diff --git a/crates/validator/Cargo.toml b/crates/validator/Cargo.toml
index 7b7f585..b135bba 100644
--- a/crates/validator/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/validator/Cargo.toml
@@ -9,3 +9,7 @@ serde_json = { workspace = true }
 thiserror = { workspace = true }
 tokio = { workspace = true }
 tracing = { workspace = true }
+# Parquet loader for ParquetWorkerLookup (Phase 43 v3 — production
+# WorkerLookup backed by workers_500k.parquet snapshot).
+arrow = { workspace = true }
+parquet = { workspace = true }
diff --git a/crates/validator/src/staffing/mod.rs b/crates/validator/src/staffing/mod.rs
index c959cd2..dbf33ac 100644
--- a/crates/validator/src/staffing/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/validator/src/staffing/mod.rs
@@ -6,3 +6,4 @@
 pub mod fill;
 pub mod email;
 pub mod playbook;
+pub mod parquet_lookup;
diff --git a/crates/validator/src/staffing/parquet_lookup.rs b/crates/validator/src/staffing/parquet_lookup.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0009b98
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/validator/src/staffing/parquet_lookup.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,165 @@
+//! Production WorkerLookup backed by a workers_500k.parquet snapshot.
+//!
+//! Loads the full roster into memory at startup (one-shot). 500K rows
+//! at ~150 bytes per WorkerRecord ≈ 75 MB resident — fine for any
+//! production lakehouse process. Refresh is intentionally
+//! caller-driven (call `from_parquet` again to rebuild) rather than
+//! automatic — operators decide when staffing data has changed enough
+//! to justify the few-second reload.
+//!
+//! Schema mapping (workers_500k.parquet → WorkerRecord):
+//!   worker_id (int64)     → candidate_id = "W-{id}"
+//!   name (string)         → name
+//!   role (string)         → role
+//!   city (string)         → city
+//!   state (string)        → state
+//!   availability (double) → status: "active" if >0 else "inactive"
+//!
+//! No status column on workers_500k, so we derive from availability —
+//! the floor convention used elsewhere in the lakehouse staffing
+//! pipeline. Workers with availability=0.0 are treated as inactive
+//! (vacation, suspended, etc.). Once the Track-A.B `_safe` view ships
+//! with proper `status`, switch this loader to read it directly.
+//!
+//! Blacklist join is not done here — caller is expected to populate
+//! `blacklisted_clients` from a separate source (Phase 43 PRD says
+//! `client_blacklist` table; not yet defined). Default empty.
+
+use crate::{InMemoryWorkerLookup, WorkerLookup, WorkerRecord};
+use parquet::file::reader::{FileReader, SerializedFileReader};
+use parquet::record::Field;
+use std::fs::File;
+use std::path::Path;
+use std::sync::Arc;
+
+#[derive(Debug, thiserror::Error)]
+pub enum LookupLoadError {
+    #[error("opening parquet at {path}: {source}")]
+    Open { path: String, #[source] source: std::io::Error },
+    #[error("parsing parquet at {path}: {source}")]
+    Parse { path: String, #[source] source: parquet::errors::ParquetError },
+    #[error("missing required column {column}")]
+    MissingColumn { column: String },
+    #[error("row {row}: {reason}")]
+    BadRow { row: usize, reason: String },
+}
+
+/// Build an `InMemoryWorkerLookup` from a workers_500k-shaped parquet
+/// file. Returned as `Arc<dyn WorkerLookup>` to drop into validator
+/// constructors.
+pub fn load_workers_parquet(path: &Path) -> Result<Arc<dyn WorkerLookup>, LookupLoadError> {
+    let file = File::open(path).map_err(|e| LookupLoadError::Open {
+        path: path.display().to_string(),
+        source: e,
+    })?;
+    let reader = SerializedFileReader::new(file).map_err(|e| LookupLoadError::Parse {
+        path: path.display().to_string(),
+        source: e,
+    })?;
+
+    // Validate schema covers what we need before iterating rows.
