Lead Engineer - Security Engineering​/Secrets Portal

Position: Lead Engineer - Security Engineering / Secrets Portal
The pay range is $ - $
** JOIN TARGET AS A LEAD ENGINEER – SECURITY ENGINEERING / SECRETS PORTAL****:
** Working at Target means helping all families discover the joy of everyday life. We bring that vision to life through our values and culture. .Target’s Cybersecurity team isthat’s why we work here. Join our team to take new application security solutions from concept to release, collaborating with developers and security engineers to innovate on helping secure Target’s network using cutting-edge technologies.

Our team creates and supports detection and other security-relevant tooling that is deployed across our environment. As a Lead Engineer, you will use your expertise to address complex problems and ensure continuous improvements for Target’s defensive capabilities. We are looking for an experienced Backend or Fullstack Engineer to drive the evolution of our Go-based detection platform. In this role, you will build and maintain high-throughput consumer pipelines (YARA/YARA-X), secure secrets management workflows (Vault/KMS), and resilient asynchronous orchestration.

You will work at the intersection of backend systems, cryptography and data engineering to deliver scalable security solutions at scale!
** Key Responsibilities**
* ** Platform Development:
** Maintain and extend a high-performance detection platform comprising consumer rule processors (YARA/YARA‑X), event producers, APIs, and asynchronous workflows.
* ** Secrets Management:
** Own the design and operation of Vault-backed secrets flows and encryption proxies (KMS); review and harden key usage patterns and remediation life cycles.
* ** Data & Storage:
** Implement and optimize Postgres schema migrations and query performance. Integrate search capabilities (Solr/Lucene) when required.
* ** Reliability & Scale:
** Troubleshoot high-throughput pipelines (Kafka/Benthos), ensuring idempotency, back pressure handling, and effective instrumentation (traces/metrics).
* ** Engineering Excellence:
** Improve test coverage (unit, integration, golden tests), refine CI/CD pipelines (golangci-lint), and optimize Docker-based developer workflows.

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

*** 4 year degree or equivalent experience.
* 7+ years of software development experience in Go services, modules, and tests with deep domain knowledge in package-specific configuration and deployment.
* Experience in building highly scalable distributed systems
* Ability to design new testing methods and resolve complex technical issues with minimal assistance.
* 3+ years of experience designing/operating Vault integrations and KMS-style key handling, including secure key life cycles.
* Practical experience with YARA/YARA‑X or similar pattern engines. Familiarity with string-search algorithms (e.g., Aho–Corasick) is a plus.
* 3+ years Postgres experience (migrations, indexing, tuning).
* Experience with Kafka stream-processing patterns; comfort with Benthos or equivalent.
* Proficiency with Docker/Docker Compose, Docker file optimization and Makefile-driven workflows.
* Working knowledge of Open Telemetry, distributed tracing, and metrics instrumentation.
* Deep knowledge of pattern-matching algorithm performance trade-offs. Delivers high-performance, scalable, and secure solutions with broad impact (high throughput/low latency).
* Understands the downstream impact of work on the team and guests.
* Stays current with evolving technologies via formal training and self-directed education.

This position will operate as a Hybrid/Flex for Your Day work arrangement based on Target’s needs. A Hybrid/Flex for Your Day 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.
** Benefits Eligibility
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** Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
** In compliance with state and federal laws, Target will make reasonable accommodations for…