Graduate Research Scientist — Generative Recommender Systems

TikTok; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 154,000 - 301,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

401(k) Plan with Match

Parental Leave

Disability Insurance

Life Insurance

Wellbeing Benefits

Holidays (10)

Sick Days (10)

Paid Personal Time

Job summary

TikTok is seeking a Research Scientist Graduate (PhD) to advance e-commerce recommendations for TikTok Shop in Seattle, starting 2027. You will design and optimize models, integrate LLM-based methods, and run end-to-end online experiments impacting global markets.

The role requires a PhD in a related field, strong ML foundations, and fluency in Python/C++ with PyTorch experience. You will own research from concept to production and share findings publicly when possible.

Qualifications

• Minimum Qualifications: PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics or related discipline.
• Strong foundations in machine learning, probability, statistics and optimization.
• Excellent coding skills in Python or C++ and hands-on deep learning experience.

Responsibilities

• Build e-commerce recommendation at global scale for TikTok Shop—end to end.
• Pioneer generative and LLM-powered recommendation systems.
• Optimize decisions with RL, causal inference, and operations research.
• Build autonomous research agents to mine data, run experiments and diagnose production issues.
• Model long-term value of shoppers including retention and attribution.

Skills

Machine Learning

Deep Learning

Reinforcement Learning

LLMs

Generative Models

Optimization

Experimentation

Education

PhD in Computer Science

PhD in Electrical Engineering

PhD in Mathematics

PhD in Statistics

Tools

PyTorch

Python

C++

Job description

TikTok is seeking a Research Scientist Graduate (PhD) to advance e-commerce recommendations for TikTok Shop in Seattle, starting 2027. You will design and optimize models, integrate LLM-based methods, and run end-to-end online experiments impacting global markets.

The role requires a PhD in a related field, strong ML foundations, and fluency in Python/C++ with PyTorch experience. You will own research from concept to production and share findings publicly when possible.