Machine Learning Engineer Graduate - Global E-commerce Recommendation/Search - 2026 Start (PhD)

TikTok Inc.; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 162,000 - 317,000; Full time

Job summary

TikTok Inc. is seeking top talent for a Data-E-commerce team focused on algorithmic research and scalable recommender systems. You will work on retrieval, ranking, and personalization to enhance user experiences across products, live streams, and videos.

The role involves building scalable models, analyzing massive data, and contributing to trust, safety, and safety-focused AI initiatives. Applicants should be nearing or have completed a PhD and be ready to join in 2026 in San Jose, CA.

Qualifications

• PhD in software development, CS, CE or related field.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Solid foundation in ML and DL, with NLP experience.
• Proficient in Linux development environments.
• Excellent coding skills with knowledge of data structures and algorithms.
• Prior experience in search, recommendation, or ads algorithms.
• Familiarity with e-commerce businesses.

Responsibilities

• Conduct cutting-edge research in machine learning algorithms, such as retrieval and recommendation.
• Build large-scale e-commerce recommendation systems (10M–100M items).
• Develop long and short-term user interest models from large datasets.
• Apply ML to improve search, NLP, video understanding, trust and safety.

Skills

Machine learning

Deep learning

NLP

Personalization

Coding skills

Algorithms

Linux development

Analytical skills

Problem solving

Education

PhD in CS/CE/related field

Job description

Responsibilities

The Data-E-commerce team oversees algorithmic and corresponding engineering work in the e-commerce business. Our responsibilities encompass not only utilizing recommendation and search algorithms to help users discover appealing products but also implementing risk control and content safety algorithms to identify malicious sellers/influencers and violations in products/videos/live streams, ensuring a secure shopping experience. Furthermore, we are involved in constructing intelligent customer service technology and large-scale product knowledge graphs, aiming to enhance efficiency across various transaction processes. Through operations optimization and intelligent supply chain algorithms, we work to improve logistics efficiency.

We are looking for talented individuals to join our team in 2026. As a graduate, you will get opportunities to pursue bold ideas, tackle complex challenges, and unlock limitless growth. Launch your career where inspiration is infinite at TikTok.

Successful candidates must be able to commit to an onboarding date by end of year 2026. 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 TikTok and its affiliates' jobs globally. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis - we encourage you to apply early.

Responsibilities:

• Work in a team to conduct cutting-edge research in machine learning algorithms, such as retrieval and recommendation algorithms.
• Participate in building large-scale (10 million to 100 million) e-commerce recommendation algorithms and systems, including commodity recommendations, live stream recommendations, short video recommendations etc in TikTok.
• Build long and short term user interest models, analyze and extract relevant information from large amounts of various data and design algorithms to explore users' latent interests efficiently.
• Apply machine learning algorithms to improve the different business scenarios, such as search ranking, natural language and video understanding, and trust and safety.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Individuals who are completing or have recently completed a PhD degree in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Strong foundation in machine learning and deep learning, with experience in: NLP (Natural Language Processing).Personalization.
• Exceptional coding skills with solid knowledge of data structures and algorithms.
• Proficiency in Linux development environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience in search, recommendation, or advertisement algorithms.
• Familiarity e-commerce businesses.

By submitting an application for this role, you accept and agree to our global applicant privacy policy, which may be accessed here: https://careers.tiktok.com/legal/privacy

Job Information

[For Pay Transparency] Compensation Description (annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $162000 - $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

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:

• Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
• Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
• Exercising sound judgment.