Site Reliability Engineer, Applied Machine Learning - USDS

TikTok USDS Joint Venture; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 123,000 - 259,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid parental leave

Short-term and long-term disability

Life insurance

Wellbeing benefits

10 paid holidays per year

10 paid sick days per year

17 days of Paid Personal Time

Job summary

TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is seeking a Site Reliability Engineer to design, build, and run highly available AI/ML systems like recommendation and LLM deployments in the United States. You will work on scalable infrastructures, automated monitoring, and incident response, shaping AML systems with reliability and security at the forefront.

Join a team that values performance and collaboration, with on-call duties and shift coverage.

Qualifications

• Expertise in analyzing and troubleshooting Linux-based distributed systems.
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent.
• Experience programming with languages such as C, C++, Python, or Go and understanding of data structures and algorithms.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain highly available, scalable, and fault-tolerant systems.
• Monitor and analyze system performance, identifying and resolving issues before user impact.
• Develop and maintain automated monitoring, alerting, and incident response systems.
• Collaborate with software engineering teams to ensure reliability, scalability, and performance.
• Implement security best practices and ensure regulatory compliance.
• Provide on-call support with scheduled shifts, including holidays.
• Conduct root cause analysis of incidents and drive preventative measures.

Skills

Linux distributed systems

C/C++

Python

Go

Data structures & algorithms

Relational databases

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science or Computer Engineering

Job description

Responsibilities

About the Team: Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) of the AML (Applied Machine Learning) team combines system engineering and the art of machine learning to develop and run massively distributed AI/ML systems like recommendation or LLM in the United States and around the world.

In the SRE team, you'll have the opportunity to sharpen your expertise in coding, performance analysis, and large-scale system operation, and get heavily involved in the process of hardware/capacity decision-making. SRE ensures that critical machine learning systems have the highest level of availability, as well as creating highly automated systems and pipelines.

Join us and you'll have the chance to shape the future of AML systems and make a real, tangible impact on TikTok users.

Responsibilities:

• Design, build, and maintain highly available, scalable, and fault-tolerant systems.
• Monitor and analyze system performance, identifying and resolving issues before causing user impact.
• Develop and maintain automated monitoring, alerting, and incident response systems.
• Collaborate closely with software engineering teams to ensure that applications are designed with reliability, scalability, and performance in mind.
• Implement and maintain security best practices and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Provide additional support as this role is part of a team that provides 24/7 support and requires working scheduled shifts, which may include holidays
• Conduct root cause analysis of incidents, hold post-mortem reviews with stakeholders, and implement preventative measures to minimize the risk of similar incidents occurring in the future.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Expertise in analyzing and troubleshooting Linux-based distributed systems.
• Bachelor's/Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent years of experience in a SRE or software engineering role.
• Experience programming with at least one commonly used language (C, C++, Python, Go).
• Strong understanding of data structures and algorithms.
• Competent knowledge of relational database systems.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Ability to design and maintain large-scale systems.
• Strong understanding of code optimization and routine task automation.
• Proficiency in at least one machine learning framework: TensorFlow, PyTorch, MXNet or PaddlePaddle

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 tinyurl.com/USDS-RA

Job Information

For Pay Transparency Compensation Description (Annually) The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $122574 - $259200 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.