Research Scientist Intern (Enterprise AI Agent) - 2027 Start (PhD)

TikTok USDS Joint Venture; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 68,000 - 97,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Housing allowance

Paid holidays

Job summary

TikTok USDS Joint Venture seeks a Research Scientist Intern to advance enterprise agentic AI and autonomous agents using internal datasets, including USDS environments. You will bridge research with production impact, delivering measurable improvements.

This internship blends hands-on learning, collaboration with experts, and opportunities to publish work while contributing to our fast-growing enterprise AI initiatives.

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Expertise in AI Agents & LLM Tool Use / Harness Engineering, Reinforcement Learning & Evolutionary Algorithms / Genetic Programming, Code Generation, Automated Software Engineering, or Self-Improving Systems
• Strong implementation skills in Python, paired with system-level language proficiency (Rust, C++, or Go)

Responsibilities

• Research self-improving agents and multi-agent systems to enable autonomous code generation and maintenance.
• Formulate ideas, design methods, run experiments, and publish at AI/ML conferences.
• Study agentic self-evolution with restricted data, addressing safety, memory, and long-horizon stability.
• Create evaluation frameworks to measure runtime, speedups, and labor-cost offloading in engineering and growth.

Skills

Python

Rust

C++

Go

Education

PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related technical discipline

Job description

Responsibilities

About the team

We are seeking an exceptional Research Scientist Intern to join our team to pioneer the next generation of Enterprise Agentic Solutions and Self-Evolving AI Agents. This role bridges cutting-edge research with production impact. You will work with proprietary internal datasets (including USDS and compliance-restricted environments) to design, evaluate, and deploy autonomous agents that offload routine workflows in engineering development, operations (DevOps/SRE), and product growth. Your goal is to deliver measurable speedups in project execution, significantly reduce operational expenditure, and publish high-impact research papers on enterprise agentic architectures.

We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship. PhD internships at Our Company provide students with the opportunity to actively contribute to our products and research, as well as to the organization's future plans and emerging technologies.

Our dynamic internship experience blends hands-on learning, enriching community-building and professional development events, and collaboration with industry experts.

Responsibilities

• Conduct cutting-edge research in self-improving agents, evolutionary optimization, and multi-agent systems to enable autonomous code generation, system maintenance, and decision-making.
• Formulate novel research ideas, design rigorous methodologies, conduct experiments, and lead papers for top-tier AI/ML conferences.
• Investigate methodology for agentic self-evolution using proprietary, compliance-restricted datasets (USDS), solving challenges around data safety, memory optimization, and long-horizon runtime stability.
• Develop robust evaluation frameworks to measure the concrete operational impact (e.g., runtime efficiency, task completion speedup, labor cost offloading) of agentic solutions in engineering and growth environments.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Expertise in one or more of the following research domains: AI Agents & LLM Tool Use / Harness Engineering, Reinforcement Learning & Evolutionary Algorithms / Genetic Programming, Code Generation, Automated Software Engineering, or Self-Improving Systems
• Strong implementation skills in Python, paired with system-level language proficiency (Rust, C++, or Go).

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep research exposure to iterative self-evolution paradigms (e.g., SGPO, recursive code improvement, execution-guided synthesis).
• Experience conducting research in restricted/internal data environments or handling compliance-sensitive execution loops.
• Demonstrated history of bridging high-impact theoretical research with rapid, functional open-source or production demos.

Job Information

About USDS

TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is dedicated to the safety and security of millions of Americans who create, discover, and connect with what they love on the apps we operate. The Joint Venture has been established in compliance with the Executive Order signed by President Trump on September 25, 2025. Our foundation is a comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity program we operate under defined safeguards to protect national security and secure U.S. user data, apps and the algorithm. We safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem, holding decision‑making authority for trust and safety policies and moderation. USDS Joint Venture helps ensure Americans can continue to express their creativity, discover new hobbies and interests, and build thriving communities and businesses on a global scale.

On-site presence across teams allows the company to operate with greater speed, alignment, and agility - especially in areas like real-time decision-making, team development, and integrated execution. As such, the company is shifting from a hybrid work model to a fully in-person schedule up to 5 days a week.

Why Join Us

Inspiring creativity is at the core of TikTok's mission. Our innovative product is built to help people authentically express themselves, discover and connect – and our global, diverse teams make that possible. Together, we create value for our communities, inspire creativity and bring joy - a mission we work towards every day.

We strive to do great things with great people. We lead with curiosity, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn and innovate as one team. We're resilient and embrace challenges as they come. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.

Diversity & Inclusion

TikTok is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.

USDS Reasonable Accommodation

USDS is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at https://tinyurl.com/USDS-RA

For Pay Transparency Compensation Description (hourly)

The hourly rate range for this position in the selected city is $60- $60.

Benefits

• Interns have day one access to health insurance, life insurance, wellbeing benefits and more.
• Interns also receive 10 paid holidays per year and paid sick time (56 hours if hired in first half of year, 40 if hired in second half of year).
• Interns who are not working 100% remote may also be eligible for housing allowance.

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:

• Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
• Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
• Exercising sound judgment.