About the Role
As a Lead Data Engineer, you will serve as the technical lead for the engineering team, designing and developing scalable, high-performance data solutions. You will drive the evolution of our data architecture, ensuring it meets both functional and non-functional business requirements while delivering reliability, efficiency, and scalability. Your expertise in big data technologies, distributed systems, and cloud platforms will help shape the engineering roadmap and establish best practices for data processing, analytics, and real-time data services. You will play a key role in architecting and optimizing data pipelines using Hadoop, Spark, Scala/Java, and cloud technologies to support enterprise-wide data initiatives.
Key Responsibilities
Architect and build scalable, high-performance data pipelines and distributed data processing solutions using Spark, Scala/Java and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
Design and implement real-time and batch data processing solutions, ensuring data is efficiently processed and readily available for analytical and operational use
Develop APIs and data services that provide low-latency, high-throughput access to data for downstream applications, enabling real-time decision-making
Optimize and enhance data models, workflows, and processing frameworks to improve performance, scalability, and cost efficiency
Drive data governance, security, and compliance best practices
Collaborate with product teams and business stakeholders to understand requirements and deliver data-driven solutions
Lead the design, implementation, and lifecycle management of data services and platforms
Stay current with emerging technologies and promote the adoption of best practices in big data engineering, cloud computing, and API development
Provide technical leadership and mentor engineers to foster engineering excellence and best practices
Core responsibilities of this job are articulated within this job description. Job duties may change at any time due to business needs.
About You
BS or MS in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Applied Mathematics or a related technical field preferred
7 plus years of experience in data engineering, software development, or distributed systems
Expertise in Big Data technologies such as Hadoop, Spark, and distributed processing frameworks
Strong programming skills in PySpark, Scala, and/or Java
Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and associated data services (e.g. S3, BigQuery, Databricks, EMR, Snowflake)
Proficiency in API development using REST, GraphQL, or gRPC to support real-time and batch data access
Experience with real-time and streaming data architectures like Kafka, Flink or Kinesis
Strong knowledge of data modeling, ETL pipeline design and performance optimization
Understanding of data governance, security, and compliance in large-scale data environments
Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to thrive in complex, evolving environments
Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with experience working across cross-functional teams
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
Please paste this url into your preferred browser to learn about benefits eligibility for this role: https://tgt.biz/BenefitsForYou_E
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 candidate.accommodations@HRHelp.Target.com. Non-accommodation-related requests, such as application follow-ups or technical issues, will not be addressed through this channel.
Application deadline is : 11/19/2026