and OpenAI $185K to $300K for a Forward Deployed Engineer in San Francisco. At that level it pays to see an engineer on real client work before making the role permanent.
How we help
- Platform engineers
Capacity
Individual Foundry, AIP, LLM and MLOps engineers, each matched to the written scope of your program before they start.
- Forward deployed teams
Capacity
A small team under a lead that joins your client program together, for work that needs more than one engineer from the first week.
- Surge capacity
Capacity
Cover for a program that has slipped or grown, with an answer on the brief call about whether we can meet your scope and start date.
- Contract to permanent
Capacity
Keep an engineer who has proved themselves on your program. How conversion works is agreed with you before the engagement starts.
- Leadership search
Search
Practice leads and heads of AI platform for when a run of programs becomes a standing practice.
Questions buyers ask
- Do your engineers have hands-on Foundry and AIP experience?
- That is what we brief against. We ask each engineer what they have built in Foundry and AIP and for which kinds of client, then check it against the scope you give us. You interview every engineer before they join your program.
- How are contract engineers engaged?
- On contract through their own companies. Kernavique contracts with you and with the engineer’s company, and the scope and term are set out in writing before the engagement starts.
- Are the engineers based in the US?
- US engineers for US clients come first. UK and EU engineers join US programs where the work and the client allow it, and we tell you which at the brief.
- Can you help us build our own bench instead?
- Yes, through Search. Engineering search fills permanent Foundry, AIP and forward deployed roles, and a Capability Blueprint sets out which roles to hold permanently and which to keep on contract.
Terms on this page
- AIP
- Palantir’s Artificial Intelligence Platform, used alongside its Foundry data platform.
- LLM
- Large language model, the kind of model behind chat assistants and many AI products.
- MLOps
- Machine learning operations: deploying, monitoring and maintaining models in production.