Backend Engineer Intern: Growth & AI Systems

TikTok; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 51,000 - 73,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Housing allowance

Paid holidays

Job summary

TikTok is offering an internship in San Jose focused on backend systems for user growth, content optimization, and organic acquisition. The program emphasizes hands-on experience with SEO, data pipelines, AI-enabled workflows, and collaboration with cross-functional teams.

Interns will contribute to AI-driven content generation, evaluation, and growth initiatives while gaining exposure to real-world projects and professional development opportunities.

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a Bachelor's, Master' degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related technical field.
• Able to commit to working for 12 weeks during the Summer of 2027.
• Familiar with Golang, Python, Java, or C++, with a good understanding of data structures and algorithms.
• Basic understanding of backend development, APIs, databases, cache systems, microservices, or distributed systems.
• Good communication skills, strong learning ability, and willingness to collaborate with cross‑functional and international teams.

Responsibilities

• Participate in the design and development of backend systems for TikTok user growth, content optimization, experimentation, and organic acquisition.
• Build or improve services, tools, and data pipelines for SEO/GEO, search and discovery, content understanding, content quality evaluation, and traffic optimization.
• Apply AIGC capabilities to support content generation, prompt workflows, quality assessment, and automated optimization for growth scenarios.
• Explore AI / Agentic workflow and Auto Research capabilities, including tool calling, evaluation pipelines, human-in‑the-loop workflows, and feedback loops.
• Collaborate with product, data, algorithm, and engineering partners to deliver reliable features, tools, and backend components with measurable impact.

Skills

Golang

Python

Java

C++

Data structures & algorithms

Communication

Education

Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Job description

TikTok is offering an internship in San Jose focused on backend systems for user growth, content optimization, and organic acquisition. The program emphasizes hands-on experience with SEO, data pipelines, AI-enabled workflows, and collaboration with cross-functional teams.

Interns will contribute to AI-driven content generation, evaluation, and growth initiatives while gaining exposure to real-world projects and professional development opportunities.