Principal AI Engineer Advanced AI (Machine Learning, Python, Deep Learning)

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 AI ENGINEER ADVANCED AI

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.

A role withTargetData Sciencesmeans the chance to help develop and managestate of the art predictivealgorithmsthatuse data at scale to automateand optimize this role youll be challenged to harness Targets impressive data breadth to build the algorithmsthat power solutions our partners in Digital/Ecommerce Marketing Supply Chain Optimization Search and Personalization. Every Scientist on Targets Data Sciences team can expect modeling and software/product development of highly performant code for model performance to elevate Targets culture and apply retail domain knowledge.

As a Principal AI Engineer - Advanced AI youll join Targets Advanced AI team a centralized group focused on building and owning capabilities that use advanced AI technologies to drive automation insight and action across core business this role youll provide deep technical leadership across enterprise AI initiatives by partnering with engineering product and business teams to shape scalable solution patterns accelerate development and deliver high-impact AI applications that optimize business workflows and create measurable value.

You will help design build deploy and scale end-to-end AI solutions including architecting agentic and LLM-powered systems evaluating and selecting the right models and frameworks and establishing strong observability evaluation and engineering practices to ensure solutions are production-ready maintainable and well-documented. Given the pace of change in this space you will also stay current on emerging technologies recommend tooling and architectural approaches publish learnings for the team and broader organization and influence technical direction and engineering standards across Advanced AI initiatives. We utilize Agile principles follow best-practice software design participate in code reviews and create maintainable well-tested codebases with relevant documentation.

Core responsibilities of this job are articulated within this job description. Job duties may change at any time due to business needs.

About you:

• PhD or MS in Computer Science Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Applied Mathematics or a related technical field preferred
• Deep experience designing and delivering real-world AI and machine learning solutions including LLM-based agentic or other advanced AI systems in production environments
• 7 plus years of demonstrated hands-on experience in software engineering and applied AI/ML development - including Python and modern ML / deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch TensorFlow or similar tools
• Extensive experience with AI engineering tooling and platforms such as agent development frameworks model APIs evaluation and observability frameworks cloud ML platforms containers and orchestration technologies
• Strong understanding of system design model and architecture tradeoffs experimentation evaluation strategy performance optimization and production deployment considerations for AI systems
• Experience building scalable maintainable and well-tested services or platforms including version control CI/CD code review practices and operational monitoring
• Ability to translate ambiguous business problems into clear technical approaches and create strong technical documentation narratives and recommendations for a range of audiences
• Excellent communication and influencing skills with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical partners and leaders
• Self-driven and results-oriented with strong ownership sound judgment and the ability to move quickly while maintaining high technical standards in a fast-evolving domain
• Collaborative team player with experience working effectively across functions organizations and geographies and with a demonstrated commitment to continuous learning and knowledge sharing

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.

Benefits Eligibility

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 Non-accommodation-related requests such as application follow-ups or technical issues will not be addressed through this channel.