Research Scientist (Trust and Safety - Vision Language Models/VLM)

TikTok; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

TikTok is seeking a Research Scientist (Trust and Safety - Vision Language Models) in San Jose to advance LLM/VLM research and applications. You will work on pretraining, evaluation, and efficient inference within a fast-growing Foundations and Intelligence Service R&D team.

Responsibilities include enhancing VLM with OCR/captioning, exploring efficient architectures, and collaborating with diverse teams to apply models across TikTok business areas.

Qualifications

• Ph.D in Computer Science, Data Science, AI, or a related field.
• Strong understanding of cutting-edge LLM research and practical implementation.
• Proficiency in Python, Rust, or C++ and experience with deep learning frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Enhance VLM with OCR and captioning for TikTok applications.
• Explore model architecture and inference-efficient design for scaling.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams on VLM projects.
• Bridge industry insights to academic contexts.

Skills

Python

C++

Rust

PyTorch

DeepSpeed

Megatron-LM

VLLM

Education

Ph.D in Computer Science/AI or related field

Tools

PyTorch

DeepSpeed

Megatron-LM

VLLM

Job description

Research Scientist (Trust and Safety - Vision Language Models/VLM)

Location:

San Jose

Employment Type:

Regular

Job Code:

A198421

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Responsibilities

Our Foundations and Intelligence Service R&D team is fast growing and responsible for building state-of-the-art foundation models, such as LLM, VLM and Omni Models. Our mission is to build a bridge for collaboration between foundation models and downstream business scenarios, and use foundation model powered world knowledge to enhance better user experiences across TikTok, including content moderation, search and recommendations, client AI, etc.We are looking for researchers in LLM, VLM and Omni Model domain who are experienced in single/multi-modality LLM/VLM pretraining and applications, including evaluations, data processing and recipes for pre-training and post-training, reinforcement learning based alignment, efficient training and inference. There are no doubt a lot of unsolved problems in the LLM domain which could have a huge impact on industry and academia. In TikTok, we have real applications, resources and patience for technology incubation.

• Enhance VLM with specialized features like OCR and captioning to optimize performance for TikTok business applications
• Explore the model architecture and inference-efficient model design to enable scaled application in downstream TikTok business
• Work closely with cross-functional teams to plan and implement projects harnessing VLMs for diverse purposes and vertical domains
• Extend the insights and impact from industry to academia

We are looking for talented individuals to join our team in 2026. As a graduate, you will get opportunities to pursue bold ideas, tackle complex challenges, and unlock limitless growth. Launch your career where inspiration is infinite at our Company. 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.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Ph.D in Computer Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field
• Strong understanding of cutting-edge LLM research (e.g., long context, multi modality, alignment research, agent ecosystem, etc.) and possess practical expertise in effectively implementing these advanced systems as a plus
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, Rust, or C++ and a track record of working with deep learning frameworks (e.g., pytorch, deepspeed, megatron, vllm, etc.)

Preferred Qualifications

• Excellent problem-solving skills and a creative mindset to address complex AI challenges. Demonstrated ability to drive research projects from idea to implementation, producing tangible outcomes.
• Published research papers or contributions to the LLM community would be a significant plus.
• Experience with inference tuning and Inference acceleration. Have a deep understanding of GPU and/or other AI accelerators, experience with large scale AI networks, pytorch 2.0 and similar technologies.
• Experience with evaluation of AI systems, LLM application & agent development is desirable.
• Strong understanding of distributed computing framework & performance tuning and verification for training/finetuning/inference; Being familiar with PEFT, RL, MoE, CoT or Langchain is a plus.

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.

About TikTok

TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok's global headquarters are in Los Angeles and Singapore, and we also have offices in New York City, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.

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.

TikTok Accommodation

TikTok 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/RA-request

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