Researcher Intern (Vision and Graphics) - 2026 Start (PhD)

TikTok; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 68,191 - 97,120; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Life insurance

Wellbeing benefits

Paid holidays

Paid sick time

Possible housing allowance

Job summary

TikTok is seeking PhD interns in computer vision and machine learning for the 2026 internship cycle. Interns will contribute to R&D in video understanding and will collaborate with industry experts.

Responsibilities include building features for millions of users, solving complex problems, and conducting advanced research. The position offers a compensation of $60 per hour and various benefits including health insurance and paid holidays.

Qualifications

• Ability to commit to 12 weeks during Summer 2026.
• Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science or a related technical discipline.
• Strong research record in computer vision, computer graphics, or machine learning.
• Highly competent in algorithms and programming.
• Collaborative and works well with team members.
• Ability to work independently.

Responsibilities

• Build new features that reach hundreds of millions of people globally.
• Solve unique, large-scale, complex technical problems.
• Conduct cutting-edge research in computer vision and machine learning.
• Collaborate with Research Scientists to deliver advanced technologies.

Skills

Computer vision

Machine learning

Algorithms

Programming

Team collaboration

Education

PhD in Computer Science or related discipline

Job description

Responsibilities

Our team is focused on R&D in video understanding, multimodal understanding, image/video synthesis, 3D vision, and intelligent editing. We seek research interns in computer vision and machine learning for the 2026 internship cycle, offering students industry exposure and hands‑on experience.

PhD internships at TikTok allow students to actively contribute to products and research, blending learning, community building, and collaboration with industry experts. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.

• Build new features that reach hundreds of millions of people globally.
• Solve unique, large‑scale, complex technical problems.
• Build next‑generation monetization platforms to help customers grow their businesses.
• Work with a mentor to deliver product features and make engineering improvements.
• Build world‑class web applications emphasizing usability, accessibility, elegance, performance, and maintainability.
• Conduct cutting‑edge research in computer vision, machine learning, and related fields.
• Collaborate with Research Scientists to deliver advanced technologies to TikTok products.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Ability to commit to 12 weeks during Summer 2026.
• Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science or a related technical discipline.
• Strong research record in computer vision, computer graphics, or machine learning, with publications at top‑tier venues such as SIGGRAPH, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, ICML, NeurIPS, or ICLR.
• Highly competent in algorithms and programming.
• Collaborative and works well with team members.
• Ability to work independently.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Demonstrated software engineering experience from prior internships, work, coding competitions, or publications.
• High levels of creativity and problem‑solving capabilities.

Job Information

Compensation (Hourly) – Campus Intern: $60‑$60 per hour.

Benefits: Day‑one access to health insurance, life insurance, wellbeing benefits, 10 paid holidays per year, paid sick time (56 hours if hired in first half of year, 40 if hired in second half). Non‑remote interns may be eligible for housing allowance. The Company reserves the right to modify benefits programs at any time.

Equal Opportunity and Fair Chance

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with federal, state, and local laws, including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance and the California Fair Chance Act. Employers may consider criminal history in duties that require unsupervised contact with clients, handling confidential information, or exercising sound judgment.