Lead Engineer

LEAD ENGINEER – ENTERPRISE COLLABORATIONPLATFORMAbout 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 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 multiplier".   Core responsibilities of this job are described within this job description.  Job duties may change at any time due to business needs.Use your skills, experience and talents to be a part of groundbreaking thinking and visionary goals.  As a Lead 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 participates in decision-making, accounting for several 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 or set strategy for testing and debugging at the platform or enterprise level. In complex and unstructured situations, serve as an expert resource to create and improve standards and best practices to ensure high-performance, scalable, repeatable, and secure deliverables. Lead the design, lifecycle management, and total cost of ownership of services. Provide the team with thought leadership to promote re-use and develop consistent, scalable patterns. Participate in planning services that have enterprise impact. Provide suggestions for handling routine and moderately complex technical problems, escalating issues when appropriate. Gather information, data, and input from a wide variety of sources; identify additional resources when appropriate, engage with appropriate stakeholders, and conduct in-depth analysis of information. Provide suggestions for handling routine and moderately complex technical problems, escalating issues when appropriate. Develop plans and schedules, estimate resource requirements, and define milestones and deliverables. Monitor workflow and risks; play a leadership role in mitigating risks and removing obstacles. Lead and participate in complex construction, automation, and implementation activities, ensuring successful implementation with architectural and operational requirements met. Establish new standards and best practices to monitor, test, automate, and maintain IT components or systems. Serve as an expert resource in disaster recovery and disaster recovery planning. Stay current with Target's technical capabilities, infrastructure, and technical environment. Develop fully attributed data models, including logical, physical, and canonical. Influence data standards, policies, and procedures. Install, configure, and/or tune data management solutions with minimal guidance. Monitor data management solution(s) and identify optimization opportunities.As a Lead Engineer for the Collaboration Platform team, you will serve as the technical anchor across multiple domains: Email, meeting and conference,Telephony, M365, Chat Content , and Productivity. You will design, deliver, and maintain automation and AI-driven solutions that reduce operational overhead, improve support efficiency, and accelerate business outcomes.You will combine deep technical expertise with curiosity, boldness, and leadership skills to mentor engineers, influence architecture, and engage with senior executives. This role is critical in shaping the future of our enterprise collaboration ecosystem.  Core Responsibilities:Own and evolve the architecture and automation strategy for collaboration platforms.Deliver AI-powered solutions (e.g., copilots, workflow automation, anomaly detection) to empower support and engineering teams.Partner with domain experts (Email, Telephony, Chat, Content, Productivity) to build scalable and resilient services.Drive standardization and 'as-code' automation across infrastructure, monitoring, and operations.Ensure platforms meet enterprise requirements for availability, security, performance, and compliance.Act as a mentor and multiplier: guide junior engineers, set technical standards, and lead by example.Communicate complex technical concepts effectively to executive leaders, product managers, and cross-functional stakeholders.Partner with vendors and evaluate emerging collaboration technologies and AI tools.Champion a culture of curiosity, bold experimentation, and continuous learning. Requirements:Proven ability to design and deliver AI/ML-powered automation solutions(e.g., NLP, RAG systems, chatbots, intelligent workflows).Strong coding and scripting skills (Python, Java/Kotlin, or similar), withinfrastructure-as-code experience (Terraform, Ansible, etc.). Experience with modern CI/CD, observability, and monitoring stacks.Strong problem-solving and analytical mindset, able to connect technology to business outcomes.Excellent communication and leadership skills: able to mentor talent and influence at the executive level.Passionate about staying ahead of AI, collaboration tools, and enterprise automation trends. Desired Skills:Hands-on experience in one or more domains: Exchange/Outlook/M365,Slack, Jira, Confluence/Wiki, Telephony (Zoom/Teams/VoIP).Familiarity with enterprise collaboration ecosystems, APIs, and integrations.Experience deploying or integrating generative AI platforms (e.g., LLMs, copilots, automation frameworks).Prior success driving platform innovation and operational efficiency.Track record of being curious, bold, and innovative in solving enterprise-scale problems. Target Behaviors:Curious: Eager to explore new technologies, ask questions, and challenge assumptions.Bold: Willing to push boundaries, propose innovative ideas, and influence change.About you:• 4 year degree or equivalent experience• 7+ years of software development experience with at least one full cycle implementation• Demonstrates strong domain-specific knowledge regarding Target's technology capabilities, and key competitors' products and differentiating features• Demonstrates broad and deep expertise in multiple computer languages and frameworks (e.g., open source). Designs, develops, and approves end-to-end functionality of a product line, platform, or infrastructure• Communicates and coordinates with project team, partners, and stakeholders• Demonstrates expertise in analysis and optimization of systems capacity, performance, and operational health• Understands and develops solutions to foster data lifecycle management• Maintains deep technical knowledge within areas of expertise• Stays current with new and evolving technologies via formal training and self directed education• Experience in building highly scalable distributed systems.