Principal Engineer - Application Security (SDLC, SAST, DAST, SCA, Threat Modeling, Pen Testing, DevSecOps, AI)

JOIN TARGET AS A PRINCIPAL ENGINEER - APPLICATION SECURITY

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.  
 

About the Role:

We are seeking a Principal Application Security Engineer to provide technical leadership for our enterprise Application Security program. This role is responsible for advancing secure development practices, integrating security into the software development lifecycle, and partnering with engineering teams to reduce application risk through scalable security solutions.

The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise with strategic thinking, enables developers, scales security through automation, and influences engineering organizations without direct authority.

Application Security Expertise

• Provide technical leadership across Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDLC), Static Application Security Testing (SAST), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), Software Composition Analysis (SCA), Threat Modeling, and Penetration Testing.
• Guide engineering teams in vulnerability remediation and secure coding best practices.
• Evaluate emerging application security technologies, emerging risks, and recommend pragmatic, risk-based improvements to application security capabilities.
• Partner with Security Architecture to ensure application security practices align with enterprise security standards and design principles.

Software Engineering and Automation

• Design and build automation that integrates security seamlessly into CI/CD pipelines.
• Develop tooling, APIs, and automation to improve developer experience and reduce manual effort.
• Partner with platform engineering teams to implement security controls within modern development workflows.
• Identify and implement opportunities to leverage AI and generative AI technologies to improve application security processes, automate repetitive tasks, enhance developer enablement, and accelerate vulnerability detection and remediation while ensuring responsible and secure use of AI.

Security Strategy and Program Leadership

• Help define the technical roadmap for the Application Security program.
• Develop strategies that scale security across a large engineering organization through automation, standardization, and self-service capabilities.
• Champion developer enablement by creating security guidance, reusable frameworks, documentation, and training.
• Establish and track metrics that measure program effectiveness and continuously improve security maturity.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Influence technical decisions through collaboration and technical leadership rather than organizational authority.
• Communicate security risks and recommendations effectively to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Mentor engineers and promote security best practices across the organization.

Problem Solving and Technical Leadership

• Solve complex application security challenges involving modern software architectures and cloud-native platforms.
• Drive continuous improvement across security tooling, developer workflows, and vulnerability management processes.
• Provide technical leadership during the investigation and remediation of significant application security issues.

Core responsibilities of this job are described within this job description.

Job duties may change at any time due to business needs.

About You:

• BS/MS in Computer Science, Information Security, Engineering or equivalent industry work experience
• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, application security or related security engineering roles
• Demonstrated expertise across SSDLC, SAST, DAST, SCA, Threat Modeling, and Penetration Testing
• Strong software development experience in one or more modern programming languages
• Experience integrating security into modern CI/CD pipelines and DevSecOps workflows
• Proven experience building and scaling Application Security programs across large engineering organizations
• Experience leveraging AI and Generative AI technologies to improve engineering productivity, security operations, or software development workflows
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate, implement, and govern AI-enabled solutions while considering security, privacy, and organizational risk
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and stakeholder management skills
• Demonstrated ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams
• Experience securing cloud-native applications in AWS, Azure or Google Cloud
• Experience with Kubernetes, containers, APIs, and microservices architectures
• Experience developing custom security tooling or automation
• Knowledge of modern software supply chain security practices
• Industry certifications such as CISSP, CSSLP, GIAC, OSCP, or cloud security certifications a plus

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.