(General Hire) Machine Learning Engineer Intern (TikTok-Recommendation) - 2027 Summer

TikTok; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 52,000 - 72,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Life insurance

Wellbeing benefits

Housing allowance

Paid holidays

Job summary

TikTok is offering a 12-week Summer 2027 internship in its Recommendation organization in California. The role focuses on building and optimizing industry-leading recommendation systems and ML solutions that impact user experience, content understanding, and platform safety.

Ideal candidates are pursuing a Master’s degree in CS/ML, have strong ML research experience, and are proficient with PyTorch or TensorFlow, Python, and C/C++.

Qualifications

• Pursuing a Master's degree in computer science, ML, or related field.
• Solid grounding in ML theory and empirical research methods.
• Experience with PyTorch or TensorFlow and neural network architectures.
• Available to commit 12 weeks during Summer 2027.

Responsibilities

• Develop industry-leading recommendation systems and models to improve user experience and platform safety.
• Deliver end-to-end ML solutions for product challenges including content understanding and fairness.
• Own and optimize the full-stack ML pipeline from algorithm design to deployment infrastructure.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align product strategy and drive TikTok growth.

Skills

PyTorch

TensorFlow

C/C++

Python

ML Research

Education

Master's candidate in CS/ML

Job description

Responsibilities

Recommendation algorithm team plays a central role in the company, driving critical product decisions and platform growth. The team is made up of machine learning researchers and engineers, who support and innovate on production recommendation models and drive product impact. The team is fast-pacing, collaborative and impact-driven.

• This opening is part of the general hiring process for the TikTok Recommendation organization. Applications will be evaluated by multiple teams within the Recommendation organization to ensure the best alignment based on skills and interests.

In This Role, You’ll Have The Opportunity To

• Drive the development of industry-leading recommendation systems that elevate user experience, strengthen platform safety, and empower a vibrant content ecosystem.
• Deliver impactful, end-to-end machine learning solutions that tackle high-priority product challenges related to content understanding, LLMs, robustness, and fairness.
• Own and optimize the full-stack ML pipeline—from algorithm design to system infrastructure—to continuously push the boundaries of recommendation performance.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to craft innovative product strategies and develop intelligent solutions that fuel TikTok’s growth in key global markets.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Currently pursuing a Master degree with a background in computer science, machine learning, or similar fields;
• Good knowledge of theoretical and empirical research in addressing research problems;
• Solid knowledge and experience with at least one popular deep learning framework (e.g., PyTorch,TensorFlow) and familiarity with deep neural network architectures.
• Able to commit to working for 12 weeks during Summer 2027

Preferred Qualifications

• Research experience in one or more of the following fields: applied machine learning, machine learning infrastructure, large-scale recommendation system, market-facing machine learning product;
• Strong first-author publications record in top AI conferences or journals(e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, NAACL etc.);
• Proficient in C/C++, Python, and shell programming languages, and have a deep understanding of data structure and algorithm design;
• Internship experience in an AI research organization.

By submitting an application for this role, you accept and agree to our global applicant privacy policy, which may be accessed here: https://careers.tiktok.com/legal/privacy

Job Information

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

• 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:

• 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