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.

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.  

As a Principal Engineer you set the strategy for software development and/or infrastructure engineering at Target. You set the direction for how software and infrastructure engineering efforts will be designed, developed, and operationalized across multiple portfolios and drives adoption across Target Tech. You lead and approve software and infrastructure engineering efforts to meet functional and non-functional requirements. You are a thought leader and mentor for internal and external technical talent and actively contribute to the external technical community.

About this Team:

The Transportation Technology team builds and enhances solutions supporting Target’s First Mile, Middle Mile and Last Mile network, enabling the movement of goods from vendors to distribution centers, stores and guests. The portfolio spans transportation planning and execution, shipment visibility, carrier and partner integrations, yard and appointment operations, and store delivery. The team connects these capabilities through scalable platforms, dependable integrations and end-to-end transportation outcomes.

Use your skills, experience and talents to be a part of groundbreaking thinking and visionary goals. As a Principal Engineer, you’ll take the lead as you…

• Set the technology vision and provide thought leadership. Own the long-term technology and architecture vision for Transportation. Anticipate industry and technology shifts, challenge established approaches, and shape strategic roadmaps, principles and standards that position Target for the future.

• Shape Business and Product strategy. Serve as a strategic advisor to senior Business, Product and Operations leaders. Influence product roadmaps, priorities and investment decisions; identify technology-led opportunities; and connect engineering choices to measurable business and guest outcomes.

• Drive AI-native applications and AI-enabled engineering. Lead the evolution of AI-native applications and AI-enabled engineering across the development lifecycle, from discovery and design through development, testing, security, deployment and operations. Establish reusable patterns and guardrails, and deliver measurable improvements in productivity, quality, speed and business value.

• Lead across the enterprise. Influence architecture and platform decisions beyond Transportation, aligning domain direction with Enterprise Architecture, shared platforms, security, data and broader technology strategy. Build partnerships across portfolios to drive coherent enterprise outcomes.

• Raise the bar for engineering excellence. Set and evolve industry-leading practices across architecture, APIs, distributed and event-driven systems, cloud platforms, automation, CI/CD, DevSecOps, testing, observability, reliability, scalability and production operations.

• Steer transportation platforms, integrations and technology choices. Guide end-to-end architecture across transportation capabilities, data and partner ecosystems. Establish reusable APIs, event and data contracts, interoperability patterns and sound build-versus-buy recommendations. Guide vendor evaluations and technical trade-offs with a focus on long-term value, resilience and flexibility.

• Build technical capability and contribute to the industry. Mentor senior engineers, strengthen technical communities and share knowledge across Target. Bring industry-leading expertise, emerging technology perspectives and external best practices into the organisation, and actively contribute to the broader engineering and industry community.

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 or equivalent experience, with a commitment to continuing education and staying current with emerging technologies.

• 12+ years of experience in technology development or services, including significant experience setting strategy and technical direction for enterprise-scale platforms.

• 4+ years of experience in strategic planning, architecture leadership and setting technical direction across complex technology environments.

• Demonstrated ability to shape technology and product roadmaps, influence senior Business and Technology leaders, and connect architecture and investment decisions to business outcomes.

• Recognised technical thought leadership and the ability to bring industry expertise, emerging technology perspectives and external best practices into an organisation.

• Deep hands-on engineering expertise in two or more programming languages or technology stacks, with the ability to build proofs of technology, reference implementations and architecturally significant production code.

• Experience architecting and operating distributed enterprise platforms, microservices, APIs and event-driven integrations. Relevant technologies include Java/Kotlin, Spring Boot, Kafka, REST, EDI/ASN, SQL and NoSQL databases, cloud platforms and Kubernetes.

• Expertise in architecture trade-offs, platform modernisation, integration patterns, data contracts, security, performance, observability, reliability engineering, CI/CD, automated testing, deployment safety and disaster recovery.

• Demonstrated leadership in AI-native application architecture and AI-enabled engineering across the software development lifecycle, including evaluation of business value, technical quality, security, privacy, compliance and appropriate human oversight.

• Experience shaping build-versus-buy recommendations, technology RFPs and vendor evaluations, and aligning domain architecture with enterprise standards and strategy.

• Ability to influence without direct reporting authority, mentor senior technical talent, communicate complex trade-offs clearly and lead through collaboration across organisational boundaries.

This position will operate as a Hybrid/Flex for Your Day work arrangement based on Target’s needs. A Hybrid/Flex for Your Day work arrangement means the team member’s 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

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

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 candidate.accommodations@HRHelp.Target.com. Non-accommodation-related requests, such as application follow-ups or technical issues, will not be addressed through this channel.