Machine Learning Engineer Graduate (E-Commerce Recommendation/Search Alliance) - 2027 Start (Ph[...]

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

Job summary

TikTok is seeking a Machine Learning Engineer Graduate (E-Commerce Recommendation/Search Alliance) with a PhD to design and deploy large-scale ML and ranking models for our commerce ecosystem. You will research, prototype, and productionize AI tooling, collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver value for merchants and users.

Location is San Jose, CA. Regular employment with opportunities to publish and advance AI capabilities within a fast-growing tech company.

Qualifications

• PhD in CS/Engineering/Operations Research or related field.
• Strong data structures and algorithms knowledge.
• Deep ML, statistics, distributed computing, and big data skills.
• Software engineering experience via internships or projects.
• Experience in e-commerce, recommendation, or search is a plus.
• Publications at major conferences are desirable.
• Curiosity and entrepreneurship mindset; high creativity.

Responsibilities

• Design and build cutting-edge ML, recommendation, and ranking algorithms for large-scale e-commerce systems.
• Develop AI-powered merchant operation systems and AI agents to optimize affiliate strategies.
• Apply LLMs, NLP, and multimodal ML to discover new business opportunities.
• Collaborate with product managers and engineers to productionize AI solutions.
• Stay at the forefront of AI advances and rapidly prototype new technologies.
• Build ML-agents to automate algorithm development workflows and accelerate experimentation.

Skills

Data structures

Algorithms

ML basics

Software engineering

E-commerce

Publications

Curiosity

Creativity

Education

PhD in CS/Engineering/OR

Job description

Discover a career that energizes and excites you every day.

@2026 TikTok

Technology

Machine Learning Engineer Graduate (E-Commerce Recommendation/Search Alliance) - 2027 Start (PhD)

Location

San Jose

Employment Type

Regular

Job Code

A101843A

Responsibilities

• Design and build cutting-edge machine learning, recommendation, and ranking algorithms to power large-scale e-commerce recommendation systems that deliver high-quality, real-time product recommendations for millions of users.
• Develop AI-powered merchant operation systems and AI agents that help merchants optimize affiliate strategies, improve business ROI, and lower the barrier to growing their business through automation.
• Apply state-of-the-art LLMs , NLP, and multimodal machine learning to discover new business opportunities , driving sustainable growth for both merchants and creators.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, engineers, and cross-functional teams to bring innovative AI solutions from research to production.
• Stay at the foreground of advances in AI and machine learning, rapidly prototyping and productionizing new technologies to shape the future of intelligent commerce.
• Build ML-agents to automate algorithm development workflows, accelerating experimentation, model iteration, evaluation, and deployment.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Individuals who are completing or have recently completed a PhD degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Operations Research or a related discipline.
• Thorough understanding understanding of data structures and algorithms, with excellent problem-solving ability.
• Deep Understanding of machine learning, statistics, scaling distributed computing, and big data engineering

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated software engineering experience from previous internship, work experience, coding competitions, or publications
• Internship experience or research experience, especially in e-commerce, recommendation, search engine
• Publications at conferences such as KDD, NeurIPS, WWW, SIGIR, WSDM, CIKM, ICLR, ICML, IJCAI, AAAI.
• Curiosity toward new technologies and entrepreneurship
• High levels of creativity and quick problem-solving capabilities

Job Information

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. 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.

About TikTok

TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok's global headquarters are in Los Angeles and Singapore, and we also have offices in New York City, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.

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.

TikTok Accommodation

TikTok 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/RA-request