What are the responsibilities and job description for the Software Engineer, Data Privacy & Infrastructure - USDS position at TikTok USDS Joint Venture?
Responsibilities
About the Team
You will join the TikTok USDS Data Governance and Assurance Engineering team. We are the architects of the foundational infrastructure that manages the entire data lifecycle for one of the world's most massive data ecosystems. Our mission is to ensure that every byte of US data is handled with the highest standards of integrity, security, and privacy compliance.
Our team sits at the core of Privacy Engineering and Distributed Systems. We don't just write privacy policies; we build the automated engines that enforce them. We are replacing manual oversight with "Privacy-as-Code," ensuring that data privacy is a hard technical guarantee rather than a best-effort guideline.
About the Role
As a Software Engineer - Data Privacy, you will lead the technical implementation of Data Lifecycle Management (DLM). You will build the systems that provide 100% visibility into where data lives, how it moves (Lineage), and how it is decommissioned. Your work is the prerequisite for all AI Safety—after all, you cannot secure data you cannot find.
Core Focus Areas:
- Data Inventory & Discovery: Building automated scanning engines that identify sensitive data across petabyte-scale Data Lakes and real-time streams.
- Data Lineage & Traceability: Architecting systems that track the "genealogy" of data from the moment it’s collected to the moment it’s used in an ML training set.
- Automated Remediation (RTBF): Engineering the "Right to be Forgotten" pipelines that ensure data deletion requests are propagated across all offline and online storage instantly.
Responsibilities
- DLM Platform Engineering: Design and maintain high-throughput backend services that manage data retention, archival, and purging policies across heterogeneous storage (HDFS, ClickHouse, MySQL, etc.).
- Metadata & Lineage Systems: Build and scale a centralized metadata repository that maps complex data relationships, enabling real-time auditing of data flows.
- Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs): Implement and optimize systems for data masking, pseudonymization, and differential privacy to protect user identity in analytics and ML pipelines.
- Residual Scanning: Develop "anti-leakage" tools that proactively scan distributed environments for orphaned or misplaced sensitive data.
- Compliance Infrastructure: Architect the API layer that allows other engineering teams to integrate privacy-by-design into their own services seamlessly.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications:
- Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.
- Backend Engineering: 2 years of experience in Go (Golang), Java, or C
- Big Data & Infrastructure: Experience working with high-volume data ecosystems (e.g., Hive, Spark, Kafka, Flink, or Kubernetes).
- Database Mastery: Deep understanding of Database Design, SQL, and NoSQL internals, especially regarding how data is physically stored and deleted.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Privacy Domain Knowledge: Prior experience in Privacy Engineering, GDPR/CCPA compliance, or Data Governance.
- Data Lineage Experience: Familiarity with data cataloging or lineage tools (e.g., Apache Atlas, Amundsen, or internal proprietary versions).
- Security Mindset: Understanding of encryption-at-rest/in-transit and access control (IAM) frameworks.
- Scaling Impact: Experience managing "Data Deletion" at scale—where a single request must trigger actions across thousands of distributed nodes.
About USDS
TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is dedicated to the safety and security of millions of Americans who create, discover, and connect with what they love on the apps we operate. The Joint Venture has been established in compliance with the Executive Order signed by President Trump on September 25, 2025. Our foundation is a comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity program we operate under defined safeguards to protect national security and secure U.S. user data, apps and the algorithm. We safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem, holding decision-making authority for trust and safety policies and moderation. USDS Joint Venture helps ensure Americans can continue to express their creativity, discover new hobbies and interests, and build thriving communities and businesses on a global scale.
On-site presence across teams allows the company to operate with greater speed, alignment, and agility — especially in areas like real-time decision-making, team development, and integrated execution. As such, the company is shifting from a hybrid work model to a fully in-person schedule up to 5 days a week.
Why Join Us
Inspiring creativity is at the core of TikTok's mission. Our innovative product is built to help people authentically express themselves, discover and connect – and our global, diverse teams make that possible. Together, we create value for our communities, inspire creativity and bring joy - a mission we work towards every day.
We strive to do great things with great people. We lead with curiosity, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn and innovate as one team. We're resilient and embrace challenges as they come. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.
Diversity & Inclusion
TikTok is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.
USDS Reasonable Accommodation
USDS is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at https://tinyurl.com/USDS-RA
Job Information
【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)
The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $136800 - $359720 annually.
Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location. Base pay is one part of the Total Package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role may be eligible for additional discretionary bonuses/incentives, and restricted stock units.
Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Employees have day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) savings plan with company match, paid parental leave, short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, wellbeing benefits, among others. Employees also receive 10 paid holidays per year, 10 paid sick days per year and 17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure).
The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.
