Sr Engineer - Gift Card Platform

The pay range is $98,000.00 - $176,000.00

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 Senior Engineer o n the Gift Card Platform team , you'll design and build highly scalable, reliable platform capabilities that power critical Gift Card experiences across Target. You'll combine strong backend and distributed systems engineering expertise with modern AI application development to build the next generation of intelligent, AI-ready platform capabilities. You'll serve as a technical leader, shaping architecture, influencing implementation decisions, and establishing engineering best practices. You'll work across APIs, data, events, integrations, large-scale file and data processing, distributed systems, and guest-facing backend capabilities, while also helping evolve the platform with domain AI agents, MCP tools and services, and agentic workflows. You are equally comfortable solving complex distributed systems problems and applying emerging AI technologies where they create meaningful value. You bring strong software engineering fundamentals and build production systems that are secure, scalable, resilient, observable, and maintainable.

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

Use your technology acumen to apply and maintain knowledge of current and emerging technologies within specialized area(s) of the technology domain. Evaluate new technologies and participate in decision-making, accounting for factors such as viability within Target’s technical environment, maintainability, and cost of ownership. Initiate and execute research and proof-of-concept activities for new technologies.

Lead the design, lifecycle management, and total cost of ownership of services. Design and build highly scalable platform capabilities and backend services using Kotlin, Java, and Micronaut, including secure, high-performance REST and GraphQL APIs.

Design distributed and event-driven systems using Kafka, asynchronous messaging, webhooks, distributed caching, and cloud-native architecture patterns. Build scalable data and file processing capabilities that support high-volume workloads with strong resiliency and fault tolerance.

Design and optimize data persistence and caching solutions using technologies such as PostgreSQL and Redis, including data modeling, indexing, query optimization, transactional integrity, and high-performance data access patterns.

Lead functional design and architecture discussions, code and design reviews, testing, debugging, automation, and implementation activities, ensuring architectural and operational requirements and engineering best practices are met.

Build and operate highly available, secure, resilient, and observable P1 services and platforms. Improve performance and operational health through distributed tracing, metrics, logging, monitoring, and continuous improvement.

Apply AI-assisted software development tools throughout the software development lifecycle, including design, implementation, testing, debugging, documentation, and code review, while maintaining high standards for quality, security, architecture, and maintainability.

Design and build production-grade AI capabilities using Target-approved technologies, including domain AI agents, agentic workflows, MCP tools and services, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). Apply prompt and context engineering, tool integration, and AI evaluation practices to improve quality, reliability, and relevance.

Optimize AI capabilities for quality, latency, throughput, reliability, and cost while applying responsible AI, security, privacy, governance, and observability practices. Build reusable AI components and identify opportunities to improve platform capabilities, developer productivity, operations, and engineering workflows.

Provide technical oversight and coach others to resolve complex and severe technical issues. Partner across engineering and product teams to influence technical direction, establish engineering best practices, and deliver scalable solutions.

Lead disaster recovery activities and contribute to disaster recovery planning. Embed data quality protocols throughout data acquisition, processing, storage, and operational use.

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

5+ years of software development experience

Demonstrates strong domain-specific knowledge regarding Target’s technology capabilities, and key competitors’ products and differentiating features

Working knowledge on package-specific configuration and deployment along with ability to build custom solutions

Designs new testing methods and resolves routine and non-routine technical issues with minimal assistance

Demonstrates strong proficiency in core development platforms within own domain

Builds strong commitment within the team to support the appropriate team priorities

Clearly communicates Agile concepts to partners within product team

Demonstrates a solid understanding of the impact of own work on the team and/or guests

Writes and organizes code using multiple computer languages, including distributed programming and understand different frameworks and paradigm

Delivers high-performance, scalable, repeatable, and secure deliverables with broad impact (high throughput and low latency)

Influences and applies data standards, policies, and procedures

Maintains technical knowledge within areas of expertise

Stays current with new and evolving technologies via formal training and self-directed education

Strong proficiency in Kotlin and/or Java, with experience building backend services using Micronaut, Spring Boot, or similar frameworks

Experience designing distributed systems and service-oriented architectures, including REST and/or GraphQL APIs, event-driven architectures, asynchronous messaging, and webhooks

Experience building large-scale data and file processing capabilities, including high-volume data access, transformation, asynchronous processing, fault recovery, and performance optimization

Experience with relational databases such as PostgreSQL and distributed caching technologies such as Redis, including data modeling, indexing, transactions, query optimization, and high-performance data access patterns

Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, cloud-native architectures, and modern CI/CD pipelines

Experience building and operating highly available and resilient production systems, with an understanding of data consistency, fault tolerance, observability, and production operations

Experience designing or building AI-powered applications, tools, or agentic workflows using modern Large Language Models (LLMs) and related AI technologies

Understanding of modern AI application architecture a