Machine Learning Engineer Graduate (E-Commerce Recommendation Foundation)- 2027 Start (PhD)

TikTok Inc.; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 162,000 - 388,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k)

Parental leave

Disability coverage

Life insurance

Wellbeing benefits

Paid holidays

Sick days

Paid personal time

Job summary

TikTok Inc. is seeking researchers to advance Recommendation Foundation Models within the Data - Global E-commerce organization in San Jose, CA. You will work on event-sequence-driven generative recommendation using LLMs and multimodal models, exploring reinforcement learning and system optimization.

The role emphasizes original exploration, open hypothesis validation, and impactful publications. Graduates will have opportunities to pursue bold ideas with strong growth potential.

Qualifications

• PhD in CS/EE/Math/Stats or related field.
• Strong ML/DL background with interest in LLMs and generative recommendation.
• Proficiency in Python and DL frameworks such as PyTorch.

Responsibilities

• Participate in the full training lifecycle of Recommendation Foundation Models (pre-, mid-, post-training).
• Design and train multimodal semantic tokenizers for recommendation items using foundation models.
• Develop LLM-native recommendation by integrating tasks into LLM training.
• Build next-gen recommendation systems spanning retrieval, ranking, and end-to-end generative recommendation.

Skills

Python

machine learning

deep learning

LLMs

multimodal

reinforcement learning

research mindset

engineering skills

Education

PhD in CS/EE/Math/Stats or related

Tools

PyTorch

Job description

Responsibilities

The Recommendation Foundation team within TikTok's Data - Global E-commerce organization is dedicated to building shared Recommendation Foundation Models across scenarios. We are exploring an event-sequence-driven generative recommendation paradigm that deeply integrates large language and vision-language models (LLMs/VLMs), multimodal understanding, reinforcement learning, and system optimization, advancing recommendation systems beyond click prediction toward general-purpose recommendation agents.

We believe the future of recommendation is not only about predicting clicks, but about understanding the relationships between people and content and generating new connections. We value original exploration and encourage research thinking and engineering practice equally. Every team member can propose hypotheses and validate ideas in an open environment; your code and publications may help shape the next generation of recommendation systems. We are looking for people with a general-intelligence mindset to redefine recommendation with us.

We are looking for talented individuals to join our team. As a graduate, you will get opportunities to pursue bold ideas, tackle complex challenges, and unlock limitless growth.

Successful candidates must be able to commit to an onboarding date by the end of the year.

Responsibilities:

1. 1. Participate in the full training lifecycle of Recommendation Foundation Models, including pre-training, mid-training, and post-training.
2. 2. Design and train multimodal semantic tokenizers for recommendation items, leveraging multimodal foundation models to encode rich item content into discrete semantic tokens and raise the performance ceiling of Recommendation Foundation Models.
3. 3. Develop LLM-native recommendation by incorporating recommendation tasks directly into large language model training and leveraging world knowledge to improve recommendation quality.
4. 4. Build the next generation of recommendation systems powered by Recommendation Foundation Models, spanning retrieval, ranking, and end-to-end generative recommendation.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Individuals who are completing or have recently completed a PhD degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics or a related discipline.
• Solid foundation in machine learning and deep learning, with strong interest in LLMs and generative recommendation.
• Proficiency in Python and experience with deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch.
• Self-driven, with a strong research mindset and solid engineering skills.

Preferred Requirement:

• Experience with pre-training, mid-training, or post-training of LLMs or Foundation Models.
• Research or project experience in generative recommendation, LLM-native recommendation, or multimodal semantic tokenization.
• Publications on LLM-related topics at top-tier machine learning or natural language processing conferences, such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, or NAACL, or strong achievements in major technical competitions.

Job Information

[For Pay Transparency] Compensation Description (annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $162000 - $387600 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. 1. Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
2. 2. Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
3. 3. Exercising sound judgment.