Research Engineer - Foundation Models, Ads Integrity

TikTok Inc.; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 218,000 - 388,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Flexible work culture

Career growth opportunities

Job summary

TikTok Inc. is seeking strong machine learning researchers to advance a next-generation content understanding system for monetization.

You will drive generative AI and foundation models, translating research into scalable systems across ads, e-commerce, and short video ecosystems. Join a team collaborating with world-class researchers and engineers, shaping industry-leading research with patents and open-source contributions, while contributing to ethical AI practices and robust deployments at

Qualifications

• PhD or MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related fields with 5+ years of industry research experience (or equivalent)
• Deep expertise in AIGC algorithms (LLMs, diffusion models, etc.), with a proven track record of scaling models from research to production
• Strong background in NLP or multimodal learning
• Proficiency in PyTorch/JAX, distributed training, and inference optimization
• Team engagement experience, mentoring and cross-functional collaboration
• Ability to design long-term roadmaps and make high-impact technical decisions

Responsibilities

• Drive cutting-edge research in Generative AI and foundation models for monetization ecosystems
• Architect and deploy AIGC solutions translating research into scalable systems
• Lead a high-performing team of researchers/engineers
• Collaborate across product, engineering, and infra teams to productionize models
• Shape industry-leading research through patents, publications, and open-source contributions

Skills

AIGC algorithms

NLP

Multimodal learning

PyTorch

JAX

Model deployment

Leadership

Education

PhD or MS in CS/EE or related fields

Tools

PyTorch

JAX

Job description

Responsibilities

Our Business Integrity team has a strong user focus and a dedication to technical excellence. We aim to meet our users' needs with reliable and high-performing platforms and services. We are looking for strong machine learning engineers who are excited to grow their business understanding, build highly scalable machine learning models, and partner across disciplines with global teams, in pursuit of excellence. Given the fast growth of TikTok in the world, we are working on building a next-generation content understanding system for TikTok monetization. We are seeking sophisticated Research Engineers who are experienced in machine learning, which can help us create an ecosystem that rewards high quality user experience and advertiser value.

Why Join Us?

• Work on cutting-edge AI research with real-world impact in a fast-growing tech ecosystem.


• Collaborate with world-class researchers and engineers to push the boundaries of generative AI.


• Competitive compensation, flexible work culture, and opportunities for rapid career growth.

Responsibilities

• Drive cutting-edge research in Generative AI and foundation models, leading projects in text generation/translation, multimodal understanding (image/video-to-text), deepfake synthesis/detection, and efficient training/inference for AIGC models. Define technical roadmaps and align with long-term business goals.


• Architect and deploy AIGC solutions for monetization ecosystems (ads, e-commerce, short video, live streaming), translating research into scalable systems with measurable business impact.


• Engage and lead a high-performing team of researchers/engineers, fostering innovation in large-scale model development, content understanding, and AI-driven productization.


• Spearhead cross-functional collaborations with product, engineering, and infrastructure teams to productionize models, ensuring robustness, efficiency, and ethical AI practices.


• Shape industry-leading research through patents, publications, and open-source contributions, while maintaining a pulse on emerging trends to guide strategic investments.

Qualifications

• PhD or MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related fields with 5+ years of industry research experience (or equivalent)


• Deep expertise in AIGC algorithms (LLMs, diffusion models, etc.), with a proven track record of scaling models from research to production


• Strong background in either NLP (text generation, RLHF) or multimodal learning (vision-language models)


• Proficiency in PyTorch/JAX, distributed training, and inference optimization (e.g., quantization, model compression)


• Team engagement experience, with the ability to mentor and collaborate with cross-functional team stakeholders, set technical direction, and align projects with business objectives


• Demonstrated ability to design long-term roadmaps, anticipate industry shifts, and make high-impact technical decisions under fast-paced global business settings.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with AI safety, alignment, or adversarial robustness in generative models


• Familiarity with reinforcement learning for autonomous agents or large-scale recommender systems

Job Information

[For Pay Transparency] Compensation Description (annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $218400 - $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.