AI Machine Learning Engineer Graduate (TikTok Search) - 2026 Start (PhD)

TikTok; Singapore; On-site; SGD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

TikTok is building a world-class research team in Singapore focused on advancing search technologies. The role targets final-year or recent PhD graduates with strong ML fundamentals and coding skills in C++, Python, or Java.

Expect to work on scalable, multi-modal search systems and impactful ML research. You will collaborate across NLP, CV, and recommender systems domains, contributing to cutting-edge technologies and publishing in top venues.

Qualifications

• Final year PhD or recent PhD in CS, engineering or quantitative field.
• Proficient coding skills with C++, Python, Java.
• Solid knowledge of machine learning and practical experience applying it.

Skills

Programming: C++/Python/Java

Machine Learning

Communication Skills

Education

PhD (Final year or Recent) in CS/Engineering/Quant field

Tools

LLMs

NLP/CV Deep Learning

Job description

Responsibilities

Team Introduction Our Search Team is responsible for building and owning TikTok's search engine which provides our users the best search experience. On the TikTok Search Team, you’ll have the opportunity to build a full-stack search engine system and combine information retrieval technology with modern machine learning methods from related fields such as NLP, Computer Vision, Multimodal, and Recommender Systems. We embrace a culture of self-direction, intellectual curiosity, openness, and problem-solving. We are looking for talented individuals to join our team in 2026. As a graduate, you will get opportunities to pursue bold ideas, tackle complex challenges, and unlock limitless growth. Launch your career where inspiration is infinite at our Company. Successful candidates must be able to commit to an onboarding date by end of year 2026. Please state your availability and graduation date clearly in your resume.

• Exploring Cutting-Edge NLP Technologies: From basic tasks like word segmentation and Named Entity Recognition (NER) to advanced business functions like text and multimodal pre-training, query analysis, and fundamental relevance modeling, we apply deep learning models throughout the pipeline where every detail presents a challenge.
• Cross-Modal Matching Technologies: Applying deep learning techniques that combine Computer Vision (CV) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) in search, we aim to achieve powerful semantic understanding and retrieval capabilities for multimodal video search.
• Large-Scale Streaming Machine Learning Technologies: Utilising large-scale machine learning to address recommendation challenges in search, making the search more personalized and intuitive in understanding user needs.
• Architecture for data at the scale of hundreds of billions: Conducting in-depth research and innovation in all aspects, from large-scale offline computing and performance and scheduling optimization of distributed systems to building high-availability, high-throughput, and low-latency online services.
• Recommendation Technologies: Leveraging ultra-large-scale machine learning to build industry-leading search recommendation systems and continuously explore and innovate in search recommendation technologies.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Final year Ph.D or recent Ph.D graduates in Computer Science, engineering or quantitative field.
• Proficient coding skills and strong algorithm & data structure using C++/Python/Java.
• Have a solid knowledge of machine learning and practical experience in applying it.

Preferred Qualifications

• Effective communication and teamwork skills.
• Modeling experience in one or more of the following areas: Ads, Search engine, Recommender System, NLP/CV.
• Have a solid foundation in algorithms related to LLMs, including but not limited to comprehensive learning and practical experience in areas such as single-modal/multi-modal LLM application and deployment.
• Strong publications record in top conferences or journals（e.g., ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML, ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, CVPR, ICCV and ECCV）.

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.