Principal Engineer - Target India

About us:Target is an iconic brand, a Fortune 50 company and one of America’s leading retailers. Target Technology Services is the behind-the-scenes powerhouse that fuels Target’s commitment tocutting-edgeinnovationdelivering incredible value to guests online and in stores through a strong technology framework and high-performing teams. 

Target Tech Overview:Every time a guest enters a Target store or browses Target.com, they experience the impact of Target’s investments in technology and innovation. Weare the technologists behind one of the most loved retail brands, delivering joy to millions of our guests, team members, and communities.
Our global in-house technology team of more than 5,000 engineers, data scientists,architectsand product managers strive to make Target the most convenient,safeand joyful place to shop. Weleverageopen-source software to adapt and build best-in-class technology for our team members andguestsand we do so with a focus on experimentation and continuous learning.

About Pyramid:Merchandising is a Portfolio withinTargetTechthatprovidesreliable data core to our enterprise retail operations, including foundational data and aggregation services at scale for retail and commerce platforms. We deal with data around Pricing, Promotions, Item, Supplier, Owned Brand, Merch Planning, Space Presentation &Transitions (SPT) & Intelligence Automation.

Job description

As a Principal Engineer in Merchandising (SPT), you are a thought leader and trusted partner to product and technology teams defining solutions tohighly complexbusiness and technology problems. You solve problemsimpactingmultiple lines of business and technologies, define architecture strategies for new or evolving capabilities, align partners to those strategies, and drive delivery of the architectural solutions that evolve Merchandising products.Youapply your abilities to solve large abstract problems, see the big picture, take partners, and drive outcomes as you define strategies to lead Merchandising into the future. Your strategicvisioningdirectly contributes to Target’s business and technology. 

SPT is a foundational growth enablement platform translating merchant intent into in-store execution. As Target accelerates AI-first ways of working and scale,SPTtechnology is at an inflection point. In this role, you will champion Agentic capabilities not only for SPT outcomes but by shaping reusable Agentic patterns, governance, and enablers that can scale across the broader Merchandising portfolio.

You clearly and concisely describe problems, opportunities, and vision in ways product and engineering partners and executive leadership understand. Youprovideclear guidance for teams to implement solutions and other PEs to understand and articulate vision to their partners as needed. You are a curious, active learner who seeks out and understands emerging technology and its implications to Target. You partner with your engineering team to drive proof-of-concepts as needed and clearly communicate findings to the organization. You also embodyindustrybest engineering practices and create a culture for learning & growth.

Youpossessa broad understanding of Target’s technology, infrastructure,securityand compliance landscapes and apply that as you define solutions and guide teams during implementation. You influence engineers to understand and followpractices, standards, and guidelinesestablishedto govern solutions.You are a valued leader and team member who listens and understands other viewpoints, makes the right connections, and drives results that matter enabling Target to deliver exceptional experiences to guests and team members. You are expected to mentor, and coach leads into next in line PEs.

About you:

• Ability toown the end-to-end technical strategyformicroservicesbasedandAI/agentic capabilities, including roadmap, reference architectures, platform decisions, and adoption plan across multiple teams

  
  

• Ability toarchitect cloud-native microservices and event-driven systemsusing Kafka and distributed patterns (resiliency, scalability, observability, performance, cost optimization)

  
  

• Hands-on experience with core backendstack(Java,Kotlin,Python,etc) and data stores (PostgreSQL,MongoDB,Cassandra,etc) in high-scale environmentswithproficiencydesigning APIs and integrations for enterprise platforms.Experienced in search and retrieval architecturesleveragingElastic Search and vector/hybrid retrieval patterns

  
  

• Experienced indesigningAgentic orchestration& FlowsusingLangGraph,Google ADK,etc, including routing, state management, retries,idempotency, and human-in-the-loop controlsanddeliveringproduction LLM solutions(RAG, tool/function callingviaMCP) with measurable quality, latency, and cost outcomes

  
  

• Ability toestablishevaluation and quality gatesfor LLM/agentic systems (golden datasets, automated regression, online monitoring)

  
  

• Experienced inimplementing safety and governance controls(prompt injection defenses, data access controls, safe tool execution, auditability, PII handling)

  
  

• Ability toinfluence end-to-end product experienceby collaborating with frontend teams (ReactJS) and UX/product partners to deliver intuitive AI-assisted workflows

  
  

• Experienced inplatform enablement and adoption at scale, including developer experience, documentation/playbooks, and migration strategies from legacypatterns

  
  

• Ability to lead cross-team technical directionthrough architecture reviews, ADRs,stakeholder alignment, and mentorship of senior engineers/tech leads

  
  

• Strong written and verbalcommunication skillsand able to communicate technical solutions to technical and non-technical partners

  
  

• Track recordof driving outcomes inself-directed manner.Stay current with new and evolving technologies via formal and self-directed education

  
  

• Developwhitepapers, patents,contribution to open-source community, attend/present in conferences

  
  

• Retail domain experienceapplying AI/agentic capabilities toreal operationalworkflows and exception handlingwill be a plus

  
  

• Demonstratedexperience of 12+ yearsin software engineering with3+ yearsin architecture/technical leadership

  
  

• Experienced indelivering 2+ yearsof production AI/ML,LLM-enabled, Agentic AIsystems withLLMOpsandMLOpspractices 
  Life at Target- https://india.target.com/

  
  

  Benefits- https://india.target.com/life-at-target/workplace/benefits

  
  

  Culture- https://india.target.com/life-at-target/belonging