Director, Search Engine Marketing & AI Discovery

Target•Minneapolis, MN

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Media & Integrated Commerce team at Target is at the center of growth, driving profitable sales by increasing guest traffic, trips, and engagement across channels. This team brings Target’s multichannel vision to life by connecting media, merchandising, and digital experiences to create seamless guest journeys. The role involves leading and activating strategies that deliver both brand and performance outcomes, while staying ahead of emerging platforms and AI-driven innovation. This work shapes how Target shows up across a rapidly evolving discovery and commerce ecosystem. The role also fosters a culture rooted in guest and business obsession, connection, and continuous learning – championing transparency, developing talent, and driving shared accountability to deliver results at scale. As a Director, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) & AI Discovery, you will lead our multi-hundred-million-dollar paid search and AI-driven media portfolio and define how guests discover and engage with Target in an increasingly AI-mediated landscape. You will evolve our approach from traditional keyword- and product-based marketing to a holistic paid discovery ecosystem, spanning search engines and emerging conversational and agent-driven platforms. In this role, you will architect how Target competes and wins across paid algorithmic, generative, and agentic marketplaces, ensuring our brand is discoverable, prioritized, and performance-efficient for both human shoppers and machine-driven decisioning. You will lead a high-performing team and partner cross-functionally to position Target at the forefront of modern media and commerce.

Requirements

10+ years in digital or performance marketing, with 5+ years leading large-scale SEM or search programs within retail or high-volume B2C environments.
Deep expertise in paid search, shopping, and auction-based media, with a strong point of view on how AI is reshaping media buying, targeting, and demand capture.
Hands-on understanding of search algorithms, feed-based optimization, and bid management platforms (e.g., Kenshoo, Marin, Google Ads, SA360), with growing familiarity in AI/ML applications and automation frameworks.
Proven track record of modernizing legacy marketing capabilities into scalable, future-facing systems, particularly across automation, data integration, and AI-enabled decisioning.
Strong ownership of large budgets, forecasting, and performance measurement, with the ability to connect media investment to enterprise KPIs and long-term value creation.
Ability to distill complex, evolving topics (AI, search, data ecosystems) into clear, actionable strategies for senior leadership.
Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, or related field preferred.

Responsibilities

Define and execute an integrated paid search and AI discovery strategy that maximizes demand capture across engines, marketplaces, and AI-native surfaces.
Balance short-term performance with long-term advantage in emerging auction- and recommendation-based ecosystems.
Oversee a multi-hundred-million-dollar media portfolio across paid search, shopping, and emerging AI-driven formats.
Optimize investment allocation to drive trips, guests, revenue, and incrementality while scaling new opportunities in generative and assistant-led environments.
Lead the evolution from keyword-based buying to signal-based, AI-optimized media systems, where bidding, targeting, and creative are increasingly automated and influenced by machine learning.
Establish strategies to remain competitive as agents and assistants intermediate demand and reshape auction dynamics.
Shape how Target participates in agent-mediated shopping journeys, ensuring paid placements, product visibility, and brand influence are effectively represented in conversational and assistant-driven experiences.
Partner with Product, Engineering, Measurement, and Data Science to strengthen the data signals, feeds, and measurement frameworks that power modern paid media, ensuring Target is optimized for paid coverage and recommendation across AI systems.
Drive a high-velocity experimentation agenda across bidding strategies, audience signals, creative formats, and emerging AI-native ad products.
Establish rapid test cycles to capture early advantage in evolving media surfaces and formats.
Act as a strategic connector across Marketing, Digital, Merchandising, and Roundel to ensure a cohesive approach to paid search and AI-driven discovery and enterprise media effectiveness.
Lead and develop a high-performing team, evolving capabilities from traditional SEM execution to AI-enabled media strategy, automation oversight, and portfolio optimization.
Provide indirect leadership across Target’s global media activation and operations teams and influence evolving capabilities toward AI-enabled media strategy.