Principal Engineer - Digital

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.

About Team:

Target+ is building a next-generation, AI-powered marketplace that combines a curated assortment with scalable, modern commerce. As a Principal Engineer, you will define the long-term technical vision for the marketplace, drive org-wide architecture, and lead transformative betsespecially in the evolution toward agentic, AI-driven platforms.

What Youll Do

• Define and drive org-wide architecture and technical vision for the Target+ marketplace
• Lead long-term, high-impact technical bets, particularly in agentic AI, automation, and intelligent marketplace systems
• Architect and evolve platform ecosystems that span multiple domains (onboarding, catalog, pricing, fulfillment, analytics)
• Establish north-star architectures and standards for scalability, resilience, observability, and data-driven systems
• Drive cross-organizational alignment on critical technical decisions and platform direction
• Identify and incubate transformational opportunities, translating emerging technologies (especially AI/agentic patterns) into measurable business outcomes
• Represent Target externally through industry benchmarking, thought leadership, and adoption of best-in-class practices
• Influence build vs. buy vs. partner decisions, including ecosystem integrations and platform strategy
• Elevate engineering across the organization by mentoring senior leaders and shaping technical culture and excellence

What Were Looking For

• Deep expertise in designing large-scale, distributed systems and platform architectures
• Strong background in Java/Kotlin ecosystems, microservices, and event-driven architectures (Kafka or similar)
• Proven experience driving architecture and technical strategy across organizations
• Strong understanding of data platforms, analytics, and intelligent systems at scale
• Demonstrated ability to lead 01 and 1N platform transformations
• Experience identifying and scaling AI/agentic opportunities with clear business impact
• Strong track record of external benchmarking and bringing industry-leading practices into the organization
• Ability to influence senior leadership and align multiple teams toward a common technical vision
• Exceptional communication, strategic thinking, and decision-making skills