Software Engineer Intern (Traffic Infrastructure) - 2027 Summer

ByteDance; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 52,000 - 72,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Wellbeing benefits

Housing allowance

Paid holidays

Paid sick time

Job summary

ByteDance's Traffic Infrastructure team is seeking a Campus Intern in San Jose to help design, develop, and operate global edge infrastructure components with mentorship from senior engineers.

You will work on production systems at scale, gain hands-on exposure to cloud-native technologies, distributed systems, and networking, and contribute to observability, tooling, and automation while learning best practices in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing an Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Solid foundation in software engineering fundamentals (data structures, algorithms, operating systems, computer networks).
• Programming experience in Go, C or Rust demonstrated through coursework, personal projects, or open-source contributions.
• Familiarity with Linux and basic understanding of containers, distributed systems, or networking concepts.
• Strong problem-solving skills, a growth mindset, ownership, and eagerness to learn in a collaborative, fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Assist in the design, development, and operation of infrastructure components for global edge PoPs (e.g., Kubernetes/control plane, virtualization/containers, Ingress/Gateway), with close guidance from senior engineers, focusing on performance, reliability, and security.
• Participate in the delivery of cloud-native features — from requirements and implementation to testing and rollout — while learning our engineering best practices.
• Help build observability and troubleshooting tooling (metrics/logs/tracing/profiling) and contribute to automation that improves incident response efficiency.

Skills

Go

C

Rust

Linux

Networking

Algorithms

Problem-solving

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

Ingress/Gateway

Job description

Responsibilities The Traffic Infrastructure (TI) team leverages unified platform capabilities to manage global edge infrastructure (both self-built and third-party), providing standardized, compliant, scalable, and cost-effective traffic infrastructure capabilities for edge services. Our vision is to build a global edge traffic infrastructure platform and become the long-term cornerstone of ByteDance's global edge business in terms of scale, performance, and cost.

Responsibilities The Traffic Infrastructure (TI) team leverages unified platform capabilities to manage global edge infrastructure (both self-built and third-party), providing standardized, compliant, scalable, and cost-effective traffic infrastructure capabilities for edge services. Our vision is to build a global edge traffic infrastructure platform and become the long-term cornerstone of ByteDance's global edge business in terms of scale, performance, and cost.

As an Intern, you will join a team of experienced infrastructure engineers who will mentor you throughout your internship. You will work on real production systems that serve global edge traffic at massive scale, gaining hands‑on exposure to cloud-native technologies, distributed systems, and networking from day one.

We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship. Our internship program offers students hands‑on experience, industry exposure, and opportunities to apply their knowledge to real-world challenges while building a strong foundation for personal and professional growth.

Interns will gain practical experience, explore potential career paths, and participate in social events, learning programs, and development workshops alongside industry professionals.

What You Will Do

• Assist in the design, development, and operation of infrastructure components for global edge PoPs (e.g., Kubernetes/control plane, virtualization/containers, Ingress/Gateway), with close guidance from senior engineers, focusing on performance, reliability, and security.
• Participate in the delivery of cloud-native features — from requirements and implementation to testing and rollout — while learning our engineering best practices.
• Help build observability and troubleshooting tooling (metrics/logs/tracing/profiling) and contribute to automation that improves incident response efficiency.

Minimum Qualifications

• Currently pursuing an Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Solid foundation in software engineering fundamentals (data structures, algorithms, operating systems, computer networks).
• Programming experience in one or more languages such as Go, C or Rust, demonstrated through coursework, personal projects, or open-source contributions.
• Familiarity with Linux and basic understanding of containers, distributed systems, or networking concepts.
• Strong problem-solving skills, a growth mindset, ownership, and eagerness to learn in a collaborative, fast-paced environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior internship, co-op, or research experience related to backend/systems development, cloud-native technologies, or infrastructure.
• Hands‑on exposure to containers and Kubernetes through coursework, side projects, or internships (e.g., deploying applications, basic cluster operations, service discovery, Ingress/Gateway).
• Contributions to cloud-native open-source projects (e.g., Kubernetes, Containerd, Cilium/eBPF), even at a small scale.
• Deeper Linux knowledge (kernel, scheduling, TCP/IP, routing, iptables/nftables) gained through projects or self-study.
• Coursework, projects, or curiosity around CDN, live streaming, RTC, or other edge/traffic-intensive architectures.

Job Information

【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Hourly) - Campus Intern

The hourly rate range for this position in the selected city is $45- $45.

• 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.

About Us

Founded in 2012, ByteDance's mission is to inspire creativity and enrich life. With a suite of more than a dozen products, including TikTok, Lemon8, CapCut and Pico as well as platforms specific to the China market, including Toutiao, Douyin, and Xigua, ByteDance has made it easier and more fun for people to connect with, consume, and create content.

Why Join ByteDance

Inspiring creativity is at the core of ByteDance's mission. Our innovative products are 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 enrich life - a mission we work towards every day.

As ByteDancers, 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. 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

ByteDance 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 ByteDance, our mission is to inspire creativity and enrich life. 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.

Reasonable Accommodation

ByteDance 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