Backend Software Engineer Graduate (TikTok-PGC-Digital Content Center) - 2027 Start

TikTok; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 128,000 - 256,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid parental leave

Disability coverage

Life insurance

Wellbeing benefits

Job summary

TikTok is hiring a backend engineer in San Jose to build a global copyright protection platform. You will design core services, implement high-availability event-driven pipelines, and optimize databases for large-scale data.

Collaboration with product, frontend, and algorithm teams will be essential to deliver reliable, secure APIs and cross-region workflows. Strong knowledge of Go/Java/C++, databases (MySQL/NoSQL), REST/RPC, and distributed systems is required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or related field.
• Proficient in Go, Java, or C++.
• Experience with MySQL, Redis, MongoDB; familiarity with indexing and tuning.
• Understanding of RESTful API design and development.
• Familiar with Linux and shell scripting; strong problem-solving skills.

Responsibilities

• Architect and develop core backend services for the copyright protection platform.
• Implement event-driven pipelines using EventBus/MQ for reliable delivery across workflows.
• Design and optimize MySQL/NoSQL databases for billion-scale data.
• Develop RESTful APIs and RPC interfaces for internal/external systems.
• Plan multi-DC synchronization to reduce replication lag and ensure consistency.
• Monitor performance, troubleshoot production issues, and improve throughput.
• Collaborate with product, front-end, and algorithm teams to deliver high-quality releases.

Skills

Go

Java

C++

MySQL

Redis

MongoDB

REST APIs

Shell scripting

Distributed systems

gRPC

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

EventBus/Kafka

Thrift

gRPC

Job description

About the Team

Our team builds a global copyright protection platform that translates legal requirements, business policies, and operational workflows into reliable and scalable systems. The platform supports complaint intake, regional routing, human review, enforcement, notifications, creator appeals, rightsholder rebuttals, and proactive content identification.

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.

You will work on complex event-driven systems and multi-region distributed architectures, addressing real-world challenges in consistency, idempotency, cross-region routing, reliability, and compliance.

Responsibilities

• Participate in the architecture design and development of core backend services for the copyright protection platform, writing high-quality Go code across modules including complaint intake, audit scheduling, enforcement execution, and appeal management.
• Contribute to the design and implementation of event-driven architecture, building high-availability event flow pipelines based on EventBus/MQ that ensure reliable delivery and eventual consistency across cross-service business workflows.
• Design, optimize, and maintain databases (MySQL/NoSQL) supporting efficient storage and querying at billion-scale data volumes, ensuring data integrity and consistency.
• Develop and maintain RESTful APIs and RPC interfaces, ensuring efficient and secure data exchange between front-end applications, internal platforms, and external systems.
• Participate in system design and data synchronization strategies for multi-DC (Multi-Data Center / Multi-VGeo) architecture, solving distributed challenges such as cross-region replication lag and read-after-write consistency.
• Monitor and optimize system performance, identify and resolve potential bottlenecks, and improve system throughput and response speed.
• Quickly respond to and resolve production environment issues, ensuring system stability and business continuity.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, front-end engineers, algorithm teams, and other stakeholders to ensure high-quality and on-time project delivery.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Individuals who are completing or have recently completed a Bachelor's/ Master's degree in Computer Science or a related discipline.
• Proficient in at least one backend programming language such as Go, Java, or C++;
• Familiar with common database technologies such as MySQL, Redis, and MongoDB; understanding of index optimization and basic performance tuning.
• Understanding of RESTful API design and development
• Familiar with Linux-based operating systems and common commands; basic Shell scripting ability.
• Strong problem-solving and logical thinking abilities, passion for new technologies, and a quick learning ability. Excellent communication and collaboration skills with a strong team-oriented mindset.

Preferred Qualifications

• Understanding of microservices architecture and related technologies such as Docker, Kubernetes, etc.
• Experience in developing large-scale distributed systems; understanding of message queues (e.g., Kafka, EventBus), distributed transactions, and eventual consistency.
• Familiarity with Event-Driven Architecture (EDA) or publish-subscribe patterns, with relevant hands-on experience.
• Interest in or knowledge of copyright protection, content safety, or multimedia processing (e.g., audio/video fingerprinting, content matching).
• Knowledge of Machine Learning Engineering (MLE) concepts and practices, including model training, deployment, and evaluation.
• Open-source contributions, technical blog posts, or programming awards are a plus.
• Go experience is a plus.
• Familiarity with RPC frameworks (e.g., Thrift, gRPC) is a plus.

Job Information

【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $128000 - $256000 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 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.

TikTok Accommodation

TikTok 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