Principal Engineer AI Platform (AI Factory Advance AI)

The pay range is $168000.00 - $303000.00

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 ENGINEER AI PLATFORMS

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.

Targets AI Platform organization is building the next generation of enterprise AI capabilities that enable teams to develop deploy govern and operate Machine Learning and Generative AI solutions at scale. Our platform powers AI innovation across the enterprise by providing secure scalable and reusable capabilities that accelerate development while maintaining enterprise standards for reliability governance and operational excellence.

As a Principal Engineer ML Operations Platform you will provide technical leadership in defining the architecture and evolution of our enterprise machine learning platform. You will work across engineering data science infrastructure security and product organizations to establish scalable patterns for developing deploying monitoring and governing machine learning systems throughout their lifecycle.

This role is ideal for a technology leader who enjoys solving complex platform challenges influencing engineering strategy and building capabilities that enable hundreds of engineers and data scientists to deliver AI solutions efficiently and safely.

About the Role:

As a Principal Engineer you will define the long-term architecture and technical direction for Targets ML Operations Platform. You will establish enterprise-wide standards for machine learning lifecycle management deployment governance observability and operational excellence while partnering with cross-functional engineering teams to modernize AI platform capabilities. You will influence architecture across multiple organizations mentor senior engineers evaluate emerging technologies and guide strategic platform investments that improve developer productivity and accelerate AI adoption.

Key responsibilities include:

• Define the long-term technical strategy and architecture for the enterprise ML Operations Platform.
• Design scalable secure and resilient cloud-native platforms supporting machine learning workloads.
• Establish best practices for model development deployment monitoring and lifecycle management.
• Lead architecture for enterprise machine learning infrastructure supporting batch streaming and real-time inference.
• Drive adoption of cloud-native technologies Kubernetes and modern platform engineering practices.
• Define standards for model governance observability reliability explainability and responsible AI.
• Partner with infrastructure security and engineering teams to improve platform scalability performance and operational efficiency.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend architectural approaches that improve platform capabilities.
• Mentor engineers and influence technical direction across multiple engineering organizations.

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

About You:

• MS in Computer Science Engineering Mathematics or related technical field with relevant software engineering experience
• Extensive experience designing and delivering large-scale cloud-native platforms or distributed systems
• Deep experience building and operating enterprise machine learning platforms and MLOps capabilities
• Strong understanding of machine learning lifecycle management deployment strategies observability and production operations
• Demonstrated experience with machine learning platforms and tooling such as Vertex AI Kubeflow MLflow and/or equivalent technologies
• Experience building developer platforms or internal platform products
• Experience with distributed training GPU infrastructure and large-scale inference platforms
• Experience with feature management model governance and responsible AI practices.
• Familiarity with Generative AI platforms and infrastructure supporting foundation model workloads
• Experience with Terraform GitOps service mesh technologies and platform automation
• Experience mentoring senior engineers and leading enterprise-scale modernization initiatives
• Expertise designing Kubernetes-based platforms supporting AI and machine learning workloads
• Strong understanding of software engineering best practices including CI/CD infrastructure as code observability testing and automation
• Experience defining technical strategy architectural standards and engineering best practices across multiple teams
• Excellent communication and influencing skills with the ability to communicate complex technical concepts to engineering and business leaders

This position may be considered for a Remote or Hybrid (known internally at Target as Flex for Your Day) work arrangement based on Targets needs. A Remote work arrangement means the team member worksfull-time from home oran alternatelocation thats 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 members 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

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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.

Application deadline is : 07/30/2026