Anjor Kanekar
I'm the founder of Platypus Technologies, where I help companies build Forward Deployed Engineering functions.
About Me
PhD in Computational Physics from the University of Maryland. I spent 7 years at Palantir as a Forward Deployed Engineer and hiring manager, conducted over 1,000 technical interviews, and trained hundreds of interviewers. Featured in The Pragmatic Engineer on how FDE organizations work.
I recently rebuilt my plasma physics simulations with AI assistance — validating that AI amplifies expertise rather than replacing it. The paper is on GitHub along with the code.
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
- FDE Advisory Materials — Complete guide to building Forward Deployed Engineering teams
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
Work With Me
I run Platypus Technologies, where I help companies build and run Forward Deployed Engineering functions — from hiring the team to embedding as a fractional technical leader.
If you're building an FDE function or thinking about it, let's talk.