Software Engineer - Model Infrastructure, TikTok Feeds

TikTok Inc.; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 162,000 - 388,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid parental leave

Short/long-term disability coverage

Wellbeing benefits

Paid holidays and PTO

Job summary

TikTok Inc. in San Jose is seeking talented Software Engineers to join our Model Infrastructure team. You will focus on architecture and engineering challenges for large-scale recommendation models, from online inference to offline training, to support evolving foundation models.

You will co-design infrastructure with researchers to balance compute cost with recommendation effectiveness, optimize performance, and enable scalable experimentation across GPU clusters.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or above in Computer Science or related fields.
• Understanding of GPU architecture and the software stack (CUDA, CUTLASS, Triton Lang), with experience in GPU performance analysis.
• Experience with at least one machine learning framework (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, or in-house alternatives).
• Initiative and self-drive; eager to take on complex challenges.
• Proven ability to work independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced team environment.

Responsibilities

• Build and optimize infrastructure for online inference and offline training of recommendation models.
• Solve challenges posed by the combination of high model complexity, massive data, and large-scale deployments.
• Work closely with algorithm researchers to co-design infrastructure aligned with cutting-edge machine learning frameworks and hardware accelerators.
• Continuously improve model architecture, efficiency, and scalability to enable better user experiences.
• Abstract and build reusable infrastructure components and tools that benefit the broader recommendation stack.

Skills

GPU architecture knowledge

CUDA/CUTLASS/Triton Lang

TensorFlow or PyTorch

Independent & collaborative work

Education

Bachelor's degree or above in Computer Science or related field

Tools

MLIR

XLA

TVM

Job description

Responsibilities

About the Team: The TikTok Feeds Recommendation Architecture team is responsible for the design and development of TikTok's For You Feed recommendation system. Our scope spans the entire online and offline recommendation pipeline, including strategy, modeling, and data infrastructure. We build scalable and efficient infrastructure to support rapid algorithm iteration, tackle massive throughput challenges, and enhance system performance, cost-efficiency, and stability. Our mission is to abstract and generalize core infrastructure services, components, and productivity tools that empower the recommendation system at scale.

About the Role: We are seeking talented Software Engineers to join our Model Infrastructure team. You will focus on the architecture and engineering challenges associated with large-scale recommendation models - from online inference to offline training. Your work will directly contribute to supporting increasingly complex models, solving bottlenecks in computation and storage, and enabling breakthrough innovations in recommendation algorithms.

As large foundation models (in CV/NLP/multimodal and beyond) continue to advance, the recommendation domain is evolving towards leveraging powerful compute to gain deeper understanding of user intent and preferences. In this role, you'll help co-design system architecture and algorithm infrastructure to balance compute cost with recommendation effectiveness at scale.

Responsibilities:

• Build and optimize infrastructure for online inference and offline training of recommendation models.
• Solve challenges posed by the combination of high model complexity, massive data, and large-scale deployments.
• Work closely with algorithm researchers to co-design infrastructure aligned with cutting-edge machine learning frameworks and hardware accelerators.
• Continuously improve model architecture, efficiency, and scalability to enable better user experiences.

Abstract and build reusable infrastructure components and tools that benefit the broader recommendation stack.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or above, majoring in Computer Science, or related fields.
• Understanding of GPU architecture and the software stack (CUDA, CUTLASS, Triton Lang), with experience in GPU performance analysis.
• Experience with at least one machine learning framework (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, or in-house alternatives).
• Initiative and self-drive; eager to take on complex challenges.
• Proven ability to work independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced team environment.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Familiarity with implementation details of deep learning networks and low-level operators.
• Experience with large-scale distributed model training.
• Knowledge of DNN compilers such as MLIR, XLA, or TVM.
• Ability to analyze and optimize training/inference algorithms using mathematical tools.

Job Information

[For Pay Transparency] Compensation Description (annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $162000 - $387600 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.