Lead Engineer - Gen AI

Target; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 6,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Target in Bengaluru, India is seeking a Lead Engineer to design scalable backend systems and drive AI-driven features at scale. You will mentor engineers, shape architecture, and ensure production readiness across services.

You will work with JVM-based tech including Java and Kotlin, implement secure, observable, resilient systems, and lead a team delivering data-intensive retail platforms.

Qualifications

• Advanced backend, AI, and automation experience with Java and Python.
• Designing, developing, and managing scalable microservices.
• Experience with JVM frameworks (Spring Boot or Micronaut).
• Integrating Large Language Models and GenAI features.
• Building agentic frameworks and AI-driven automation.
• Messaging systems such as Kafka or RabbitMQ.
• NoSQL (Cassandra, MongoDB) and SQL (PostgreSQL).
• CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab).
• Unit and integration testing (Spock/JUnit; PyTest).
• Cloud services (AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Docker and Kubernetes for containers.
• Monitoring with Grafana/ELK/Prometheus.
• Event-driven architecture knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Design scalable architecture and ensure code/infrastructure quality.
• Hands-on development on complex tasks; ensure production readiness.
• Plan and deliver work; mentor and coach teammates.
• Ensure observability and monitor systems for reliability and performance.
• Prioritize security and foster secure coding practices.
• Integrate LLMs and GenAI features into core apps.
• Build robust systems to mitigate AI hallucinations and improve reliability.
• Develop agentic AI-driven automation for process improvement.

Skills

Java & Python

Microservices Architecture

Spring Boot

AI / LLM Integration

AI Reliability & Automation

Messaging Systems

Databases

CI/CD

Unit & Integration Testing

Cloud Services

Containerization & Orchestration

Monitoring & Observability

Event-Driven Architecture

Tools

Kafka

RabbitMQ

Grafana

ELK Stack

Prometheus

OpenAI APIs

Job description

Lead Engineer

About Us: As a Fortune 50 company with more than 400,000 team members worldwide, Target is an iconic brand and one of America’s leading retailers. At Target, we have a timeless purpose and a proven strategy and that hasn’t happened by accident. Some of the best minds from diverse backgrounds come together at Target to redefine retail in an inclusive learning environment that values people and delivers world-class outcomes. That winning formula is especially apparent in Bengaluru, where Target in India operates as a fully integrated part of Target’s global team and has more than 4,000 team members supporting the company’s global strategy and operations.

Target Tech Overview: Every time a guest enters a Target store or browses Target.com, they experience the impact of Target’s investments in technology and innovation. We’re the technologists behind one of the most loved retail brands, delivering joy to millions of our guests, team members, and communities.

Our global in-house technology team of more than 5,000 of engineers, data scientists, architects, coaches and product managers strive to make Target the most convenient, safe and joyful place to shop. We use agile practices and leverage open-source software to adapt and build best-in-class technology for our team members and guests—and we do so with a focus on diversity and inclusion, experimentation and continuous learning.

About Pyramid: Merchandising is a Portfolio within Target - Product Engineering provide reliable data that is core to our enterprise retail operations, including foundational data and aggregation services at scale for retail and commerce platforms. We deal with data around Pricing, Promotions, Item, Supplier, Owned Brand, Merch Planning, Space Presentation & Transitions(SPT) & Intelligence Automation.

As a lead engineer you would be responsible for

• Designing scalable architecture with the best choice of tech, responsible for all the services/functionalities that the team develops while ensuring quality of the team’s code and/or infrastructure standards.
• Hands-on development, often taking on the more complicated tasks. Ensures solution is production ready, deployable, scalable and resilient.
• Planning and delivering of work in the team in addition to their own work. Promotes a learning culture through mentoring and coaching.
• Ensures product observability is in place for reliability. Fosters a culture of observability across teams and helps use operational data to improve stability and performance of their domains. Drives monitoring work on their team based on the organization’s monitoring philosophy. Is aware of the operational data for their team’s domain and uses it as a basis for driving changes to the team’s services to achieve stability and performance improvements.
• Responsible for ensuring the security of the product and fostering a security first mindset across teams. Highly skilled with applying and implementing security concepts such as identifying vulnerabilities in software, creating logic to detect malicious behavior, and analyzing network or host artifacts.
• Integrate Large Language Models (LLMs) and GenAI -powered features into core applications.
• Build robust systems that mitigate hallucinations and improve AI reliability.
• Experience building agentic frameworks and AI-driven automation for process enhancement

Position Overview : To succeed in this role, you’ll bring over7+ yearsof experience in software design and development, with5+ yearsfocused on building scalable backend applications. You’ll be a proven leader in guiding technical teams and driving products at scale to successful completion. Your expertise will lie in JVM-based technologies, specifically Java and Kotlin, along with a deep understanding of building robust, scalable systems.

Must Have Skills:

• Java & Python (Advanced proficiency in backend, AI, and automation workflows using Java and Python)
• Microservices Architecture (Designing, developing, and managing scalable microservices)
• Spring Boot or Micronaut (Experience with JVM-based frameworks, including reactive programming)
• AI / LLM Integration (Integrating Large Language Models and GenAI features into core applications)
• AI Reliability & Automation (Building agentic frameworks, reducing hallucinations, and improving process automation using OpenAI APIs and SDKs)
• Messaging Systems (Kafka, RabbitMQ)
• Databases (Experience with NoSQL databases like Cassandra, MongoDB, and SQL-based databases like PostgreSQL)
• CI/CD (Building and managing pipelines with Jenkins, GitLab, or similar tools)
• Unit and Integration Testing (Spock, JUnit, TestContainers for Java; PyTest, Unittest for Python)
• Cloud Services (AWS, GCP, Azure)
• Containerization and Orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Monitoring & Observability (Grafana, ELK Stack, Prometheus)
• Event-Driven Architecture (Knowledge of event-driven patterns in distributed systems)

Good to Have Skills:

• Functional Programming(Familiarity with functional programming paradigms in Kotlin)
• GraphQL(Experience designing and integrating GraphQL APIs)
• Legacy System Modernization(Experience refactoring and modernizing older systems)
• Security Best Practices(OWASP, vulnerability scanning, secure coding principles)
• Agile Methodologies(Familiar with Scrum, Kanban, or other agile processes)