Data Tech Lead Manager, Video Platform

TikTok USDS Joint Venture; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 209,000 - 438,000; Full time

Job summary

TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is seeking an experienced tech lead manager for the Video Platform Data team. The role focuses on building and operating scalable data pipelines, ensuring data quality, and guiding data strategy for billions of users worldwide.

You will own end-to-end delivery from design to deployment, collaborate with product, business, and SRE teams, and drive cost optimization and performance improvements across video services.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related technical field, or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of experience building and scaling enterprise-grade data platforms in large scale distributed data systems with at least 3+ years in engineering leadership overseeing technical teams.
• Hands-on experience with big data processing and distributed storage (Hadoop/HDFS, YARN, Spark, Flink, Hive, ClickHouse).
• Strong proficiency in SQL and Python for data processing and analytics.
• Knowledge of data pipeline/workflow tools (Airflow, Luigi).
• Deep understanding of data architectures including data lakes, data warehouses and lakehouse.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a team of data engineers, data analysts and data SRE.
• Oversee project management and cross functional collaboration for high-quality delivery.
• Design and build scalable real-time and batch data pipelines.
• Optimize large-scale data processing systems for performance and cost efficiency.
• Define and drive data architecture standards and data quality frameworks.

Skills

Data engineering

Data pipelines

SQL

Python

Leadership

Cross-functional leadership

Education

Bachelor's in CS/Engineering or related

Tools

Hadoop

HDFS

Spark

Flink

Hive

ClickHouse

Airflow

Luigi

Job description

Responsibilities

TikTok video system is a world-leading video platform that provides multimedia storage, delivery, transcoding services. As part of the USDS JV, the Video Platform team is responsible for building the next generation video processing platform which provides excellent experiences for billions of users around the world. The Video Platform Data team is responsible for design, implementation, improvement, and runtime operation of the video data pipelines from data sources to the data warehouses ready to serve many partner teams. We are seeking an experienced tech lead manager for the data team for the video platform. If you are passionate about data engineering, large scale data pipeline buildup and runtime operation, ensuring data quality, love problem-solving, and are prepared for exciting challenges, we would like you to be on our team.

• Lead and manage a team of data engineers, data analysts and data SRE, fostering a culture of technical excellence, ownership and continuous improvement.
• Oversee project management and cross functional collaboration ensuring high quality delivery across project lifecycle.
• Design and build scalable and high performance realtime and batch data pipelines.
• Optimize large-scale data processing systems for performance, scalability, reliability and cost efficiency.
• Define and drive architecture standards, including data modeling, pipeline design and data quality frameworks to ensure trusted datasets.
• Own end-to-end delivery of data solutions from design through development, testing, deployment and optimization.
• Provide data service support to the product & business teams and video SRE teams for continuous cost optimization and performance improvement of video services.
• Define key metrics and leverage data to measure performance, guide prioritization and support decision making.
• Ensure compliance with data governance, privacy and security standards in all data solutions.
• Communicate technical concepts and data insights effectively to both technical and executive audiences.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related technical field, or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of experience building and scaling enterprise-grade data platforms in large scale distributed data systems with at least 3+ years of experience in engineering leadership or engineering management role overseeing technical teams in a cross functional and fast-paced environment.
• Hands on experience in building scalable data solutions with big data processing and distributed storage engines such as Hadoop and HDFS, YARN, Spark, Flink, Hive, ClickHouse etc.
• Strong proficiency in SQL and Python(or equivalent language) for data processing and analytics.
• Knowledge of data pipeline and workflow management tools (e.g., Airflow, Luigi).
• Deep understanding of modern data architectures, including data lakes, data warehouses and lakehouse patterns.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience optimizing large-scale data systems for performance, efficiency and cost reduction.
• Ability to influence data strategy and drive alignment across cross-functional teams.
• Experience in video streaming business is a plus
• Experience in building data solutions with AWS, GCP, Azure and other cloud services is a plus

About USDS

TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is dedicated to the safety and security of millions of Americans who create, discover, and connect with what they love on the apps we operate. The Joint Venture has been established in compliance with the Executive Order signed by President Trump on September 25, 2025. Our foundation is a comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity program we operate under defined safeguards to protect national security and secure U.S. user data, apps and the algorithm. We safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem, holding decision-making authority for trust and safety policies and moderation. USDS Joint Venture helps ensure Americans can continue to express their creativity, discover new hobbies and interests, and build thriving communities and businesses on a global scale.

On-site presence across teams allows the company to operate with greater speed, alignment, and agility — especially in areas like real-time decision‑making, team development, and integrated execution. As such, the company is shifting from a hybrid work model to a fully in-person schedule up to 5 days a week.

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.

USDS Reasonable Accommodation

USDS 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/USDS-RA

Job Information

【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually) The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $208800 - $438000 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:

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;
3. Exercising sound judgment.