Lead Engineer - Managed Kubernetes

About the job

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 lead engineer, you serve as the technical anchor for the engineering team that supports a product. You create, own and are responsible for the application architecture that best serves the product in its functional and non-functional needs.  You identify and drive architectural changes to accelerate feature development or improve the quality of service (or both).  You have deep and broad engineering skills and are capable of standing up an architecture in its whole on your own, but you choose to influence a wider team by acting as a “force multiplier”.   Core responsibilities of this job are described within this job description.  Job duties may change at any time due to business needs.

We are looking for a   Lead Engineer – Kubernetes Platform   with extensive platform engineering experience in designing, building, automating, and operating cloud-native platforms. The ideal candidate will have deep   expertise   in Kubernetes, cloud-native technologies, and platform automation, with a strong focus on reliability, scalability, security, and operational excellence. This role will provide technical leadership in evolving our Kubernetes platform across hybrid cloud and on-premises environments.

Required Skills

- Strong software development experience in   Go (Golang) .

- Extensive hands-on experience designing, administering, and   operating   Kubernetes platforms, including cluster provisioning, configuration, upgrades, troubleshooting, and production operations.

- Strong experience running Kubernetes on public cloud platforms. Experience with   Google Cloud Platform (GCP ) and   Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)   is preferred; equivalent experience with AWS, Azure, or other public cloud platforms is also acceptable.

- Deep understanding of Kubernetes architecture and networking, including CNI plugins, ingress controllers, services, network policies, load balancing, traffic routing, and service connectivity.

- Experience with   Infrastructure as Code ( IaC )   and Kubernetes deployment tools such as   Terraform ,   Helm , and   Kustomize .

- Experience implementing   GitOps   practices using tools such as   Argo CD   and/or   Flux .

- Strong understanding of CI/CD automation and modern software delivery practices for Kubernetes platforms.

- Experience with observability solutions, including metrics, logging, monitoring, alerting, distributed tracing, and platform reliability.

- Experience administering Linux operating systems and   optimizing   container host environments.

- Experience with Kubernetes storage technologies, including CSI drivers, Persistent Volumes (PV), Persistent Volume Claims (PVC), Storage Classes,   StatefulSets , and disaster recovery strategies.

- Strong automation-first mindset with experience managing infrastructure and platform services as code using version control,   GitOps , and Infrastructure as Code practices.

- Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) and/or Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) certification is a plus.

Responsibilities

- Design, build, automate, and   operate   Kubernetes platform services across hybrid cloud and on-premises environments.

- Develop platform tooling, controllers, and automation using Go (Golang).

- Design, implement, and manage   GitOps   and CI/CD workflows to automate application and infrastructure deployments across multi-cluster Kubernetes environments.

- Manage,   optimize , and scale Kubernetes clusters, including Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), and the supporting cloud infrastructure.

- Drive platform observability, reliability, security, resiliency, and operational excellence.

- Lead platform initiatives including Kubernetes upgrades, cluster migrations, networking enhancements, storage architecture, scalability improvements, and platform modernization.

- Define platform architecture, engineering standards, and long-term technical strategy.

- Partner with engineering teams to deliver secure, scalable, resilient, and self-service cloud-native platform capabilities.

- Serve as a technical subject matter expert, mentor engineers, and influence engineering best practices across teams.

- Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders to define platform roadmaps and balance product requirements with long-term platform sustainability.

Preferred Qualifications

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science , Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

- 10+ years of experience in software engineering, cloud engineering, platform engineering, infrastructure engineering, or   a related field .