Software Engineer, Data Governance Team

TikTok USDS Joint Venture; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 187,000 - 360,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Parental leave

Short-term and long-term disability

Job summary

TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is building the AI safety platform and governance layer that ensures privacy, security and policy compliance for data used in models. This role focuses on engineering scalable control planes and automated safety workflows across large-scale data environments.

You will join a mission-driven team creating privacy-as-code engines and governance integrations that enforce model safety, data lineage, and RTBF across the ML training and inference lifecycle.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or related technical field.
• 2+ years Backend Engineering experience in Go, Java, or C++ (Go preferred).
• Experience with high-volume data ecosystems (Hive, Spark, Kafka, Flink, Kubernetes).
• Deep understanding of Database Design, SQL, and NoSQL internals.

Responsibilities

• Design and scale AI safety platforms that are auditable and compliant with USDS standards.
• Architect low-latency interception systems to enforce safety guardrails in real time.
• Build distributed systems for automated data lineage and RTBF workflows across ML training/inference lifecycles.
• Develop backend services for seamless integration of safety models into TikTok infrastructure.
• Create centralized observability dashboards and risk telemetry for real-time safety visibility.

Skills

Go

Java

C++

Big Data

Hive

Spark

Kafka

Flink

Kubernetes

SQL

NoSQL

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree

Tools

Hive

Spark

Kafka

Flink

Kubernetes

Job description

Responsibilities

About the Team You will join the TikTok USDS Data Governance and Assurance Engineering team. We are the architects of the foundational infrastructure that manages the entire data lifecycle for one of the world's most massive data ecosystems. Our mission is to ensure that every byte of US data is handled with the highest standards of integrity, security, and privacy compliance.

Our team sits at the core of Privacy Engineering and Distributed Systems. We don't just write privacy policies; we build the automated engines that enforce them. We are replacing manual oversight with "Privacy-as-Code," ensuring that data privacy is a hard technical guarantee rather than a best-effort guideline.

About the Role

As a Software Engineer - AI Safety, you are the builder of the platform that makes AI assurance possible. You aren't just supporting ML; you are architecting the control plane that governs how data flows into models and how model outputs are verified. You will build high-scale systems that integrate AI models (LLMs, Classification models) to automate compliance and data lifecycle management at a petabyte scale.

Core Focus Areas

• Safety Control Plane: Building the "mission control" for AI safety, allowing for real-time policy updates and model-interventions across heterogeneous environments.
• Automated Data Lifecycle: Engineering the systems that manage data inventory, lineage, and residual scanning to ensure training data meets strict privacy and purpose-limitation protocols.
• AI-Powered Governance: Integrating AI models into the governance workflow to automate the detection of non-compliant data or unsafe model "promotions" in real-time.

Responsibilities

• Assurance Platform Engineering: Design and scale the core platforms that orchestrate AI safety checks, ensuring that every recommendation signal is auditable and compliant with USDS standards.
• Real-time Interception Systems: Architect low-latency "circuit breakers" and middleware that sit within the recommendation path to enforce safety guardrails without impacting user experience.
• High-Scale Data Governance: Build distributed systems for automated data lineage and "right-to-be-forgotten" (RTBF) workflows, ensuring that user data is handled correctly throughout the ML training and inference lifecycle.
• Model Integration & Orchestration: Develop the backend services that allow for seamless integration of safety models (e.g., toxicity classifiers, LLM evaluators) into the broader TikTok infrastructure.
• Observability & Risk Telemetry: Build centralized dashboards and alerting engines that provide real-time visibility into the "safety health" of our recommendation and GPAI systems.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.
• Backend Engineering: 2+ years of experience in Go (Golang), Java, or C++ (Go preferred).
• Big Data & Infrastructure: Experience working with high-volume data ecosystems (e.g., Hive, Spark, Kafka, Flink, or Kubernetes).
• Database Mastery: Deep understanding of Database Design, SQL, and NoSQL internals, especially regarding how data is physically stored and deleted.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Privacy Domain Knowledge: Prior experience in Privacy Engineering, GDPR/CCPA compliance, or Data Governance.
• Data Lineage Experience: Familiarity with data cataloging or lineage tools (e.g., Apache Atlas, Amundsen, or internal proprietary versions).
• Security Mindset: Understanding of encryption-at-rest/in-transit and access control (IAM) frameworks.
• Scaling Impact: Experience managing "Data Deletion" at scale—where a single request must trigger actions across thousands of distributed nodes.

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

Job Information

【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $187040 - $359720 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.