What are sales commissions like at Palantir Technologies?

I strongly recommend speaking candidly with both current and former employees.

If you're imagining a workplace that blends the chaos of Lord of the Flies with the social dynamics of Revenge of the Nerds, you're not far off. Palantir maintains a deeply ingrained culture of disdain toward sales professionals, treating the function as a necessary evil rather than a valued driver of growth. Commission structures are opaque and often arbitrary, with earnings frequently diverted—either to management or through policies that encourage internal competition rather than collaboration. Inbound leads are nonexistent, and instead of support, sales reps are expected to cold-start every opportunity, often in direct conflict with colleagues chasing the same accounts. Worse still, the company appears to view salespeople as temporary utilities: your personal network and hard-won relationships are welcomed—until procurement engages. At that point, many find themselves abruptly sidelined or shown the door. The result is a strikingly high turnover rate and consistently short tenures across the sales organization. Before joining, I strongly recommend speaking candidly with both current and former employees. The glossy surface does not reflect the reality for most on the ground.

You will work with smart people.

Everything else. Read the reviews on the sales culture (there are plenty of them) and believe them. These are not just disgruntled employees post employment, this is evident from week 1 at Palantir. Palantir sales leadership has zero sales experience and has created an extremely toxic environment. The commission rate is low and only getting lower. They will do whatever they possibly can to avoid paying out owed commissions. Every salesperson I have worked with at Palantir have been owed hundreds of thousands in commissions. They will fire sales to avoid paying out these commissions. Leadership, from the top down, openly states that salespeople are not needed. They will make it clear that you are not valued and the constant turnover/short tenure of employees proves that very clearly.

- Best tech on the market - Lots of prestige attached to working there - Depending on when you joined, equity had massive upside - Very very smart people - Flat structure - Good platform for career growth - Autonomy and trust

- Terrible commission plan - Incredibly complicated technology to sell - Very political internally when it comes to getting the resources you need to succeed - Equity massively stretched in terms of valuation if joining now - Leadership seem to hold salespeople in contempt - People get fired all the time

Great food served 3 times per day The engineers are generally very smart and capable people

This must be the worst-run sales organization in the country. Working at Palantir in sales requires joining a company that swore for almost 20 years that salespeople were useless and toxic but was forced to hire salespeople by their investors. This stifling attitude is stronger than ever and will make you miserable. The comp plan is a total lie and they routinely stiff sellers or fire them just before commissions and stock vests are due. Half or more of every onboarding class is fired within 3 months for not having a qualified F500 opportunity (on an 18 month average sales cycle!). If you manage to create an opportunity, you can still get fired if you have mildly inconvenienced any engineer and they decide to say something about it. They will stick “deal captains” aka their irrationally chosen favorites onto your deal and pay them half of your commission. Much like Stanford Prison Experiment, these people are completely invested in their false little world and will abuse you to no end. They have zero sense of business ethics or respect and the only way to win their game is to simply not play. RUN from these people.

- Really really smart engineers! - Extremely versitile platform & technology - Great brand image for executive sales

- The culture is horrible - They will avoid paying you commissions - They don't understand sales cycles & try using unethical practices to pressure customers. Sometimes it works with CXOs, but once it gets in legal... its messy. - They change your accounts constantly to avoid paying commission & even have moved 90% accounts to managers.

Learn a lot, get to be around other really smart people, pretty nice benefits

Revenue is concentrated amongst big accounts so finding new business is pretty hard, lot of opt outs in contracts which takes away from your initial commission, revolving door of people that come and go in this role

- High base salary + commission - Great benefits (company covers health insurance) - 3 meals a day + unlimited snacks in office

- Very high expectations to close 7-figure contracts in 6 months - Toxic environment - High turnover within sales department

Lots of independence, control your destiny type of environment. Best product.

3% Renewal and New Business Commission. They are slow to pay, if they pay at all. The ramp is very short, and most of your sales cohort will be gone in the first 9 months; those who stayed probably got lucky or had a leader who gave them the time to mature into the role. The only people winning are those who've been there 3-5 years, which are the most senior salespeople. It feels like a Ponzi scheme, where the seniors jump on a deal without offering value and taking a piece of the pie.