Lead Engineer - Red Team

Target; United States; Hybrid; USD 132,000 - 238,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Benefits eligibility

Remote or Hybrid work arrangement

Job summary

Target Cybersecurity in the United States seeks a Lead Engineer - Red Team to conduct and lead adversary emulation operations and to mentor junior operators. The role is hands-on and operational, not a pure management position.

The successful candidate will read and write code to defeat defenses, collaborate with Cyber Threat Intelligence and Detection teams, and communicate findings clearly. Remote or hybrid work arrangements are available.

Qualifications

• Four years minimum experience in offensive security and/or defensive security.
• Strong offensive security knowledge with understanding of red team impact on organization and customers.
• Ability to read and write code to accomplish red team goals.

Responsibilities

• Consult on, design, and execute adversary emulation operations.
• Conduct research into threat actor tactics to develop tools and playbooks.
• Bypass security controls to accomplish operational goals.
• Collaborate with incident response, detection, and threat hunting teams.
• Work with other teams to educate and align on objectives.
• Lead and train operators; communicate findings clearly to defenders.

Skills

Offensive security

Defensive security

Cross-functional collaboration

Mentorship / training

Clear communication

Problem solving

Self-directed learning

Team commitment

Technical issue resolution

Tools

Python

C#

Rust

Go

C

Job description

Pay and Salary

The pay range is $132,000.00 - $238,000.00 Pay 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.

JOIN TARGET CYBERSECURITY AS A LEAD ENGINEER - RED TEAM

JOIN TARGET CYBERSECURITY AS A LEAD ENGINEER - RED TEAM

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. The Cyber Fusion Center is the heart of Target’s security team and a place where innovation happens daily. Interested in a culture that combines ongoing learning, engineering excellence, and stellar outcomes? We are too and that’s why we work here. Join our team to work on ops that drive real change by leveraging adversary behavior to communicate discovered risk effectively, and benefit from continuous development and research.

About Red Team

Target's Red Team uses adversary simulation to uncover risk in our environment, provide training opportunities to defenders, and measure the processes and technology defending the organization. We leverage a high level of collaboration between teams as we drive organizational improvement. Our objective-driven operations are supplemented with direct training and development, Purple Team work, and consulting within the company on security risk.

Lead Engineer Role

As a Red Team Lead Engineer, you will conduct and lead operations, contribute to the team, influence team direction, and collaborate with partner teams. This Lead Engineer role is an operator role, and not a management role. The “Lead” title reflects the seniority of the role, and the responsibility of mentoring more junior operators. In most, but not all circumstances, the experience required to meet the requirements of this role would require a candidate to have previous Red Team experience, not just experience in the offensive security industry.

Red Team Members Regularly

• Consult on, design, and execute adversary emulation operations
• Conduct research into real-world threat actor tactics, techniques, and procedures to develop proof-of-concept tools and playbooks
• Bypass preventative and detective security controls to accomplish operational goals
• Partner with the Cyber Security Incident Response Team and other stakeholders in the organization to identify improvement opportunities
• Collaborate with Cyber Threat Intelligence, Detection, and Threat Hunting engineers and analysts on research
• Work with non-security engineering teams to educate, and collaborate on operational objectives

Expect To

• Develop strategic adversary emulation objectives and operational plans
• Execute adversary emulation operations to surface risk in the organization
• Work with partner teams to plan cooperative engagements
• Lead and train operators
• Communicate effectively with and directly support defenders
• Present findings and operational work to groups in a clear and professional manner
• Study the techniques of Threat Actors, and apply that lens to operational work
• Partner with other Team Members to improve tools and procedures
• Manage work effectively in the team’s project management tools (Github/JIRA)
• Respond to the quick-changing needs and priorities of the team
• Read and write code to accomplish red team goals
• Deeply understand red team infrastructure

About You

• Four years minimum experience in offensive security and/or defensive security
• Demonstrates strong offensive security knowledge
• Demonstrates strong understanding of the impact of Red Team work on an organization and its customers
• Prioritizes process improvement
• Seeks out cross-functional collaboration opportunities
• Clearly and respectfully communicates technical issues in a training or mentorship setting
• Resolves complex technical issues with minimal assistance
• Builds strong commitment within a team to support the appropriate priorities
• Stays current on relevant technologies with self-directed learning

Desirable Skills

• Deep Red Team adversary emulation experience
• Experience working on or with Blue Teams, including Incident Response, or Detection
• Experience working in large, complex organizationsPython, C#, Rust, Go, or C skills
• Solving difficult problems, and creatively subverting systems
• Ability to replicate the tools and techniques of in-the-wild threat actors
• Follows Threat Actor trends impacting organizational security

Remote or Hybrid Work Arrangement

This position may be considered for a Remote or Hybrid (known internally at Target as "Flex for Your Day") work arrangement based on Target's needs. A Remote work arrangement means the team member works full-time from home or an alternate location that is not a Target location, does not have a desk at a Target location and may travel to HQ up to 4 times a year. A Hybrid/Flex for Your Day work arrangement means the team member's core role may be performed either remote or onsite at a Target location 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.

Benefits Eligibility

Please paste this url into your preferred browser to learn about benefits eligibility for this role: https://tgt.biz/BenefitsForYou_E

Application Deadline

Application deadline is : 11/29/2026

Company Overview

Target is one of the world’s most recognized brands and one of America’s leading retailers. We make Target our guests’ preferred shopping destination by offering outstanding value, inspiration, innovation and an exceptional guest experience that no other retailer can deliver. Target is committed to responsible corporate citizenship, ethical business practices, environmental stewardship and generous community support. Since 1946, we have given 5 percent of our profits back to our communities. Our goal is to work as one team to fulfill our unique brand promise to our guests, wherever and whenever they choose to shop.

Benefits

• medical, vision, dental, life insurance and more
• 401(k), employee discount, short term disability, long term disability, paid sick leave, paid national holidays, and paid vacation

We care about and invest 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.