Lead Engineer - Roundel, Target Product Ads

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.

Roundel is Target’s $1B+ media business, built on first-party data, brand-safe environments, and measurable business outcomes for clients. As a key growth engine, Roundel is redefining value in the advertising industry by solving core challenges rather than replicating existing models. Target Tech powers this mission by delivering the systems, tools, and platforms that enable reliable, scalable, and secure experiences across the enterprise.

As a Lead Engineer, you serve as the technical anchor for the engineering team that supports a product. You create, own and are responsible for the application architecture that best serves the product in its functional and non-functional needs. You identify and drive architectural changes to accelerate feature development or improve the quality of service (or both). You have deep and broad engineering skills and are capable of standing up an architecture in its whole on your own, but you choose to influence a wider team by acting as a “force

Target Product Ads (TPA) is a Voltron-backed service that enables the delivery of sponsored advertisements across key surfaces on Target.com, including Category Listing Pages (CLP), Search Listing Pages (SLP), and Product Detail Pages (PDP). It provides a server-side solution for seamlessly rendering sponsored content across both web and mobile app experiences.

As a Lead Engineer, you’ll take the lead as you…

• Define and evolve application architecture to support scalable, reliable, and secure systems

• Evaluate and introduce new technologies, including leading proof-of-concept initiatives

• Drive engineering standards, reusable patterns, and best practices across teams

• Lead design, development, and lifecycle management of services with enterprise impact

• Guide testing, debugging, and performance optimization at platform scale

• Partner with stakeholders to plan, prioritize, and deliver high-impact solutions

• Lead complex implementations, ensuring alignment with architectural and operational requirements

• Identify risks, remove obstacles, and ensure successful delivery of initiatives

• Establish monitoring, automation, and reliability practices, including disaster recovery strategies

• Design and optimize data models; contribute to data standards and governance

• Stay current with emerging technologies and Target’s evolving technical ecosystem

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

• 7+ years of software development experience, including at least one full lifecycle implementation

• Deep expertise in designing and building highly scalable distributed systems

• Strong proficiency in at least one JVM language (e.g., Java or Kotlin)

• Experience building RESTful services using Spring Boot, relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL), caching (e.g., Redis), and event-driven systems (e.g., Kafka)

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and modern deployment practices

• Strong understanding of system performance, scalability, and operational health

• Experience with data modeling and data lifecycle management concepts

• Familiarity with GenAI frameworks, patterns, and AI-assisted development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot)

• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills

• Effective communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts

• Proven ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams and influence technical decisions

• Ad-tech domain experience is a plus

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