Sr Engineer - Machine Learning

The pay range is $95,000.00 - $171,000.00

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. Find competitive benefits from financial and education to well-being and beyond at ;br>
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.

The Fraud Detection and Prevention Data Science team builds scalable, intelligent systems that safeguard Target's guests and digital channels from fraud and abuse. As a Senior Engineer, you will own the end-to-end lifecycle of machine learning solutions - from data exploration and feature engineering to model development, deployment, and continuous improvement through MLOps.

You'll collaborate closely with engineering, data, and product partners across Target to deliver ML solutions that proactively detect, prevent, and adapt to emerging fraud patterns across stores and digital platforms.

Core Responsibilities

• Design, build, and scale ML models for fraud detection using supervised, unsupervised, and deep learning techniques.
• Perform exploratory data analysis (EDA) to identify anomalies, patterns, and emerging fraud behaviors.
• Develop and maintain end-to-end MLOps pipelines on Vertex AI and Google Cloud Platform - including training, evaluation, deployment, and monitoring.
• Partner with cross-functional teams - Engineering, Data Engineering, Investigations, and Product - to operationalize fraud models and translate insights into prevention strategies.
• Research and prototype new detection techniques, including LLMs, anomaly detection, and behavioral modeling.
• Lead technical design reviews, mentor junior data scientists/engineers, and uphold best practices through code reviews and technical sessions.
• Maintain strong documentation and model governance, ensuring reliability, reproducibility, and scalability across the ML platform.

Tech Stack & Tools

• Languages: Python, SQL
• Frameworks: TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn
• Data & Platforms: Google Cloud Platform, Vertex AI, PySpark, BigQuery, Hadoop, Hive
• MLOps & Automation: MLflow, Airflow, CI/CD frameworks
• Collaboration: GitHub, JIRA, cross-functional partnerships with Engineering, Data Platform, and Fraud Investigations

Experience & Qualifications

• Advanced degree (Master's or PhD) in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related field

• 5-8 years of hands-on experience in data science, ML engineering, or applied machine learning with a proven track record of developing and deploying machine learning models.

• Proven ability to build, scale, and deploy production ML models from experimentation to production.
• Strong experience with MLOps and pipeline automation using cloud platforms (Google Cloud Platform / Vertex AI preferred).
• Proficiency in data cleaning, preprocessing, and augmentation techniques to ensure high-quality training data
• Experience in fraud detection, anomaly detection, or risk modeling preferred but not required.
• Excellent programming and collaboration skills; able to bridge the gap between data science, engineering, and business.

• Familiarity with deep learning architectures like CNNs, GANs, and transformers.
• Expertise in tuning hyperparameters (e.g., learning rate, batch size) to optimize model performance.
• Evaluate model performance using metrics such as accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score. Conduct error analysis and optimize models accordingly
• Strong problem-solving skills, passion for solving interesting and relevant real-world problems using a data science approach.
• Excellent communication skills. Ability to clearly tell data driven stories through appropriate visualizations, graphs, and narratives.
• Strong team player with ability to collaborate effectively across geographies/time zones.

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: _D

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 Non-accommodation-related requests, such as application follow-ups or technical issues, will not be addressed through this channel.