AI / ML Platform Engineer

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. Our company is committed to creating an inclusive environment where innovation, collaboration, and integrity drive success. Target's dedication to community engagement, sustainability, and employee development makes us a leading retailer and a great place to grow your career. Learn more about Target and our mission to serve guests and communities at our official website.

About The Role

The Principal Engineer – AI Platforms role is a strategic leadership position within Target's AI Platform organization. You will be responsible for defining and shaping the architecture of our enterprise machine learning (ML) platform, enabling scalable, secure, and efficient AI solutions across the organization. This role involves collaborating with cross-functional teams including engineering, data science, infrastructure, security, and product management to establish best practices for model development, deployment, monitoring, and governance. You will lead efforts to build cloud-native, resilient platforms supporting various workloads such as batch processing, streaming, and real-time inference, ensuring they adhere to enterprise standards for reliability, security, and responsible AI. As a key technical leader, you will mentor engineering teams, evaluate emerging technologies, and influence the strategic direction of our AI capabilities to foster innovation and operational excellence.

Qualifications

• MS in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related technical field
• Extensive experience designing and delivering large-scale cloud-native platforms or distributed systems
• Deep expertise in building and operating enterprise machine learning platforms and MLOps capabilities
• Strong understanding of machine learning lifecycle management, deployment strategies, and production operations
• Experience with machine learning platforms such as Vertex AI, Kubeflow, MLflow, or similar tools
• Proficiency in building developer platforms or internal platform products
• Experience with feature management, model governance, and responsible AI practices
• Familiarity with Generative AI platforms and foundation model infrastructure
• Experience with Terraform, GitOps, service mesh technologies, and platform automation
• Proven ability to mentor senior engineers and lead enterprise modernization initiatives
• Strong grasp of software engineering best practices including CI/CD, infrastructure as code, observability, testing, and automation
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to convey complex technical concepts to diverse audiences

Responsibilities

• Define the long-term technical strategy and architecture for Target's enterprise ML Operations Platform
• Design scalable, secure, and resilient cloud-native platforms supporting various ML workloads
• Establish best practices for model development, deployment, monitoring, and lifecycle management
• Lead the architecture and implementation of enterprise machine learning infrastructure supporting batch, streaming, and real-time inference
• Develop standards for model governance, observability, reliability, explainability, and responsible AI
• Drive adoption of cloud-native technologies such as Kubernetes and modern platform engineering practices
• Collaborate with infrastructure, security, and engineering teams to improve platform scalability, performance, and operational efficiency
• Evaluate emerging AI and ML technologies, providing recommendations for architectural enhancements
• Mentor and influence engineering teams to align with best practices and strategic technical goals
• Lead enterprise-scale modernization initiatives to improve platform capabilities and developer experience

Benefits

• Comprehensive health benefits including medical, vision, dental, and life insurance
• Retailer retirement plans such as 401(k) with company matching
• Employee discounts and wellness programs
• Paid sick leave, national holidays, and vacation days
• Support for work-life balance through flexible work arrangements
• Opportunities for professional growth and development
• Financial and educational benefits aimed at supporting your overall well-being

Equal Opportunity

Target is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive environment. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected status. We encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply and participate in our hiring process.