ML Engineer, Ads Targeting & Data Platforms

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

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid time off

Job summary

TikTok is hiring for a data engineering role within Monetization Technology to build next-generation advertising platforms used across feeds, live streaming, branding, and measurement. You will own core targeting data, develop high-availability pipelines, and collaborate with ML, product, and compliance teams to iteratively improve performance and cost efficiency.

Ideal candidates bring a CS/SE/Data Engineering background, 3+ years in data engineering, and strong SQL with experience in

Qualifications

• BS+ in CS/SE/Data Engineering or related field.
• 3+ years in data engineering/platform roles; end-to-end pipeline ownership.
• Strong SQL and data modeling; hands-on with big data stack (Spark/Hive/Kafka/Flink/Airflow).
• Proficient in Java/Scala/Python; solid engineering and performance tuning skills.
• Strong ownership of data governance, definitions, quality and stability.

Responsibilities

• Own foundational targeting data and platform capabilities with high availability, accuracy, freshness, and scalability.
• Base targeting dimensions: gender, age, geo, device, language, network, etc.
• Audience & tagging system: definitions, hierarchy, refresh strategy, backfills, cross-device unification
• Design and implement large-scale batch/stream pipelines: ingestion, ETL, aggregation, profile generation, tag updates, external serving
• Build a reliable data quality framework: validation, lineage, monitoring/alerting, SLAs, automated backfill and repair
• Provide standardized capabilities for ads delivery/strategy systems: audience package generation/management, tag query services, rule engine
• Collaborate with ML/product/compliance to ensure stable production rollout and iterative improvements

Skills

SQL & data modeling

Big data stack

Java/Scala/Python

Data governance & quality

Cross-functional communication

Education

BS in CS/SE/Data Engineering

Tools

Spark

Hive

Kafka

Flink

Airflow

Job description

TikTok is hiring for a data engineering role within Monetization Technology to build next-generation advertising platforms used across feeds, live streaming, branding, and measurement. You will own core targeting data, develop high-availability pipelines, and collaborate with ML, product, and compliance teams to iteratively improve performance and cost efficiency.

Ideal candidates bring a CS/SE/Data Engineering background, 3+ years in data engineering, and strong SQL with experience in