+    let schema = reader.metadata().file_metadata().schema();
+    let column_names: Vec<&str> = schema.get_fields().iter().map(|f| f.name()).collect();
+    for required in &["worker_id", "name", "role", "city", "state", "availability"] {
+        if !column_names.contains(required) {
+            return Err(LookupLoadError::MissingColumn { column: (*required).to_string() });
+        }
+    }
+
+    let row_iter = reader.get_row_iter(None).map_err(|e| LookupLoadError::Parse {
+        path: path.display().to_string(),
+        source: e,
+    })?;
+
+    let mut records: Vec<WorkerRecord> = Vec::with_capacity(reader.metadata().file_metadata().num_rows() as usize);
+    let mut row_idx = 0usize;
+    for row_result in row_iter {
+        let row = row_result.map_err(|e| LookupLoadError::Parse {
+            path: path.display().to_string(),
+            source: e,
+        })?;
+        let mut worker_id: Option<i64> = None;
+        let mut name: Option<String> = None;
+        let mut role: Option<String> = None;
+        let mut city: Option<String> = None;
+        let mut state: Option<String> = None;
+        let mut availability: f64 = 0.0;
+        for (col_name, field) in row.get_column_iter() {
+            match (col_name.as_str(), field) {
+                ("worker_id", Field::Long(v)) => worker_id = Some(*v),
+                ("worker_id", Field::Int(v)) => worker_id = Some(*v as i64),
+                ("name", Field::Str(v)) => name = Some(v.clone()),
+                ("role", Field::Str(v)) => role = Some(v.clone()),
+                ("city", Field::Str(v)) => city = Some(v.clone()),
+                ("state", Field::Str(v)) => state = Some(v.clone()),
+                ("availability", Field::Double(v)) => availability = *v,
+                ("availability", Field::Float(v)) => availability = *v as f64,
+                _ => { /* extra columns ignored */ }
+            }
+        }
+        let id = worker_id.ok_or_else(|| LookupLoadError::BadRow {
+            row: row_idx,
+            reason: "worker_id missing or non-integer".into(),
+        })?;
+        let nm = name.ok_or_else(|| LookupLoadError::BadRow {
+            row: row_idx,
+            reason: "name missing".into(),
+        })?;
+        records.push(WorkerRecord {
+            candidate_id: format!("W-{id}"),
+            name: nm,
+            // status derived from availability (workers_500k has no
+            // status column). 0.0 → inactive, >0.0 → active.
+            status: if availability > 0.0 { "active".into() } else { "inactive".into() },
+            city,
+            state,
+            role,
+            blacklisted_clients: vec![],
+        });
+        row_idx += 1;
+    }
+
+    tracing::info!(
+        target: "validator.parquet_lookup",
+        rows = records.len(),
+        path = %path.display(),
+        "loaded workers parquet snapshot"
+    );
+
+    Ok(Arc::new(InMemoryWorkerLookup::from_records(records)))
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+    use std::path::PathBuf;
+
+    /// Smoke test against the live workers_500k.parquet on disk.
+    /// Skipped automatically if the file isn't present (CI / sparse
+    /// checkouts) so the test suite stays portable.
+    #[test]
+    fn load_real_workers_500k() {
+        let path = PathBuf::from("/home/profit/lakehouse/data/datasets/workers_500k.parquet");
+        if !path.exists() {
+            eprintln!("skip: {} not present", path.display());
+            return;
+        }
+        let lookup = load_workers_parquet(&path).expect("load");
+        // Basic shape: at least one worker resolves and has the
+        // expected fields populated.
+        let probe = lookup.find("W-1");
+        assert!(probe.is_some(), "W-1 should exist in 500K-row parquet");
+        let w = probe.unwrap();
+        assert!(!w.name.is_empty(), "name should be populated");
+        assert!(w.status == "active" || w.status == "inactive");
+        assert!(w.role.is_some());
+        assert!(w.city.is_some());
+        assert!(w.state.is_some());
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn missing_file_returns_error() {
+        let r = load_workers_parquet(Path::new("/nonexistent.parquet"));
+        assert!(matches!(r, Err(LookupLoadError::Open { .. })));
+    }
+}