Anjor Kanekar
I help companies build elite technical organizations through hiring systems design and FDE-style organizational structure.
I write about what actually works in hiring—based on 7 years at Palantir, 1,000+ interviews, and building teams at Protocol Labs and multiple startups.
Recently completed research on AI-assisted physics: AI amplifies expertise rather than replacing it. The effectiveness follows an autonomy gradient—from ~100% for code implementation to ~0% for research direction.
Featured in The Pragmatic Engineer on implementing Forward Deployed Engineering.
Popular Writing
Hiring & Organizations
- The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Hiring Assholes — Why conviction and ego are separate traits
- Comand AI: A Hiring Case Study — How we designed hiring for mission-driven engineers
- Context Matters: Hiring is Not Fungible — Why generic hiring processes fail
- Case Study: Building a Hiring Process for Northslope — Defining cultural traits vs role competencies
AI Research & Validation
- The Autonomy Gradient — What AI can and can't do in physics research
- Physics-Oracle Validation — How to trust code you've never read
- Writing a Physics Paper with Claude — Workflow, iterations, and hallucinations caught in review
About Me
PhD in Computational Physics. 7 years at Palantir as a Forward Deployed Engineer and hiring manager. Built engineering teams at Protocol Labs (onboarding 2+ petabytes to Filecoin) and Radiant AI.
I've conducted over 1,000 technical interviews and trained hundreds of interviewers. I built hiring systems that scaled from seed-stage startups to established companies.
Now I help ambitious companies build hiring systems that actually work and structure their engineering organizations around customer outcomes.
I recently completed rebuilding my plasma physics simulations with AI assistance—validating that AI amplifies expertise rather than replacing it. The paper is available on GitHub along with the code.
Work With Me
I help companies build elite technical organizations across four key areas:
Hiring & Talent Systems — Design hiring processes, provide interview capacity, lead hiring functions
FDE & Organizational Strategy — Build Palantir-style forward deployed engineering teams and operating models
AI Strategy & Adoption — Guide AI implementation, validate AI capabilities, advise on AI-assisted workflows
Palantir Ecosystem — Technical strategy, FDE hiring, platform implementation expertise
See full services & case studies →
Quick start: Email me at me@anjor.xyz