For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates:
Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:
1. Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
2. Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
3. Exercising sound judgment.
About the Team
You will join the TikTok USDS Data Governance and Assurance Engineering team. We are the architects of the foundational infrastructure that manages the entire data lifecycle for one of the world's most massive data ecosystems. Our mission is to ensure that every byte of US data is handled with the highest standards of integrity, security, and privacy compliance.
Our team sits at the core of Privacy Engineering and Distributed Systems. We don't just write privacy policies; we build the automated engines that enforce them. We are replacing manual oversight with "Privacy-as-Code," ensuring that data privacy is a hard technical guarantee rather than a best-effort guideline.
About the Role
As a Software Engineer - Data Privacy, you will lead the technical implementation of Data Lifecycle Management (DLM). You will build the systems that provide 100% visibility into where data lives, how it moves (Lineage), and how it is decommissioned. Your work is the prerequisite for all AI Safety—after all, you cannot secure data you cannot find.
Core Focus Areas:
- Data Inventory & Discovery: Building automated scanning engines that identify sensitive data across petabyte-scale Data Lakes and real-time streams.
- Data Lineage & Traceability: Architecting systems that track the "genealogy" of data from the moment it’s collected to the moment it’s used in an ML training set.
- Automated Remediation (RTBF): Engineering the "Right to be Forgotten" pipelines that ensure data deletion requests are propagated across all offline and online storage instantly.
Responsibilities
- DLM Platform Engineering: Design and maintain high-throughput backend services that manage data retention, archival, and purging policies across heterogeneous storage (HDFS, ClickHouse, MySQL, etc.).
- Metadata & Lineage Systems: Build and scale a centralized metadata repository that maps complex data relationships, enabling real-time auditing of data flows.
- Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs): Implement and optimize systems for data masking, pseudonymization, and differential privacy to protect user identity in analytics and ML pipelines.
- Residual Scanning: Develop "anti-leakage" tools that proactively scan distributed environments for orphaned or misplaced sensitive data.
- Compliance Infrastructure: Architect the API layer that allows other engineering teams to integrate privacy-by-design into their own services seamlessly.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications:
- Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.
- Backend Engineering: 2 years of experience in Go (Golang), Java, or C
- Big Data & Infrastructure: Experience working with high-volume data ecosystems (e.g., Hive, Spark, Kafka, Flink, or Kubernetes).
- Database Mastery: Deep understanding of Database Design, SQL, and NoSQL internals, especially regarding how data is physically stored and deleted.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Privacy Domain Knowledge: Prior experience in Privacy Engineering, GDPR/CCPA compliance, or Data Governance.
- Data Lineage Experience: Familiarity with data cataloging or lineage tools (e.g., Apache Atlas, Amundsen, or internal proprietary versions).
- Security Mindset: Understanding of encryption-at-rest/in-transit and access control (IAM) frameworks.
- Scaling Impact: Experience managing "Data Deletion" at scale—where a single request must trigger actions across thousands of distributed nodes.
About USDS
TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is dedicated to the safety and security of millions of Americans who create, discover, and connect with what they love on the apps we operate. The Joint Venture has been established in compliance with the Executive Order signed by President Trump on September 25, 2025. Our foundation is a comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity program we operate under defined safeguards to protect national security and secure U.S. user data, apps and the algorithm. We safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem, holding decision-making authority for trust and safety policies and moderation. USDS Joint Venture helps ensure Americans can continue to express their creativity, discover new hobbies and interests, and build thriving communities and businesses on a global scale.
On-site presence across teams allows the company to operate with greater speed, alignment, and agility — especially in areas like real-time decision-making, team development, and integrated execution. As such, the company is shifting from a hybrid work model to a fully in-person schedule up to 5 days a week.
Why Join Us
Inspiring creativity is at the core of TikTok's mission. Our innovative product is built to help people authentically express themselves, discover and connect – and our global, diverse teams make that possible. Together, we create value for our communities, inspire creativity and bring joy - a mission we work towards every day.
We strive to do great things with great people. We lead with curiosity, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn and innovate as one team. We're resilient and embrace challenges as they come. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.
Diversity & Inclusion
TikTok is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.
USDS Reasonable Accommodation
USDS is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at https://tinyurl.com/USDS-RA
Job Information
【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)
The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $136800 - $359720 annually.
Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location. Base pay is one part of the Total Package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role may be eligible for additional discretionary bonuses/incentives, and restricted stock units.
Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Employees have day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) savings plan with company match, paid parental leave, short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, wellbeing benefits, among others. Employees also receive 10 paid holidays per year, 10 paid sick days per year and 17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure).
The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.
For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates:
Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:
1. Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
2. Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
3. Exercising sound judgment.
Salary : $136,800 - $359,720