Principal Engineer Data Platforms (On prem, cloud, AIML, Infra)

Pay is based on several factors which vary based on include labor markets and in some instancesmay include education work experience and 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 benefits for eligible team members include 401(k) employee discount short term disability long term disability paid sick leave paid national holidays and paid competitive benefits from financial and education to well-being and beyond at TARGET AS A PRINCIPAL ENGINEER DATA PLATFORM

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 Principal Engineer Data Platform is responsible for shaping the technical direction of Targets enterprise data platform. This role operates with broad scope and high impact across data platform engineering AI/ML infrastructure and modern data consumption experiences.

You will be a hands-on engineer who designs builds and evolves scalable platform capabilities while influencing architectural decisions across teams. Your work will span large-scale data processing GPU-enabled AI/ML infrastructure on Kubernetes and emerging GenAI and agentic AI approaches to data access automation and insight generation.

Success is defined by technical excellence system-level thinking and the ability to turn ambiguity into durable extensible platform solutions.

About this team:

The Enterprise Data Platform Engineering team builds the foundational capabilities that power data engineering data analytics AI/ML and operational use cases across Target. We are evolving toward a highly automated self-service and AI-enabled platform that supports enterprise scale and rapid innovation.

As a Principal Engineer you will

• Provide technical leadership and design: Act as a technical authority for the data platform shaping scalable secure and reliable architectures and influencing design decisions across multiple teams.
• Drive platform scalability and reliability: Design and operate large-scale distributed data systems with a focus on performance cost efficiency observability and operational automation across hybrid (cloud and on-prem) infrastructure.
• Lead AI/ML and GPU infrastructure: Architect and evolve Kubernetes-based AI/ML platforms including GPU-enabled workloads and ensure strong integration with the broader data and AI / ML Platform.
• Advance agentic AI innovation: Explore and productionize GenAI capabilities for data-centric use cases such as SQL generation data discovery troubleshooting and platform automation with appropriate guardrails.
• Shape next-generation data consumption: Define modern data access patterns including semantic modeling visualization APIs and seamless integration with data consumers.
• Lead through hands-on engineering and influence: Write production-quality code and infrastructure mentor through design and review and partner closely with product and engineering stakeholders.

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 in Computer Science Engineering or equivalent experience
• 10 years of experience building large-scale software data or distributed systems
• Deep expertise in distributed data platforms and modern data architectures
• Strong hands-on experience operating data platforms in both cloud and on-prem environments with a focus on reliability scalability and operational excellence
• Proven experience with query engines and query optimization including performance tuning cost optimization and scaling analytical workloads
• Strong background in cloud-native architectures and Kubernetes-based infrastructure
• Hands-on experience with AI/ML infrastructure including GPU-enabled workloads
• Experience designing high-performing APIs platform abstractions and self-service data capabilities
• Proven ability to influence technical direction without direct authority
• Passion for emerging technologies and how they are applied to solve real-world data problems
• Strong communication skills and a systems-thinking mindset
• Team player who understands concepts of teamwork and team effectiveness
• Has excellent verbal written and presentation communication skills to convey complex technical solutions clearly to an organization

This position will operate as a Hybrid/Flex for Your Day work arrangement based on Targets needs. A Hybrid/Flex for Your Day work arrangement means the team members 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.