Lead Engineer – Platform AI – Cloud and Compute (full stack)

Roundel; Brooklyn Park, Northern (MN, KY); Hybrid; USD 132,000 - 238,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

401(k) plan

Paid time off

Employee discount

Job summary

Target is seeking a Lead Engineer – Platform AI to serve as the technical anchor for the Cloud & Compute Platform AI team. You will own the architecture for end-to-end solutions spanning UI, backend, APIs, and AI integrations, guiding a cross-functional team from design to production.

You will collaborate with product, design, platform engineering, security, and reliability to build secure and observable capabilities, including an action center in the developer portal.

Qualifications

• 4 year degree or equivalent experience.
• 7+ years of software development experience.
• Experience leading at least one full-cycle implementation.
• Deep expertise in designing, building, and operating highly scalable, reliable, secure, and performant distributed systems.
• Strong proficiency in multiple programming languages (Java, Go, Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, Kotlin).
• Broad experience in cloud-native/platform engineering domains (Kubernetes, containers, storage, networking, Kafka, observability, SRE, APIs).
• Ability to define technical strategy, influence architecture, and make engineering tradeoffs.
• Hybrid work arrangement based in MN with on-site and remote days.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end platform AI features across UI, backend, APIs, and integrations.
• Define technical direction and architecture for scalable, secure, and observable services.
• Collaborate with product, design, security, and reliability to deliver reliable solutions.
• Drive initiatives like an action center in the developer portal to surface risks and recommended actions.

Skills

Full-cycle delivery

Distributed systems

Java

Go

Python

TypeScript/JavaScript

Kubernetes

Observability/SRE

Cloud infrastructure

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Kubernetes

Containers

Kafka/Streaming

APIs/Cloud console

Job description

## Lead Engineer – Platform AI – Cloud and Compute (full stack)Apply: 7000 Target Pkwy N,NCD-0375 Brooklyn Park,MN 55445: Full time: Posted Yesterday: R0000451364The pay range is $132,000.00 - $238,000.00Pay is based on several factors which vary based on position. These include labor markets and in some instances may include education, work experience and certifications. In addition to your pay, Target cares about and invests in you as a team member, so that you can take care of yourself and your family. Target offers eligible team members and their dependents comprehensive health benefits and programs, which may include medical, vision, dental, life insurance and more, to help you and your family take care of your whole selves. Other benefits for eligible team members include 401(k), employee discount, short term disability, long term disability, paid sick leave, paid national holidays, and paid vacation. Find competitive benefits from financial and education to well-being and beyond at https://corporate.target.com/careers/benefits.**About us:**Working at Target means helping all families discover the joy of everyday life. We bring that vision to life through our values and culture. Learn more about Target here.As a **Lead Engineer**, you serve as the technical anchor for the engineering team that supports a product. You create, own and are responsible for the application architecture that best serves the product in its functional and non-functional needs. You identify and drive architectural changes to accelerate feature development or improve the quality of service (or both). You have deep and broad engineering skills and are capable of standing up an architecture in its whole on your own, but you choose to influence a wider team by acting as a “force multiplier”.**Target’s Cloud & Compute** organization builds and operates the foundational platforms that power the experiences our guests, team members, partners, and engineers rely on every day. Within Cloud & Compute, the **Platform AI team** creates product experiences and platform capabilities that make infrastructure easier to understand, safer to change, and more transparent to operate. We embed trusted AI and agentic capabilities into the workflows engineers use to develop, deploy, manage, and support applications—connecting fragmented knowledge, tools, and processes so teams can find reliable answers, identify problems earlier, automate routine work, and take action with confidence.In this role, you will combine technical leadership with a strong product mindset to turn complex infrastructure and operational challenges into simple, dependable experiences. You will help shape ambiguous problems, define technical direction, and lead the development of end-to-end solutions spanning user interfaces, backend services, APIs, platform integrations, and AI or agentic systems. One of the team’s initial initiatives is an action center embedded within our developer portal and coding companions, an experience designed to help application teams surface risks and opportunities, understand recommended actions, and safely resolve issues across deployment and production workflows. You will collaborate closely with product, design, platform engineering, security, and reliability partners to build secure, resilient, observable, and auditable capabilities that reduce manual effort and make it easier for teams across Target to deliver and operate applications successfully.Core responsibilities of this job are described within this job description. Job duties may change at any time due to business needs.**About you:** • 4 year degree or equivalent experience • 7+ years of software development experience with at least one full cycle implementation• Experience leading at least one full-cycle implementation of a product, platform capability, infrastructure service, or major technical initiative from design through production operation.• Deep expertise in designing, building, and operating highly scalable, reliable, secure, and performant distributed systems.• Strong proficiency in multiple programming languages, frameworks, or technology stacks such as Java, Go, Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, Kotlin, or similar.• Broad technical experience across one or more cloud-native or platform engineering domains such as Kubernetes, containers, compute, storage, networking, Kafka or streaming platforms, observability, SRE, cloud management, platform AI, APIs, or cloud console development.• Demonstrates ability to define technical strategy, influence architecture, and make sound engineering tradeoffs across performance, availability, scalability, security, maintainability, cost, and developer experience. • Communicates and coordinates with project team, partners, and stakeholders • Maintains deep technical knowledge within areas of expertise • Stays current with new and evolving technologies via formal training and self-directed educationThis position will operate as a **Hybrid**/Flex for Your Day work arrangement based on Target’s needs. A **Hybrid**/Flex for Your Day work arrangement means the team member’s core role will need to be performed both **onsite at the Target HQ MN** location the role is assigned to and virtually, depending upon what your role, team and tasks require for that day. Work duties cannot be performed outside of the country of the primary work location, unless otherwise prescribed by Target. Click here if you are curious to learn more about Minnesota.**Benefits Eligibility**Please paste this url into your preferred browser to learn about benefits eligibility for this role: https://tgt.biz/BenefitsForYou\\_E**Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)**In compliance with state and federal laws, Target will make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities. If a reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, please reach out to [e-mail]. Non-accommodation-related requests, such as application follow-ups or technical issues, will not be addressed through this channel.