Machine Learning Software Engineer (LLM & Agentic AI - TikTok - Content Ecology Local Services)

TikTok Inc.; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 162,000 - 388,000; Full time

Job summary

TikTok Inc. is seeking a highly capable AI researcher/engineer to join the Content Ecology Algorithm Team in Los Angeles.

You will advance core algorithms for LLMs/MLLMs, NLP, CV, and multimodal understanding, building production-ready AI capabilities across TikTok’s platforms. Provide research leadership, translate state-of-the-art advances into scalable systems, and collaborate cross-functionally to deliver measurable business impact while tackling dynamic, multilingual, and highly scalable

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or above in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering or a related technical field.
• Strong foundations in machine learning and deep learning, with a solid understanding of Transformer architectures, LLMs, multimodal large language models, and modern representation learning techniques.
• Experience in NLP, computer vision, multimodal understanding, AI agents, knowledge graphs, retrieval and recommendation, conversion modeling, causal uplift modeling, or decision optimization.
• Hands-on experience with Python, PyTorch, distributed model training, and large-scale data processing, with strong algorithmic, software engineering, and production deployment capabilities.
• Proven ability to formulate and solve complex, ambiguous problems, translate research advances into scalable production solutions, and deliver measurable business impact.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration and communication skills, with a track record of driving technically complex projects to high-quality execution.

Responsibilities

• Drive the research and development of core algorithms for TikTok Local Services, leveraging LLMs/MLLMs, Agentic AI, NLP, Computer Vision, conversion modeling, global optimization, and causal uplift modeling.
• Develop deep semantic representations and structured models of content, products, and user intent, while building foundational capabilities across product knowledge graphs, intent understanding, and end-to-end intelligent transaction optimization.
• Continuously enhance both supply- and demand-side experiences to drive sustainable growth in transaction conversion.
• Tackle frontier technical challenges unique to local services, including multilingual and multimodal understanding, highly dynamic environments, and long-horizon sequential decision-making.
• Stay at the forefront of research, translate state-of-the-art advances into production-grade solutions, scale proven innovations, and establish reusable algorithmic foundations with broad applicability.

Skills

Python

PyTorch

Transformer architectures

Multimodal learning

NLP

Computer Vision

Production deployment

Cross-functional collaboration

Problem solving

Education

Bachelors in CS/AI

Tools

PyTorch

Distributed training

Job description

Responsibilities

About the Team

The Content Ecology Algorithm Team drives TikTok's AI innovations in LLMs/MLLMs, NLP, Computer Vision, Multimodal learning, Agentic AI, and recommendation algorithms. We develop cutting-edge AI capabilities that power multiple business lines.

You will tackle unique algorithm challenges in building products for a global audience. Our platform's diverse content and worldwide user base create a wealth of opportunities for AI applications. With rapidly growing businesses such as TikTok Local Services, you'll have the chance to bring cutting-edge AI innovations into real-world production.

• Drive the research and development of core algorithms for TikTok Local Services, leveraging LLMs/MLLMs, Agentic AI, NLP, Computer Vision, conversion modeling, global optimization, and causal uplift modeling.
• Develop deep semantic representations and structured models of content, products, and user intent, while building foundational capabilities across product knowledge graphs, intent understanding, and end-to-end intelligent transaction optimization.
• Continuously enhance both supply- and demand-side experiences to drive sustainable growth in transaction conversion.
• Tackle frontier technical challenges unique to local services, including multilingual and multimodal understanding, highly dynamic environments, and long-horizon sequential decision-making.
• Stay at the forefront of research, translate state-of-the-art advances into production-grade solutions, scale proven innovations, and establish reusable algorithmic foundations with broad applicability.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or above in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering or a related technical field.
• Strong foundations in machine learning and deep learning, with a solid understanding of Transformer architectures, LLMs, multimodal large language models, and modern representation learning techniques.
• Experience in one or more relevant areas, such as NLP, computer vision, multimodal understanding, AI agents, knowledge graphs, retrieval and recommendation, conversion modeling, causal uplift modeling, or decision optimization.
• Hands-on experience with Python, PyTorch, distributed model training, and large-scale data processing, with strong algorithmic, software engineering, and production deployment capabilities.
• Proven ability to formulate and solve complex, ambiguous problems, translate research advances into scalable production solutions, and deliver measurable business impact.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration and communication skills, with a track record of driving technically complex projects to high-quality execution.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building large-scale machine learning systems for e-commerce, recommendation, search, advertising, marketplaces or other transaction-oriented products.
• Experience working with multilingual, multimodal, or highly dynamic data and deploying models in large-scale production environments.
• Publications at leading conferences, such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, KDD, WWW, SIGIR, RecSys, AAAI, Interspeech, or ICASSP.
• Demonstrated technical leadership through driving cross-functional initiatives, establishing reusable algorithmic capabilities, or mentoring engineers and researchers.

Job Information

[For Pay Transparency] Compensation Description (annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $162000 - $387600 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:

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.