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

TikTok; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 65,000 - 92,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Housing allowance

Paid holidays

Wellbeing benefits

Job summary

TikTok is seeking PhD interns to join the Recommendation Foundation team within Data – Global E-commerce in Seattle. The internship focuses on event-sequence driven generative recommendation, integrating large language and vision-language models, multimodal understanding, reinforcement learning, and system optimization.

Interns participate in the full training lifecycle, design multimodal semantic tokenizers, and develop LLM-native recommendation capabilities across retrieval, ranking, and

Qualifications

• Pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics or related field.
• Strong foundation in machine learning and deep learning with 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.

Responsibilities

• Participate in the full training lifecycle of Recommendation Foundation Models, including pre-training, mid-training, and post-training.
• Design and train multimodal semantic tokenizers for recommendation items, leveraging multimodal foundation models to encode rich content into tokens.
• Develop LLM-native recommendation by incorporating tasks into large language model training and leveraging world knowledge.
• Build the next generation of recommendation systems powered by Foundation Models across retrieval, ranking, and end-to-end generation.

Skills

Python

LLMs

ML/DL

Research mindset

Education

PhD in CS/EE/Math/Stats

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 us for an internship. PhD internships at Our Company provide students with the opportunity to actively contribute to our products and research, as well as to the organization’s future plans and emerging technologies. Our dynamic internship experience blends hands‑on learning, enriching community‑building and professional development events, and collaboration with industry experts.

Responsibilities

• Participate in the full training lifecycle of Recommendation Foundation Models, including pre-training, mid-training, and post-training.


• 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.


• Develop LLM-native recommendation by incorporating recommendation tasks directly into large language model training and leveraging world knowledge to improve recommendation quality.


• Build the next generation of recommendation systems powered by Recommendation Foundation Models, spanning retrieval, ranking, and end-to-end generative recommendation.

Minimum Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a PhD 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 Qualifications

• 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 (Hourly) - Campus Intern

The hourly rate range for this position in the selected city is $57- $57.

Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Interns have day one access to health insurance, life insurance, wellbeing benefits and more. Interns also receive 10 paid holidays per year and paid sick time (56 hours if hired in first half of year, 40 if hired in second half of year). Interns who are not working 100% remote may also be eligible for housing allowance.

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

• 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;


• 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