Machine Learning Engineer Intern (E-Commerce Recommendation Live)- 2027 Summer

TikTok; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 55,000 - 62,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Life insurance

Housing allowance

Paid holidays

Job summary

TikTok invites a student intern to join the Global E-commerce Recommendation Live Algorithm team in Seattle. You will contribute to building and refining models that span recall, ranking, and cross-domain signals to improve GMV, watch time, and long-term user value, touching videos, live streams, and product interactions.

The internship offers hands-on experience with generative recommendations, large models, and multimodal learning, plus collaboration with cross-functional teams, experiments,

Qualifications

• Pursuing an undergraduate degree in a software or CS-related field.
• Solid foundation in machine learning and related areas such as recommender systems, NLP, or multimodal learning.
• Strong programming skills in Python or C++ and exposure to DL frameworks like PyTorch.
• Understanding of data structures, algorithms, and large-scale ML systems.
• Analytical mindset with ability to translate business problems into models.

Responsibilities

• Build and optimize recommendation models across recall, pre-ranking, ranking, and mixed ranking to boost GMV and user engagement.
• Develop cross-domain and multimodal modeling to connect videos, live streams, products, and user behavior.
• Advance generative and large-model technologies, RL, and long-term value optimization.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to run experiments and translate research into measurable impact.

Skills

Python

C++

ML fundamentals

Analytical thinking

Ownership

Self-driven

Education

Undergraduate in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering or related

Tools

PyTorch

Scikit-learn

Job description

Location

Seattle

Employment Type

Intern

Job Code

A116024

Responsibilities

Team Introduction:The Global E-commerce Recommendation Live Algorithm team is responsible for the core recommendation stack for live commerce, covering the full pipeline from recall and pre-ranking to ranking and mixed ranking. The team operates in a highly dynamic environment where live room status changes in real time, conversion signals are sparse, and user intent must be understood across content, commerce, and transaction scenarios.By combining generative recommendation, large recommendation models, multimodal representation learning, and cross-domain value modeling, the team works on some of the most important algorithmic problems in live commerce. Our goal is to improve user experience, optimize ecosystem efficiency, and drive sustainable business growth for TikTok Shop across global markets.We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship. Our internship program offers students hands-on experience, industry exposure, and opportunities to apply their knowledge to real-world challenges while building a strong foundation for personal and professional growth.Interns will gain practical experience, explore potential career paths, and participate in social events, learning programs, and development workshops alongside industry professionals.Candidates may apply to a maximum of two positions across Our Company and its affiliates globally. Applications will be considered in the order they are submitted.Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, so we encourage you to apply early. Please clearly state your availability in your resume, including your start and end dates.

• Build and optimize recommendation models across recall, pre-ranking, ranking, and mixed ranking to improve GMV, conversion, watch time, and long-term user value.
• Develop cross-domain and multimodal modeling solutions that connect videos, live streams, products, and user behavior to better power live commerce recommendations.
• Advance next-generation recommendation technologies, including generative recommendation, large recommendation models, reinforcement learning, and long-term value optimization.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to launch scalable solutions, run experiments, and turn research into measurable business impact.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a Undergraduate in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering or a related discipline.
• Solid foundation in machine learning and at least one of the following areas: recommendation systems, search, advertising, NLP, multimodal learning, or large-scale applied AI.
• Strong programming skills in Python or C++, and hands-on experience with deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch.
• Good understanding of data structures, algorithms, and large-scale model training or production machine learning systems.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to translate business problems into effective modeling solutions.
• Self-driven and results-oriented, with the ability to take ownership of model iteration and online impact from end to end.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in recommendation systems, especially in live commerce, e-commerce, search, ads, or other large-scale consumer products.
• Experience with generative recommendation, large recommendation models, retrieval and ranking systems, or related recommendation architecture upgrades.
• Experience with LLMs or multimodal foundation models, including pre-training, post-training, representation learning, contrastive learning, SFT, or RL-based optimization.
• Experience in cross-domain transfer learning, LTV modeling, long-term value optimization, causal inference, or debiasing.
• Experience with long-sequence user behavior modeling, multi-task learning, multi-interest modeling, or large-scale distributed training and inference optimization.
• Publications in top-tier conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, KDD, ACL, CVPR, SIGIR, or RecSys, or strong achievements in major technical competitions.
• Strong curiosity about new technologies, fast learning ability, and a passion for solving challenging real-world problems.

Job Information

The hourly rate range for this position in the selected city is $42.75- $42.75.

Benefits

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

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.

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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