Senior Application Security Engineer

Target • Brooklyn Park, NC

14d • $95,000 - $171,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

As a Senior Application Security Engineer, you serve as a specialist in the engineering team that supports the product. You help develop and gain insight in the application architecture. You can distill an abstract architecture into concrete design and influence the implementation. You show expertise in applying the appropriate software engineering patterns to build robust and scalable systems. You are an expert in programming and apply your skills in developing the product. You have the skills to design and implement the architecture on your own but choose to influence your fellow engineers by proposing software designs, providing feedback on software designs and/or implementation. You show good problem-solving skills and can help the team in triaging operational issues. You leverage your expertise in eliminating repeat occurrences. Use your skills, experience and talents to be a part of groundbreaking thinking and visionary goals. As a Sr. Engineer, you’ll take the lead as you… Design, build, and operate security tooling and automation that integrates deeply into development workflows (e.g., CI/CD, linting, auto-fix, click-to-fix flows). Create solutions that make the secure path the easiest path — embedding guardrails, reducing manual fixes, and improving the developer experience at scale. Augment existing processes with a security lens : dependency scanning, SAST/DAST/SCA, supply chain risk, and automated remediations. Collaborate with product engineering teams to enable secure-by-default applications , influencing architecture and design with practical security guidance. Build “push-down” solutions such as rules, plugins, and pipeline integrations so that security issues are surfaced and fixed where code is written. Evaluate new opportunities to improve security across Target’s environment, targeting solutions that deliver the greatest impact. Maintain observability and feedback loops for security signals across production systems. Contribute to disaster recovery and incident response planning with a focus on application-layer resilience. Share knowledge and mentor teammates in security engineering practices, fostering a culture of curiosity and shared ownership. This role is part of a team changing how security is done at scale — delivering automation, guardrails, and fixes that directly shape how applications are built securely across Target. Core responsibilities of this job are described within this job description. Job duties may change at any time due to business needs.

Requirements

• Four-year degree or equivalent experience
• 5+ years in software development or security engineering with strong coding skills
• Experience building or maintaining security tools, automations, or frameworks (e.g., integrating scanners, writing rules, developing CI/CD integrations)
• Proficiency in Java, Kotlin, JavaScript/TypeScript, and experience with containerization (e.g., Docker)
• Experience working with CI/CD systems (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, etc.)
• Strong understanding of open source dependencies, supply chain risks, and SCA techniques
• Familiarity with SAST/DAST tools and ability to translate results into actionable fixes
• Practical experience in security code reviews, threat modeling, or vulnerability assessment
• Demonstrated ability to embed security into developer workflows and improve the developer experience
• Passion for staying current with security trends, tools, and developer-centric security models

Nice To Haves

• security certifications such as CISSP, CSSLP, OSCP, GIAC, CompTIA Security+, or equivalent demonstrated expertise

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate security tooling and automation that integrates deeply into development workflows (e.g., CI/CD, linting, auto-fix, click-to-fix flows).
• Create solutions that make the secure path the easiest path — embedding guardrails, reducing manual fixes, and improving the developer experience at scale.
• Augment existing processes with a security lens : dependency scanning, SAST/DAST/SCA, supply chain risk, and automated remediations.
• Collaborate with product engineering teams to enable secure-by-default applications , influencing architecture and design with practical security guidance.
• Build “push-down” solutions such as rules, plugins, and pipeline integrations so that security issues are surfaced and fixed where code is written.
• Evaluate new opportunities to improve security across Target’s environment, targeting solutions that deliver the greatest impact.
• Maintain observability and feedback loops for security signals across production systems.
• Contribute to disaster recovery and incident response planning with a focus on application-layer resilience.
• Share knowledge and mentor teammates in security engineering practices, fostering a culture of curiosity and shared ownership.

Benefits

• 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 https://corporate.target.com/careers/benefits

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees