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 Sr Engineer on the Cybersecurity AI Activation and Engineering team you will design and deliver AI-powered capabilities that align with Target's engineering and security standards. A primary focus will be on automating specific security and penetration testing use cases.  If you have a background in penetration testing or application security testing and a passion for AI, this is a great role for you.  We will need to provide subject matter expertise for the team, help refine capability requirements, and test competing approaches, while managing the risk of testing benefits against the risks of stability impacts.

Successful candidates will have a strong understanding of application security principles and secure software development practices. You will partner with security and engineering teams to design solutions that are secure by design while leveraging modern AI capabilities to improve analyst productivity and operational efficiency.  You will apply your technical expertise to evaluate, prototype, and implement current and emerging AI technologies—including Agentic AI frameworks, agentic workflow automation, and tool orchestration.

In this role, you will serve as a key technical resource for engineering initiatives. You develop and contribute to application designs that best serves the product in its functional and non-functional needs. You are an expert in programming and apply your skills in developing the product. You show good problem solving skills and can help the team in triaging operational issues. You leverage your expertise in eliminating repeat occurrences.

You will work cross functionally across teams to provide thought leadership to promote re-use and develop consistent, scalable patterns. Participate in planning services and applications that have broad impact.   You will be looked upon to provide suggestions for handling routine and moderately complex technical problems, escalating issues when appropriate, and providing subject matter expertise in application and system level penetration testing techniques.

Core responsibilities of this job are described within this job description. Job duties may change at any time due to business needs.

As a Sr Engineer on the Cybersecurity AI Activation and Engineering team you will design and deliver AI-powered capabilities that align with Target's engineering and security standards. A primary focus will be on automating specific security and penetration testing use cases.  If you have a background in penetration testing or application security testing and a passion for AI, this is a great role for you.  We will need to provide subject matter expertise for the team, help refine capability requirements, and test competing approaches, while managing the risk of testing benefits against the risks of stability impacts.

Successful candidates will have a strong understanding of application security principles and secure software development practices. You will partner with security and engineering teams to design solutions that are secure by design while leveraging modern AI capabilities to improve analyst productivity and operational efficiency.  You will apply your technical expertise to evaluate, prototype, and implement current and emerging AI technologies—including Agentic AI frameworks, agentic workflow automation, and tool orchestration.

In this role, you will serve as a key technical resource for engineering initiatives. You develop and contribute to application designs that best serves the product in its functional and non-functional needs. You are an expert in programming and apply your skills in developing the product. You show good problem solving skills and can help the team in triaging operational issues. You leverage your expertise in eliminating repeat occurrences.

You will work cross functionally across teams to provide thought leadership to promote re-use and develop consistent, scalable patterns. Participate in planning services and applications that have broad impact.   You will be looked upon to provide suggestions for handling routine and moderately complex technical problems, escalating issues when appropriate, and providing subject matter expertise in application and system level penetration testing techniques.

About you:
Demonstrated history of rapid prototyping, development and iterative delivery with tight coordination with internal customers

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience developing and delivering production applications.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• Hands-on experience in Application Security or Offensive Security, with knowledge of secure coding practices, common attack techniques (e.g., OWASP Top 10), API security, authentication/authorization, and vulnerability assessment.
• Experience building or using security testing and red teaming tools, with knowledge of adversarial testing techniques for both traditional applications and AI/LLM systems.
• Experience designing and developing Agentic AI systems that orchestrate AI agents, external tools, APIs, and enterprise workflows to automate complex tasks.
• Software engineering experience with Java, Kotlin, and/or Python, including designing and building production-grade services and APIs is preferred.
• Knowledge of cybersecurity teams, processes, and controls
• Demonstrated history of rapid prototyping, iterative development, and close collaboration with internal customers.
• Experience evaluating emerging technologies and translating them into scalable engineering solutions.
• Excellent analytical, troubleshooting, and communication skills.
• Maintains deep technical expertise while continuously learning new technologies through experimentation, formal training, and self-directed education.