AI Vision Research Engineer Graduate (Pico) - 2027 Start (PhD)

ByteDance; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 317,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid parental leave

10 paid holidays per year

Job summary

ByteDance is seeking a PhD-level engineer to advance a power-efficient, low-latency vision system for AR/VR platforms. You will build training pipelines, evaluate ML models, and optimize algorithms for a hardware accelerator while collaborating with cross-functional teams on cloud-edge workloads.

Real-world data collection and rapid prototyping will be essential. We expect strong research experience in ML or AI accelerators, plus proficiency in C/C++, Python, and MATLAB.

Qualifications

• PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Physics or related field.
• Experience with ML algorithms or AI accelerator design.
• Proficiency with C/C++, MATLAB, Python.

Responsibilities

• Innovate and develop a power-efficient, low-latency vision system for AR/VR products.
• Develop training, data collection/generation pipelines with state-of-the-art ML frameworks.
• Map ML algorithms to HW accelerators, identify bottlenecks, optimize performance and efficiency.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams and define cloud-edge workloads and edge ML requirements.
• Perform quantitative evaluations using system modeling and FPGA prototyping.

Skills

C/C++

Python

ML research

Education

PhD in Electrical Engineering or Computer Science or Physics

Tools

MATLAB

FPGA prototyping

AI accelerator design

Job description

Responsibilities

About Team: The EE Platform team focuses on silicon and EE architecture for AR/VR platforms to optimize the system power, latency and performance. The team innovates on customized silicon solutions for imaging, display and connectivity with HW/SW co-optimization.

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.

The ideal candidate has a solid foundation in image processing, computational photography, computer vision, or machine learning, together with strong curiosity and the ability to quickly explore emerging technical areas. They should be able to identify relevant research, define clear technical goals and validation methods, and rapidly translate promising ideas into working prototypes through hands‑on experimentation.

In this role, you will work with PICO's AR/XR hardware platforms to collect real‑world data, develop imaging and multimodal features, and use AI‑assisted and agentic engineering workflows to accelerate algorithm development and iteration.

Responsibilities

• Innovate and develop a power‑efficient, low‑latency, highly‑intelligent machine perception vision system in a VR/AR product.
• Develop necessary training, data collection/generation pipeline along with state of art ML algorithm/framework for understanding of the scene and user behaviors.
• Map the ML algorithm to the HW accelerator, identify performance bottleneck, optimize performance and efficiency, propose more efficient HW/SW co‑design for AI accelerator.
• Collaborate with the x-functions team and translate system requirements into a proper cloud‑edge workload partition and edge ML accelerator HW/SW requirement.
• Perform quantitative evaluations through the use of system modeling, FPGA prototyping for validating ideas and architecture options.

Minimum Qualifications

• Individuals who are completing or have recently completed PhD degree in the fields of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Physics and related technical discipline.
• Experience in research experience in the fields of ML algorithm or AI accelerator design.
• Experience with programming tools and languages such as C/C++, MATLAB, Python.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiar with appropriate ML frameworks.
• Good communication skills, open minded and enthusiastic about new technologies.

Job Information

【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $128000 - $316800 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 Us

Founded in 2012, ByteDance's mission is to inspire creativity and enrich life. With a suite of more than a dozen products, including TikTok, Lemon8, CapCut and Pico as well as platforms specific to the China market, including Toutiao, Douyin, and Xigua, ByteDance has made it easier and more fun for people to connect with, consume, and create content.

Why Join ByteDance

Inspiring creativity is at the core of ByteDance's mission. Our innovative products are 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 enrich life - a mission we work towards every day.

As ByteDancers, 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. 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

ByteDance 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 ByteDance, our mission is to inspire creativity and enrich life. 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.

Reasonable Accommodation

ByteDance 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