Backend Software Engineer Intern (TikTok-Growth-Innovative Growth) - 2027 Summer San Jose Techn[...]

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

Discover a career that energizes and excites you every day.

@2026 TikTok

Location:

San Jose

Employment Type:

Intern

Job Code:

A158306

About the team

The TikTok User Growth team is central to the strategic acquisition, engagement, and expansion of TikTok's global user base. Our team focuses on driving user growth through organic traffic channels, content optimization, AIGC technologies, and scalable backend systems across TikTok surfaces such as Web, Lite, and other emerging platforms. We build growth and content optimization systems that turn search, discovery, data, and AI-driven capabilities into measurable business impact. Typical projects include Search Engine Optimization for organic acquisition, AIGC-powered content generation and quality evaluation, AI / Agentic workflow automation, Auto Research systems for growth opportunity discovery, and backend platforms that support experimentation and large-scale production rollout. We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship. Our internship program offers students hands‑on experience, industry exposure, and opportunities to apply their knowledge to real-world challenges while building a strong foundation for personal and professional growth. Interns will gain practical experience, explore potential career paths, and participate in social events, learning programs, and development workshops alongside industry professionals.

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.

Qualifications

Minimum 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 one or more programming languages such as 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.

Preferred Qualifications

• Internship, project, course, or research experience in backend development, distributed systems, microservices, data platforms, or large‑scale consumer‑facing systems.
• Experience or strong interest in AI‑related backend systems, such as LLM service integration, prompt workflows, model evaluation, vector retrieval, feature serving, or AI‑powered automation.
• Experience building or experimenting with AI agents, agentic workflows, AI coding tools, tool‑calling applications, or workflow automation systems.
• Experience or interest in search, recommendation, discovery, content platforms, SEO/GEO, growth engineering, experimentation, or traffic optimization.
• Strong self‑drive, sense of ownership, and curiosity about applying AIGC technologies to real‑world product and engineering problems.

Job Information

The hourly rate range for this position in the selected city is $45- $45.

Benefits

Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location.

• Interns have day one access to health insurance, life insurance, wellbeing benefits and more.
• Interns also receive 10 paid holidays per year and paid sick time (56 hours if hired in first half of year, 40 if hired in second half of year).
• Interns who are not working 100% remote may also be eligible for housing allowance.

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: 1. Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues; 2. Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and 3. 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