Machine Learning Engineer Intern (E-Commerce Recommendation/Search Alliance) - 2027 Start (PhD) San Jose PhD Intern - 2027 Start

TikTok; San Jose, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 68,000 - 97,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Wellbeing benefits

Paid holidays

Job summary

TikTok is seeking a Machine Learning Engineer Intern (PhD) in San Jose to design and implement large-scale e-commerce recommendation and search systems. You will work on AI-powered merchant tools, refine ranking models, and apply LLMs and multimodal ML to unlock new business opportunities and growth.

The role emphasizes collaboration with product and engineering teams to bring research into production while staying ahead of AI advances and building reusable ML agents to streamline workflows.

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, Operations Research or a related technical discipline.
• Strong grasp of data structures, algorithms, and top‑notch problem‑solving skills.
• Profound knowledge in machine learning, statistics, and big data engineering.

Responsibilities

• Design and build cutting-edge machine learning, recommendation, and ranking algorithms to power large-scale e-commerce systems.
• Develop AI-powered merchant operation systems and AI agents to optimize affiliate strategies and ROI.
• Apply state-of-the-art LLMs, NLP, and multimodal ML to discover new business opportunities and drive growth.
• Collaborate with product managers, engineers, and cross‑functional teams to productionize AI solutions.
• Stay at the forefront of AI advances, rapid prototyping and deployment of new technologies for intelligent commerce.
• Build ML‑agents to automate algorithm development workflows, accelerating experimentation and deployment.

Skills

Data structures

Algorithms

Machine learning

Statistics

Big data engineering

Education

PhD in Computer Science/Engineering/OR related field

Job description

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

Location:

San Jose

Employment Type:

Intern

Job Code:

A71517

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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 forefront 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.

Minimum Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, Operations Research or a related technical discipline.
• Strong grasp of data structures, algorithms, and top‑notch problem‑solving skills.
• Profound knowledge in machine learning, statistics, and big data engineering.

Preferred Qualifications

• Thorough understanding of data structures and algorithms, with excellent problem‑solving ability.
• Deep Understanding of machine learning, statistics, scaling distributed computing, and big data engineering.

Job Information

The hourly rate range for this position in the selected city is $60- $60.

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:

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

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