Research Scientist in Generative AI Graduate (Intelligent Creation) - 2026 Start (PhD)

TikTok Inc.; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 162,000 - 317,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k) match

Parental leave

Disability insurance

Life insurance

Wellbeing benefits

Paid holidays

Sick days

Personal time

Job summary

TikTok Inc. in San Jose, CA, is seeking PhD-qualified researchers for advanced AI content generation and multimodal research. You will contribute to core algorithms, model development, and collaboration across teams on challenging projects with potential industry impact.

We value strong coding in Python and C++, deep learning expertise, and a track record of collaboration. Onboarding is planned for late 2026; please include your graduation date in your resume.

Qualifications

• Individuals who are completing or have recently completed a PhD degree in Computer Science or related engineering field.
• Excellent collaboration and interpersonal skills
• Highly competent in algorithms and programming; Strong coding skills in Python/C++.

Skills

Python

C++

Collaboration

Interpersonal skills

Education

PhD in Computer Science or related engineering field

Job description

Responsibilities

The Intelligent Creation Team is the AI, special effects, and audio-video creation technology team, responsible for the core technology and business development. It covers a variety of technical fields, including deep learning, computer vision, graphics, speech, shooting and editing, special effects, client and server engineering, and provides cutting‑edge content understanding, content creation, interactive experience, and consumption capabilities and industry solutions to other business lines within the company and external partners in various forms.

We are looking for talented individuals to join our team in 2026. As a graduate, you will get unparalleled opportunities for you to kickstart your career, pursue bold ideas and explore limitless growth opportunities. Co‑create a future driven by your inspiration with TikTok.

Successful candidates must be able to commit to an onboarding date by end of year 2026.

Please state your availability and graduation date clearly in your resume.

PhD:

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis - we encourage you to apply early.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Individuals who are completing or have recently completed a PhD degree in Computer Science or related engineering field.
• Excellent collaboration and interpersonal skills
• Highly competent in algorithms and programming; Strong coding skills in Python/C++.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Multimodal generation, such as text‑to‑image/video/3D generation and editing, and other related multimodal experiences
• Image generation, video generation, 3D generation;
• Diffusion model, GAN, transformer for generation tasks.
• Large‑scale training, RLHF, and generative AI.
• Preferring candidates with publications in venues such as CVPR, ECCV, ICCV, NeurIPS, ICLR, SIGGRAPH or SIGGRAPH Asia, etc

Job Information

[For Pay Transparency] Compensation Description (annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $162000 - $316800 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:

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.