Graduate ML Engineer — Vertical Recommendations

TikTok; San Jose, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 128,000 - 317,000; Full time

Job summary

TikTok is seeking a Machine Learning Engineer Graduate for the San Jose location to join the vertical recommendation team. You will implement, train, and iterate on retrieval and ranking models, handling feature engineering from user behavior data to online deployment.

You will collaborate with data scientists, engineers, and product teams to run experiments, analyze results, and deploy scalable solutions, including advanced sequence modeling and LLM-enhanced techniques.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related discipline.
• Solid foundation in data structures, algorithms, and machine learning fundamentals.
• Proficiency in Python, C++, Go, or Java.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills.
• Internship or research experience in recommendation, search, or ads; publications in relevant venues are a plus.
• Hands-on experience with PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Experience with large-scale data processing (Spark/Flink) or distributed model training.

Responsibilities

• Implement, train, and iterate on retrieval and ranking models for TikTok vertical-business recommendations.
• Deliver end-to-end ML engineering solutions from model implementation to online deployment.
• Run and analyze A/B experiments; drive launches that improve core metrics.
• Productionize techniques such as sequence modeling, multi-task learning, and LLM-enhanced recommendation.
• Collaborate with algorithm teams, backend engineers, data scientists, and product teams.

Skills

Data structures & algorithms

ML fundamentals

Python / C++ / Go / Java

Communication & collaboration

Internship/research in rec/s earch/ads

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Spark

Flink

Job description

TikTok is seeking a Machine Learning Engineer Graduate for the San Jose location to join the vertical recommendation team. You will implement, train, and iterate on retrieval and ranking models, handling feature engineering from user behavior data to online deployment.

You will collaborate with data scientists, engineers, and product teams to run experiments, analyze results, and deploy scalable solutions, including advanced sequence modeling and LLM-enhanced techniques.