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

TikTok; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 317,000; Full time

Job summary

TikTok is seeking a highly capable engineer to advance our Global E-Commerce Content Recommendation systems. You will own end-to-end models for TikTok Shop, covering retrieval, ranking, multi-queue blending, and experimentation at scale.

You will work on multimodal representations, large-scale data processing, and online/offline evaluation to optimize for engagement and GMV, with a focus on fast, robust, and fair recommendations at scale.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics or related field.
• Strong algorithms and data-structures fundamentals with clean, efficient code.
• Solid foundations in machine learning, probability, and statistics with explanation of model behavior.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end recommendation models for TikTok Shop across retrieval, ranking, and multi-queue blending.
• Iterate architectures for multi-task objectives including click, conversion, and GMV.
• Model user interest with long sequences and latency considerations.
• Develop multimodal representations combining images, text, and video with behavioral data.
• Design cold-start and content ecosystem mechanisms for new products and creators.

Skills

Algorithms & data-structures

ML foundations

Python

C++

Linux

Communication & collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/EE/Math/Stats

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Spark

Flink

SQL

Python

C++

Linux

Job description

Location:

San Jose

Employment Type:

Regular

Job Code:

A244004

Responsibilities

Team IntroductionGlobal E-Commerce (TikTok Shop) is one of TikTok's fastest-growing businesses and a core driver of the company's revenue growth. Our team, Global E-Commerce Content Recommendation, owns the end-to-end recommendation stack for e-commerce video and image-text content on TikTok worldwide — retrieval, ranking, and multi-queue blending; supply ecosystem and cold start; and the browsing-to-purchase experience for hundreds of millions of users.We are building what we intend to be the most advanced recommendation system in the world, on top of a two-sided marketplace that is still growing fast. Many of the problems that matter most here — what to optimize, how to know it worked, how to treat a brand-new seller fairly — have no settled answer anywhere in the industry.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. Please state your availability and graduation date clearly in your resume.Candidates can apply to a maximum of two positions and will be considered for jobs in the order you apply. The application limit is applicable to our Company and its affiliates' jobs globally. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis - we encourage you to apply early.

• Optimize the recommendation models across the full funnel: You own the models behind TikTok Shop's product, short-video, and livestream recommendation — retrieval, pre-ranking, ranking, re-ranking, and multi-queue blending — and every iteration ships to real traffic.
• Ranking and retrieval models. Iterate the model architectures that carry the funnel: multi-task and multi-objective learning from click through conversion and GMV; multi-scenario, multi-format joint modelling; and the sample, label, and debiasing design that decides what the model actually learns.
• User interest modelling. Ultra-long behavior sequences (10K+ events) with real trade-offs between positional-encoding extrapolation, attention cost, and online latency and storage; decoupling stable preferences from seasonal demand, momentary impulses, and needs already satisfied; and mining implicit negative feedback — impressions without clicks, consecutive skips, fast swipes — at every stage of the funnel.
• Multimodal representation learning. Combine product images, text, and video content with behavioural data into high-quality item and user representations.
• Re-ranking, blending, and exploration. List-level decisions rather than pointwise scores: multi-queue blending across content types, diversity and repetition control, and exploration mechanisms that surface interests users have not yet expressed — while breaking the recommendation feedback loop.
• Design the cold-start and content-ecosystem mechanisms: New products, new livestream hosts, and new creators arrive in volume every day.
• Do original work on open problems. Long-term value modelling, repurchase and retention, transaction attribution, fatigue modelling, new-user recommendation, incremental value modelling, LLM4Rec — the frontier problems of a real recommendation system, where the industry has no standard answers.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Individuals who are completing or have recently completed a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics or a related discipline.
• Solid algorithms and data-structures fundamentals and excellent coding ability: clean, efficient, reproducible code.
• Solid foundations in machine learning, probability, and statistics: you understand the assumptions behind a model and where it breaks, and you can explain why a method works and under what conditions it fails — not just how to call the API.
• Fluent in a deep-learning framework (PyTorch / TensorFlow) and at least one large-scale data-processing tool (Spark / Flink / SQL); proficient in Python, with working C++ and Linux skills.
• Data sense and experimental rigor: you can locate the real cause behind a metric movement, and you understand A/B test design, statistical confidence, and the common pitfalls.
• Fast learner, clear communicator, good collaborator.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Research or engineering experience in recommendation, search, ads, information retrieval, NLP, or large-scale ML systems.
• Publications at KDD, NeurIPS, WWW, SIGIR, WSDM, ICML, ICLR, RecSys, CIKM, or comparable venues — or high-quality open-source contributions.
• Awards in Kaggle, Tianchi, or RecSys Challenge, or an ACM-ICPC / NOI competition background.
• Hands‑on experience with causal inference, online learning / bandits, graph neural networks, sequence modelling, or large-scale distributed training.
• Heavy user of AI coding and agentic workflows for building systems and optimizing models.

Job Information

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $128000 - $316800 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:

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.

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

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