Software Engineer - Payment Compliance

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 is seeking a backend engineer to design, build, and scale payment compliance platform systems (KYC, AML, sanctions) in San Jose, CA. You will contribute to reliable services across distributed systems and help shape AI-assisted review capabilities.

Join a cross-functional team working with PMs, policy, operations, and engineering to deliver high-quality compliance solutions in a fast-paced, global environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or above in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals; proficient in at least one mainstream programming language such as Go, Java, Python, or C++; strong coding, debugging, system design, and problem-solving skills.
• Backend engineering experience; familiar with distributed systems, microservices, databases, caches, and message queues.
• Ability to independently design, develop, and deliver modules in complex business scenarios; strong engineering quality mindset.
• Strong ownership, self-motivation, and learning ability; able to proactively identify and drive solutions in ambiguous environments.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills; able to work effectively with product, operations, compliance, algorithm, and engineering teams.
• Comfortable working in a global, multicultural, and cross-region collaboration environment.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and optimize core systems of the Payment compliance platform, including KYC, AML, sanction screening, case management, review workflows, review tools, configuration platforms, QC systems, and operational efficiency products.
• Build highly available, scalable, and maintainable backend services to support KYC, AML, sanctions screening, and other payments risk/compliance scenarios.
• Contribute to the architecture and capability development of intelligent compliance review systems, exploring LLMs, AI agents, RAG, knowledge bases, workflow orchestration, and related technologies.
• Build AI-assisted and automated review capabilities to improve operational efficiency, decision quality, and end-to-end automation.
• Collaborate closely with PMs, compliance policy, operations teams, algorithm teams, and cross-functional engineering teams to deliver reliable compliance platform solutions.
• Continuously improve system stability, performance, observability, and engineering quality, including architecture optimization, monitoring and alerting, automated testing, incident remediation, and process improvements.
• Deeply understand complex compliance workflows and abstract business rules, SOPs, and operational experience into reusable, configurable, and extensible platform capabilities.

Skills

Go

Java

Python

C++

Backend engineering

System design

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field

Job description

Responsibilities

About the Team

The Compliance Platform team builds core capabilities for TikTok US's payment compliance platform, supporting compliance operations for scenarios such as TikTok LIVE, TikTok Shop, and other payments use cases.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and optimize core systems of the Payment compliance platform, including KYC, AML, sanction screening, case management, review workflows, review tools, configuration platforms, QC systems, and operational efficiency products.
• Build highly available, scalable, and maintainable backend services to support KYC, AML, sanctions screening, and other payments risk/compliance scenarios.
• Contribute to the architecture and capability development of intelligent compliance review systems, exploring the application of LLMs, AI agents, RAG, knowledge bases, workflow orchestration, and related technologies.
• Build AI-assisted and automated review capabilities to improve operational efficiency, decision quality, and end-to-end automation.
• Collaborate closely with PMs, compliance policy, operations teams, algorithm teams, and cross-functional engineering teams to deliver reliable compliance platform solutions.
• Continuously improve system stability, performance, observability, and engineering quality, including architecture optimization, monitoring and alerting, automated testing, incident remediation, and process improvements.
• Deeply understand complex compliance workflows and abstract business rules, SOPs, and operational experience into reusable, configurable, and extensible platform capabilities.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or above in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals; proficient in at least one mainstream programming language such as Go, Java, Python, or C++; strong coding, debugging, system design, and problem-solving skills.
• Backend engineering experience; familiar with common backend components such as distributed systems, microservices, databases, caches, and message queues.
• Able to independently design, develop, and deliver modules in complex business scenarios; strong engineering quality mindset.
• Strong ownership, self-motivation, and learning ability; able to proactively identify and drive solutions in ambiguous environments.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills; able to work effectively with product, operations, compliance, algorithm, and engineering teams.
• Comfortable working in a global, multicultural, and cross-region collaboration environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in payments, fintech, compliance, risk control, AML, KYC, sanctions screening, anti-fraud, or case management systems.
• Hands‑on experience (or strong interest) in LLMs, AI Agents, RAG, prompt engineering, knowledge bases, workflow automation, or intelligent decision systems.
• Experience building platform products such as workflow engines, rule engines, configuration platforms, review systems, or operational efficiency tools.
• Experience designing and optimizing highly available, high-performance, large-scale distributed systems.
• Long-term interest in payments, financial compliance, risk control, and applying AI technologies in real‑world business scenarios.

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 $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;
3. Exercising sound judgment.