AI Agent Algorithm Engineer Intern (Global E-Commerce, Conversational AI) - 2027 Start

TikTok; Singapore; On-site; SGD 22,000 - 39,000; Full time

Job summary

TikTok is offering an internship to work on the next-generation unified Agent system, delivering end-to-end contributions from day one and shipping to production across 30+ languages.

You will gain hands-on experience with agent runtimes, memory management, tool integration, and evaluation, while developing a strong foundation for a career in AI systems engineering.

Qualifications

• Pursuing an Undergraduate or Master's degree in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Strong Python plus one of C++ / Go / Rust / Java.
• Solid ML / DL / NLP fundamentals with hands-on experience with LLMs or agents.
• Able to read a paper or engineering blog and turn it into working code.

Responsibilities

• Build and evolve the agent runtime (harness / agent loop) powering our customer-service agents — orchestrate skills, tools, and context; implement loop control & intervention, progressive disclosure, and behavior-level guardrails.
• Engineer context & memory for long multi-turn agents — agentic memory, context compaction / summarization, context editing / observation masking, and just-in-time retrieval.

Skills

Python

C++/Go/Rust/Java

ML/DL/NLP fundamentals

Reading papers to code

Education

Undergraduate or Master's in Software Development / CS / Computer Engineering

Job description

Responsibilities

About the Team

We build the next-generation unified Agent system for TikTok's global e-commerce customer service — running in 30+ languages across one of the largest e-commerce surfaces on the internet. Our north star is a self-evolving Agent, where post-training, harness, memory / context engineering, tools, and evaluation form one closed loop, and every served conversation becomes the next iteration's training / eval / retrieval / skill-induction signal. We build the agent runtime itself — Codex / Claude-Code-class — not prompts on top of a vendor API. As a new grad, you'll own a real end-to-end piece from day one and ship it to production.

We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship. Our internship program offers students hands-on experience, industry exposure, and opportunities to apply their knowledge to real-world challenges while building a strong foundation for personal and professional growth.

Interns will gain practical experience, explore potential career paths, and participate in social events, learning programs, and development workshops alongside industry professionals.

Candidates may apply to a maximum of two positions across Our Company and its affiliates globally. Applications will be considered in the order they are submitted.

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, so we encourage you to apply early. Please clearly state your availability in your resume, including your start and end dates.

Job Responsibilities

• Build and evolve the agent runtime (harness / agent loop) powering our customer-service agents — orchestrate skills, tools, and context; implement loop control & intervention, progressive disclosure, and behavior-level guardrails.
• 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 - online gap.
• Build the self-evolving loop — replay + user-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 (CSAT, resolution / containment rate).

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Currently Pursuing a Undergraduate or Master's degree in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 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, tau-bench / SWE-bench / GAIA / BFCL); inference & serving (vLLM / TensorRT-LLM, MoE, KV / prompt caching); or multilingual NLP — depth in one is enough, breadth welcome

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.