Research Engineer Intern (AI Infrastructure) - Large Model Applications - Global Frontier Tech Recruitment Program - 2027 Start (PhD)

TikTok; Singapore; On-site; SGD 22,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

TikTok is seeking a PhD intern for AI infrastructure, focusing on large-model applications within the Global Frontier Tech Recruitment Program. The internship offers a hands-on chance to contribute to cutting-edge research and scalable system design in a fast‑growing tech environment.

Selected candidates will explore native training/inference architectures, distributed training, and multimodal data processing, while collaborating with experienced engineers and researchers across TikTok's global

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing PhD in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Excellent programming abilities with data structures and fundamental algorithms; C/C++ for traditional coding and Python for intelligent coding.

Skills

C/C++

Python

Data structures

Algorithms

Engineering mindset

Education

PhD in AI/CS/CE

Job description

Research Engineer Intern (AI Infrastructure) – Large Model Applications – Global Frontier Tech Recruitment Program – 2027 Start (PhD)

Location:

Employment Type:

Intern

Job Code:

A112838A

Responsibilities

We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship in 2027. PhD Internships at our Company aim to provide students with the opportunity to actively contribute to our products and research, and to the organization's future plans and emerging technologies.PhD internships at Our Company provides students with the opportunity to actively contribute to our products and research, and to the organization's future plans and emerging technologies. Our dynamic internship experience blends hands‑on learning, enriching community‑building and development events, and collaboration with industry experts.

Team Introduction: Our Team is responsible for the design and development of the Recommendation and Search system architecture for TikTok. It ensures the stability and high availability of the system, optimizes the performance of online services and offline data streams, resolves system bottlenecks, and reduces cost overheads. The team also abstracts the common components and services of the system, builds the recommendation middle - office and data middle - office to support the rapid incubation of new products and enable ToB services.

Topic Content: As business scenarios become increasingly complex, search, advertising, and recommendation are facing significant challenges. While large models can accurately capture user preferences and enhance personalization as well as content quality, they also impose stringent requirements on real‑time performance, stability, and scalability. This introduces substantial technical challenges in areas such as distributed training, inference acceleration, heterogeneous hardware utilisation, and multimodal data processing.

At the same time, the rapid growth in model scale and the proliferation of multimodal data have made it difficult for existing infrastructure to meet the demands of data processing efficiency and resource utilisation. This topic focuses on system and engineering innovations to overcome key technical bottlenecks and build efficient, stable, and scalable large‑model solutions, providing a robust technical foundation for search, advertising, and recommendation scenarios.

Topic Challenges

1. Native training and inference architecture redesign for LLMs
2. Etreme performance optimization and AI infrastructure innovation
3. End‑to‑End generative paradigm innovation
4. Multimodal AU data infrastructure and quality pptimization
5. Multimodal data representation and RAG‑based application system

Topic Value

1. Building next‑generation generative AI infrastructure for search, advertising, and recommendation businesses. Through the co‑design of large models, multimodal technologies, and system‑level innovations, we aim to overcome performance bottlenecks and enable ultra‑long context handling, millisecond‑level response latency, and high‑precision information understanding, thereby driving intelligent upgrades across the business.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

1. Currently pursuing PhD in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
2. Excellent programming abilities with a strong command of data structures and fundamental algorithms. For traditional coding roles, proficiency in C/C++ is required; for intelligent coding roles, proficiency in Python is required. Candidates are required to use these languages to implement complex algorithms and build iterative models. Candidates should also have a strong engineering mindset with the ability to balance performance and cost;

Preferred Qualifications

1. Priority will be given to candidates with in-depth research results in journals or conferences such as VLDB, SIGIR, OSDI, etc.
2. Strong resilience, excellent communication and teamwork skills; passionate about technology, willing to embrace challenges with the team, and a drive for innovation.

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.