Machine Learning Engineer Intern (TikTok Search) - 2026 Start (PhD)

TikTok; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 34,440 - 55,104; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Paid holidays

Housing allowances

Job summary

TikTok is offering a PhD internship in Search Engineering located in San Jose, California. Interns will work on improving search algorithms using innovative technologies such as NLP and CV. The internship promises hands-on learning and professional development.

Ideal candidates should be pursuing a PhD in a technical discipline and possess coding proficiency along with teamwork skills. This position includes benefits such as health insurance and paid time off.

Qualifications

• Must commit to a 12-week full-time internship.
• Currently enrolled in a PhD program in a relevant field.
• Proficient coding skills in relevant programming languages.

Responsibilities

• Improve search core algorithm using NLP and CV technologies.
• Model user behavior to enhance search personalization.
• Utilize LLMs for better video understanding and search results.

Skills

NLP

Machine Learning

Data Structures

Algorithms

Effective Communication

Teamwork

Education

PhD in Software Development or Computer Science

Tools

Python

Java

Job description

Responsibilities

Our Search Engineering Team is responsible for building and owning TikTok's search engine to provide the best search experience. You’ll have the opportunity to build full-stack search engine systems and combine information retrieval technology with modern machine learning methods from related fields such as NLP, CV, and recommender systems. We embrace a culture of self-direction, intellectual curiosity, openness, and problem-solving.

We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship in 2026. PhD internships at TikTok aim to provide students with the opportunity to actively contribute to our products and research, and to the organization\'s future plans and emerging technologies. Our dynamic internship experience blends hands-on learning, enriching community-building and development events, and collaboration with industry experts.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. We encourage you to apply early and to state your availability clearly in your resume (start date, end date).

This internship provides students the opportunity to join one of our engineering teams where you will have the opportunity to:

• Participate in the improvement of the search core algorithm, with possible directions including:
• Content understanding: applying the industry\'s cutting-edge NLP and CV technology and leveraging LLMs to match the most relevant videos for each search query, and continuously improve the relevance of TikTok search.
• User behavior modeling: solving the recommendation problem in search to increase personalization while maintaining relevance and understanding users better.
• Video understanding: using NLP, CV, and LLMs for better video understanding from the perspective of the video itself and social network, to improve the authority, credibility, and usefulness of search results.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Must be able to commit to a 12-week full-time work.
• Currently pursuing a PhD in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Must obtain work authorization in the country of employment at the time of hire, and maintain ongoing work authorization during employment.
• Proficient coding skills and a strong foundation in algorithms and data structures.
• Effective communication and teamwork skills.
• Experience in one or more of the following areas: NLP, Ranking, Ads, search engine, recommender system, distributed system, and machine learning.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Graduating December 2026 onwards with intent to return to degree-program after the completion of the internship.
• Demonstrated software engineering experience from previous internship, work experience, coding competitions, or publications.
• High levels of creativity and quick problem-solving capabilities.

Job Information

Compensation: Hourly rate described as Campus Intern; the hourly rate range is listed for the selected city.

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 may receive paid holidays and paid sick time. Housing allowances may be available for non-remote roles where applicable.

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 with clients and colleagues; handling confidential information; and exercising sound judgment.

About TikTok

TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. Our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok\'s global headquarters are in Los Angeles and Singapore, with offices in multiple cities worldwide.