Software Engineer Project Intern (Content AI Infrastructure) - 2026 Start (BS/MS)

TikTok; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 51,143 - 72,840; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

10 paid holidays

Paid sick time

Housing allowance for onsite interns

Job summary

A leading social media platform is seeking a project intern to join their Content AI Infra Team in San Jose, California. This role involves participating in the design and optimization of content understanding systems, contributing to impactful projects in a fast-paced environment. Candidates should be pursuing a degree in a relevant field and have strong programming skills in languages such as C++, Python, or Java. Hourly compensation is $45, with benefits including health insurance and paid time off.

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing an Undergraduate/Master in a relevant technical discipline.
• Familiar with high-concurrency content processing systems.
• Strong software programming capabilities and good code design.

Responsibilities

• Participate in content AI training and inference architecture design.
• Build low-latency content understanding inference architecture.
• Analyze and optimize performance of large model (LLMs) training.

Skills

C++

Python

Java

Distributed frameworks (Flink/Spark)

Message queues (Kafka/Pulsar)

Education

Undergraduate/Master in Software Development, Computer Science, or Computer Engineering

Job description

Responsibilities

About the Team

Our Content AI Infra Team is responsible for building highly available and scalable content understanding system architectures in areas such as training, inference, and application. Collaborating with the Content AI Algorithm Team in areas such as Videos and LIVE, we are committed to efficiently applying large content understanding models (LLMs) in scenarios such as recommendation, security, and push notifications, providing TikTok users with the most stable and optimal experience. We are dedicated to enhancing the stability and reliability of content understanding architecture, continuously improving the performance of the content understanding architecture system through large model (LLMs) training and inference, and creating an industry‑leading content understanding architecture.

As a project intern, you will have the opportunity to engage in impactful short‑term projects that provide you with a glimpse of professional real‑world experience. You will gain practical skills through on‑the‑job learning in a fast‑paced work environment and develop a deeper understanding of your career interests.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis - we encourage you to apply early.

Responsibilities

• Participate in content AI training and inference architecture design to improve the development efficiency, performance, scalability, and stability of the system.
• Build a highly available and low‑latency content understanding inference architecture to support online and offline training and inference of TikTok's massive content.
• Analyze the performance of training and inference architectures, and optimize the efficiency of large model (LLMs) training and inference on GPU‑based systems.
• Track cutting‑edge technologies and applications within the industry, drive the upgrade of the team's technical architecture, and continuously expand application scenarios for content understanding.
• Collaborate with colleagues to serve global users and tackle the challenges brought by globalized architecture.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualification(s)

• Currently pursuing an Undergraduate/Master in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Familiar with the design of high‑concurrency content processing systems, and proficient in distributed frameworks (Flink/Spark) and message queues (Kafka/Pulsar).
• Strong software programming capabilities, exhibits good code design and coding style, familiarity with at least one of the programming languages: C++, Python, Java.
• Have a strong interest in large model training, inference, and optimization, with relevant experience preferred.

Preferred Qualification(s)

• Interested in the direction of content understanding and has experience in recommender systems and large models (LLMs).
• Relevant experience in competitions (such as mathematical modeling, programming competitions) is a plus.
• Good collaborator and team player, comfortable working in a fast moving, culturally diverse and globally distributed team environment.

Job Information

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

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

Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. 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

• 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 TikTok

TikTok is the leading destination for short‑form mobile video. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok's global headquarters are in Los Angeles and Singapore, and we also have offices in New York City, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.

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.

TikTok Accommodation

TikTok 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