Demo

Machine Learning Engineer Graduate (TikTok-Data-Search-Recommendation) - 2027 Start

TikTok
San Jose, CA Full Time
POSTED ON 8/3/2026
AVAILABLE BEFORE 9/1/2026
Responsibilities

Our Search Engineering Team is responsible for building and owning TikTok's search engine which can provide our users with the best search experience. In TikTok Search Team, you'll have the opportunity to build full-stack search engine system and combine information retrieval technology with modern machine learning methods from related fields such as NLP, CV, and recommender system. We embrace a culture of self-direction, intellectual curiosity, openness, and problem-solving.

We are looking for talented individuals to join our team. As a graduate, you will get opportunities to pursue bold ideas, tackle complex challenges, and unlock limitless growth.

Successful candidates must be able to commit to an onboarding date by the end of the year. Please state your availability and graduation date clearly in your resume.

Candidates can apply to a maximum of two positions and will be considered for jobs in the order you apply. The application limit is applicable to our Company and its affiliates' jobs globally. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis - we encourage you to apply early.

Role

This full-time Graduate role provides early-career engineers the opportunity to join one of our engineering teams where you will have the opportunity to:

Participate in the improvement of the search core algorithm, possible directions include:

  • Content understanding: Applying the industry's cutting-edge NLP and CV technology and leveraging LLM to match the most relevant videos for each search query, and continuously improve the relevance of TikTok search.
  • User Behavior Modeling: solving the recommendation problem in search, let TikTok search increase the ability of personalization on the basis of "relevant", and understand users better.
  • Video understanding: comprehensive use of NLP, CV, as well as LLM for better video understanding from the perspective of the video itself and social network, improve authority, credibility, and usefulness of search results.
  • Search systems engineering: designing, building, testing, and maintaining search services, data pipelines, tools, or platform components that support search quality, reliability, latency, and user experience.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

  • Individuals who are completing or have recently completed a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Data Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related technical discipline.
  • Experience with at least one programming language such as Python, Java, C , Go, or JavaScript through coursework, internships, projects, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience with search, recommendation, machine learning, information retrieval, natural language processing, ranking, data mining, or backend systems.
  • Familiarity with distributed systems, databases, data pipelines, online experimentation, or large-scale service development.
  • Experience using data or metrics to debug, evaluate, or improve a product or system.
  • Strong problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills.
  • Interest in building Search products and systems for a large-scale consumer platform.

As a condition of employment, all successful candidates must be able to establish authorization to work in the United States. For this position, the Company does not provide sponsorship or any immigration-related benefits.

Job Information

【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $128000 - $256000 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:

  • Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
  • Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
  • Exercising sound judgment.

About TikTok

TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok's global headquarters are in Los Angeles and Singapore, and we also have offices in New York City, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.

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.

TikTok Accommodation

TikTok 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/RA-request

Salary : $128,000 - $256,000

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