Machine Learning Engineer, E-Commerce Risk Control - USDS

TikTok USDS Joint Venture; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 137,000 - 259,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid parental leave

Disability coverage

Life insurance

Job summary

TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC seeks an experienced machine learning professional to join the E-Commerce Risk Control team in a fast-paced security-focused role. You will develop scalable models to detect fraud, abuse, and malicious activity across TikTok’s e-commerce platforms.

Leverage representation learning, graph models, and deep learning to enhance detection while prioritizing privacy and user trust. This on-site role emphasizes rapid delivery and cross-functional collaboration.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in CS, Math, ML, or related STEM fields.
• 2+ years building ML models for large-scale internet projects.
• Proficient in C++/Java/Python with solid coding skills; familiar with ML platforms.

Responsibilities

• Invent, implement, and deploy ML algorithms to mitigate e-commerce risks.
• Apply representation learning, graph models, deep learning to improve detection.
• Monitor risk metrics and refine risk-control strategies.
• Analyze large ecommerce data to build user profiles and improve models.
• Advance privacy, interpretability, and risk-control systems.

Skills

C++/Java/Python

ML techniques

Data analysis

Education

Master’s degree in CS/Math/ML or related STEM

PhD preferred

Tools

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Job description

Responsibilities

About the team

The E-Commerce Risk Control team works to minimize the damage of inauthentic behaviors on TikTok E-Commerce platforms, covering multiple classical and novel business risk areas such as account integrity, incentive abuse, malicious behaviors, brushing, click-farm, information leakage, etc.

In this team you'll have a unique opportunity to have first-hand exposure to the strategy of the company in key security initiatives, especially in building scalable and robust, intelligent and privacy-safe, secure and product-friendly systems and solutions. Our challenges are not some regular day-to-day technical puzzles – You'll be part of a team that's developing novel solutions to first-seen challenges of a non-stop evolution of a phenomenal product eco-system. The work needs to be fast, transferable, while still down to the ground to make quick and solid differences.

Responsibilities:

• Invent, implement, and deploy cutting-edge machine learning algorithms, build prototypes, and explore entirely new conceptual solutions to respond to and mitigate business risks in TikTok e-commerce/platforms, including but not limited to fraudulent merchants, cheating influencers, malicious users, information security issues, and cross-domain risk challenges.
• Leverage techniques such as representation learning, graph models, deep learning, transfer learning, and multi-task learning to improve the efficiency of problem detection, thereby rapidly blocking risks and optimizing various metrics in the e-commerce community ecosystem.
• Monitor and attribute key metrics to quickly detect changes in risk and business trends, proactively identify potential attacks, continuously refine and adjust risk control strategies, and drive risk governance development and business model improvements.
• Mine and analyze massive e-commerce content and user behavior data to build both short-term and long-term user profiles, improve model precision and recall, and enhance robustness, automation, and generalization capabilities.
• Advance risk ML capabilities in privacy/compliance, interpretability, risk perception, and analysis; innovate models and algorithms tailored to the characteristics of content e-commerce, and build an industry-leading content e-commerce risk control algorithm system.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Machine Learning, or other relevant STEM disciplines.
• 2+ years of hands-on experience in building and delivering machine learning models for large-scale projects in internet companies.
• Proficiency in C++/Java/Python with strong coding skills, and familiarity with at least one common machine learning/deep learning platform.
• Deep understanding of supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and deep learning techniques, and the ability to build business algorithm models using relevant algorithms.
• Ability to think critically, objectively; reason and communicate in a results-oriented, data-driven manner; and work with high autonomy.

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Operations Research, or related field.
• 4+ years of hands-on experience in building and delivering machine learning models for large-scale projects in internet companies.
• Experience in e-commerce/internet companies in fraud or risk control roles, with a track record of building fraud detection, anomaly detection, or similar risk control models using relevant algorithms.
• Ability to keep up with and proactively apply relevant technological advancements, incorporating the latest technologies (e.g., LLM, Multi-agent systems) into daily work.

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 $136800 - $259200 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.