Sr AI Engineer - Advanced AI (applied ML, Gen AI, ML ops)

About the role

The pay range is $98,000.00 - $176,000.00

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.

JOIN TARGET AS A SR AI ENGINEER – ADVANCED AI (applied ML, Gen AI, ML Ops)

About the role

Target’s Advanced AI team builds end-to-end AI/ML systems that create meaningful business value across the enterprise. These systems may be powered by LLMs, classical machine learning, or deep learning models, and are designed as scalable, reliable, production-grade applications, including agentic architectures where they add clear value.

As a Senior AI Engineer for Advanced AI, you will help build, deploy, and maintain AI/ML applications that support automation, insight, and action across core business workflows. You will work closely with Data Scientists, engineers, product partners, platform teams, security teams, and business stakeholders to turn well-defined and moderately ambiguous business problems into practical technical solutions.

In this role, you will contribute hands-on to the development of production-grade AI applications. You will write maintainable, well-tested code, support model and framework integration, build APIs and services, develop data and application workflows, and contribute to deployment, monitoring, documentation, and production support. You will help ensure AI applications are secure, reliable, maintainable, and aligned to Target’s enterprise standards for infrastructure, platform architecture, data handling, and operational readiness.

You will also partner with Lead and Principal Engineers to evaluate technical options, identify implementation risks, resolve engineering roadblocks, and improve reusable AI engineering patterns. This role requires curiosity and continuous learning, including staying current with developments in AI, machine learning, LLMs, agentic systems, and modern software engineering practices. A successful Senior AI Engineer will help deliver high-quality AI applications that create measurable business value while contributing to the technical strength of the team.

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

About you

• 4-year degree or equivalent experience.
• 3+ years of hands-on software engineering experience, including experience building or supporting production systems.
• Experience developing AI/ML applications, including LLM-powered applications, applied machine learning solutions, data-intensive applications, intelligent automation capabilities, or agentic systems.
• Strong proficiency with Python and experience with AI/ML or deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, LangChain, LlamaIndex, Semantic Kernel, or similar tools.
• Experience working with model APIs, prompt orchestration, retrieval-augmented generation, evaluation approaches, observability tools, cloud platforms, containers, or orchestration technologies.
• Understanding of system design, application architecture, model and framework tradeoffs, experimentation, evaluation, performance optimization, and production deployment considerations for AI systems.
• Experience building maintainable and well-tested services, APIs, data pipelines, applications, or platforms.
• Experience with version control, CI/CD, code review practices, documentation, operational monitoring, and production support.
• Ability to break down business and technical requirements into clear engineering tasks and deliver practical solutions in collaboration with cross-functional partners.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts clearly to engineers, Data Scientists, product partners, and business stakeholders.
• Ability to work independently on defined workstreams, collaborate effectively with senior technical partners, and contribute to strong engineering practices within the team.
• Self-driven and results-oriented, with strong ownership, sound judgment, and the ability to move quickly while maintaining high technical standards.
• Collaborative team player with a commitment to continuous learning, knowledge sharing, and building reliable AI systems that create business value.

Additional information

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.