AI Agent Algorithm Engineer Graduate (Global E-Commerce, Affiliate) - 2027 Start (PhD)

TikTok; Singapore; On-site; SGD 170,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

TikTok is seeking a PhD-qualified researcher to join the Global E-Commerce Affiliate Algorithm team in Singapore. You will work on building AI-native workflows, agent runtimes, and scalable tools to improve content-driven e-commerce matching across creators and merchants.

Responsibilities include designing long-horizon agents, memory systems, LLM fine-tuning, tool integration, and production-ready implementations supporting 30+ languages.

Qualifications

• PhD or soon-to-be PhD in CS/AI/math or related quantitative field.
• Strong Python plus one of C++/Go/Rust/Java.
• Solid ML/DL/NLP fundamentals with hands-on experience with LLMs or agents.

Responsibilities

• Build and evolve the agent runtime powering creator/seller agents — orchestrate skills, tools, and context.
• Engineer context & memory for long multi-turn agents — agentic memory, context summarization, retrieval.
• Post-train and fine-tune LLMs (SFT/DPO/RL) and build data flywheel for training/eval/retrieval signals.
• Design and integrate tools, Skills, and MCP connectors; implement tool-search across large inventories.
• Build evaluation—LLM-as-judge with calibration; latency-aware harnesses; close offline to online gap.
• Create a self-evolving loop — replay + simulator + Auto-RCA/Auto-GSB/Auto-Policy to drive improvement.
• Own a high-leverage end-to-end surface and ship production solutions across 30+ languages.

Skills

Python

C++/Go/Rust/Java

Education

PhD in CS/AI/Math

Job description

Responsibilities

About the Team

The Global E-Commerce Affiliate Algorithm team is dedicated to building a thriving and efficient content-driven e-commerce supply ecosystem, leveraging technology to drive continuous GMV growth. Our core focus areas include the creator growth system, intelligent creator-product search and recommendation engines, and AI-native content creation tools for creators.

Centering on creator product selection and business matchmaking, we build unified search and recommendation capabilities that power diverse distribution scenarios—including the Affiliate Product Marketplace, Affiliate Creator Marketplace, and Search & Recommendation—substantially boosting matching and transaction efficiency between creators and merchants. Simultaneously, by leveraging lead mining and creator growth task frameworks, we continuously expand the base of high-quality creators to enhance the depth and diversity of content supply.

In terms of product innovation, we build AI-native workflows that provide creators with smart product sourcing, script generation, and content optimization capabilities—empower creators to achieve more efficient content production and sustainable business growth.

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.

Job Responsibilities

• Build and evolve the agent runtime (harness / agent loop) powering our creator / seller agents — orchestrate skills, tools, and context.
• Engineer context & memory for long multi-turn agents — agentic memory (structured note-taking), context compaction / summarization, context editing / observation masking, and just-in-time (retrieve-then-load) retrieval.
• Post-train and fine-tune LLMs (SFT / DPO / RL) and build the data flywheel that turns served conversations into training / eval / retrieval signals.
• Design and integrate tools, Skills, and MCP connectors (tools-as-APIs), plus skill / tool search for large tool inventories.
• Build evaluation — LLM-as-judge with human-agreement calibration; regression / safety / cost / latency-aware harnesses; close the offline to online gap.
• Build the self-evolving loop — replay + task/environment simulator + Auto-RCA / Auto-GSB / Auto-Policy — so the system continuously improves itself.
• Own one high-leverage end-to-end surface and ship it to production across 30+ languages, measured on real business metrics (GMV, Content, Creator/Merchant satisfaction).

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Individuals who are completing or have recently completed a PhD degree in CS / AI / Math or a quantitative field.
• Strong Python plus one of C++ / Go / Rust / Java
• Solid ML / DL / NLP fundamentals, with genuine hands-on experience with LLMs or agents (coursework, research, internship, competition, open-source, or a serious side project)
• Able to read a paper or an engineering blog and turn it into working code.

Preferred Qualifications

• Have built the runtime, not just called an API — even at research / hobby / competition scale: your own agent loop / harness, a memory / context-management system, a RAG or tool-use agent, or a fine-tuned / post-trained model
• Hands‑on experience in any one of: post-training (SFT / DPO / RLHF / RLAIF / RLVR, reward modeling); agent systems (harness, context engineering, MCP / Skills, sub‑agents, tool search); evaluation (LLM-as-judge, τ-bench / SWE-bench / GAIA / BFCL); inference & serving (vLLM / TensorRT-LLM, MoE, KV / prompt caching); or multilingual NLP — depth in one is enough, breadth welcome
• Publications, strong competition results (ACM-ICPC / Kaggle / ML competitions), or notable open-source contributions

Job Information

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.