Machine Learning Engineer, Ecommerce Risk Control

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

Job summary

TikTok Inc. is seeking a lead E-Commerce Risk Control scientist to build ML models and risk systems for the TikTok Shop ecosystem. You will collaborate across product, engineering, and business teams to design, implement, and deploy scalable risk detection solutions that protect buyers, sellers, and creators.

The role emphasizes quantitative modeling, data-driven decision making, and strong communication to stakeholders while advancing fraud prevention in fast-growing e-commerce settings.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in CS, Math, ML or related STEM field; programming with Java, C++, Python.
• 3+ years building and delivering ML models for large-scale projects.
• Experience with forecasting, ML and statistical tools; clear communication of results.
• Ability to think creatively and solve problems.

Responsibilities

• Invent, implement, and deploy ML algorithms to mitigate risks in TikTok products/platforms.
• Build prototypes; conduct experiments; communicate insights to Product and Tech teams.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to enhance automation processes.
• Develop data querying infrastructure for offline/online analysis; identify risk weaknesses.
• Define risk control measurements; quantify and monitor risk-related metrics.
• Maintain technical documents and communicate results to diverse audiences.

Skills

Java

C++

Python

Scala

R

Ruby

Matlab

Education

Master's degree in CS/Math/ML

PhD in CS/ML/Statistics/OR

Job description

Responsibilities

The E-Commerce Risk Control (ECRC) team's mission is :

• To protect TikTok e-commerce users, including and beyond buyer, seller, creator;
• To make Tiktok e-commerce the safest and most trusted place worldwide to transact online by securing the integrity of the e-commerce ecosystem and providing a safe shopping experience on the platform;
• Through building software systems, risk models and operational processes, as well as collaborating with many cross-functional teams and stakeholders.

The ECRC team works to prevent and detect any risk attempts in Tiktok e-commerce platforms (e.g. TikTok Shop, Fanno) and to mitigate the negative impact on our customers and Selling Partners (Sps), covering multiple classical and novel business risk areas such as account integrity, incentive abuse, malicious activities, brushing, click-farm, information leakage etc.

We achieve our mission by a) developing state‑of‑art Machine Learning (ML) solutions to prevent customers, SPs, and Tiktok from being impacted by bad actors’ actions and practices to gain unfair business advantages; b) empowering Tiktok teams, both internal to GNE and external, to reduce risk attempts by utilizing our mechanisms.

• Invent, implement, and deploy state of the art machine learning algorithms, to respond to and mitigate business risks in Tiktok products/platforms.
• Build prototypes and explore conceptually new solutions, define and conduct experiments to validate/reject hypotheses, and communicate insights and recommendations to Product and Tech teams
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams from multidisciplinary science, engineering and business backgrounds to enhance current automation processes
• Develop efficient data querying infrastructure for both offline and online analysis, uncover evolving attack motion, identify weaknesses and opportunities in risk defense solutions, explore new space from the discoveries.
• Define risk control measurements. Quantify, generalize and monitor risk related business and operational metrics. Align risk teams and their stakeholders on risk control numeric goals, promote impact-oriented, data‑driven data science practices for risks.
• Maintain technical documents and communicate results to diverse audiences with effective writing, visualizations, and presentations

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Master degrees in Computer science, Mathematics, Machine Learning, or other relevant STEM majors (e.g. finance if applying for financial fraud roles). Experience programming in Java, C++, Python or related language
• 3+ years of hands on experience in building and delivering machine learning models for large-scale projects.
• Track record of developing and implementing models and visualizations using programming and scripting (Scala, Python, R, Ruby, and/or Matlab).
• Experience using various forecasting, machine learning and statistical tools and communicating results, plans and/or risks clearly.
• Ability to think creatively and solve problems

Preferred Qualifications:

• A PhD in CS, Machine Learning, Statistics, Operations Research, or relevant field
• 4+ years of industry experience in predictive modeling and analysis
• Experience collaborating with product, operations and engineering teams is a plus.
• Excellent analytical and communication skills and ability to influence stakeholders.
• Experience in e-commerce / online companies in fraud / risk control functions

Job Information

[For Pay Transparency] Compensation Description (annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $153900 - $300960 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; and
3. Exercising sound judgment.