Software Engineer, Reliability and Efficiency Seattle Regular R&D Job ID: A20301

TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is seeking a Software Engineer, Reliability and Efficiency to help build and operate highly available, globally distributed systems for TikTok's AI infra. You will partner across teams to improve resilience, automation, and operational workflows in a security-conscious production environment.

You will design and implement tools for observability, capacity management, and incident response, while advancing migration and upgrade efforts across multi-region services in

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or above in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 1+ years of hands-on SRE, DevOps, or Systems Engineering experience managing large-scale, highly reliable systems.
• Strong foundation in Linux operating systems, internal system performance, and networking fundamentals.
• Experience programming in Go, Python, C/C++, or Java.
• Demonstrated experience in designing, troubleshooting, and maintaining complex distributed systems, with a proven ability to navigate highly dynamic production environments, troubleshoot high-complexity traffic issues, and modernize operational workflows via Bash/shell scripting.
• Familiarity with modern CI/CD practices and automated deployment pipelines.
• High resilience and a strong 'system sense' to navigate ambiguity and break down complex, real-world problems.

Responsibilities

• Partner with cross-functional teams throughout the entire service lifecycle, from system design consulting and architecture reviews to deployment, operation, and continuous refinement, acting as a strong communicator to align engineering efforts during critical incidents and daily operations.
• Build tools, platforms, and automation to improve service reliability, scalability, R&D efficiency, and operational workflows, while maintaining a healthy balance between deep software development and daily operational duties.
• Ensure high availability and performance of large-scale, multi-region systems by proactively monitoring service health, latency, and key metrics.
• Lead complex infrastructure migrations and system architecture upgrades in a highly restricted compliance environment.
• Drive robust Capacity Management, including resource allocation, stability optimization, and error attribution, while ensuring strict SLA/SLO compliance.
• Drive sustainable incident management, blameless postmortems, and systemic root-cause resolution.

Skills

SRE/DevOps experience

Go/Python/C/C++/Java

Linux systems fundamentals

CI/CD practices

Distributed systems design/troublesh

Observability tooling awareness

Education

Bachelor's degree or above in CS/Software Engineering or related field

Tools

Kubernetes

Terraform

Prometheus

Grafana

Distributed tracing

AWS/GCP/Azure

Job description

Software Engineer, Reliability and Efficiency

Seattle Regular R&D Job ID: A20301

Responsibilities

About the TeamThe USDS JV AI Infra SRE team works with engineering and product teams to build and run globally distributed, fault-tolerant systems for TikTok's state-of-the-art Recommendation and Search engines. Engineers on this team will deliver on production ownership, driving observability and automation across complex service mesh architectures.Operating within a highly secure and strictly isolated USDS environment, our team is currently in a critical 0-to-1 infrastructure building phase. We are looking for resilient engineers who are comfortable navigating evolving toolsets and established workflows, eager to bridge the gap between existing systems and our rapid technological growth today to build the robust foundation and advanced agentic automation tools for tomorrow.Responsibilities:- Partner with cross-functional teams throughout the entire service lifecycle, from system design consulting and architecture reviews to deployment, operation, and continuous refinement, acting as a strong communicator to align engineering efforts during critical incidents and daily operations.- Build tools, platforms, and automation to improve service reliability, scalability, R&D efficiency, and operational workflows, while maintaining a healthy balance between deep software development and daily operational duties .- Ensure high availability and performance of large-scale, multi-region systems by proactively monitoring service health, latency, and key metrics.- Lead complex infrastructure migrations and system architecture upgrades in a highly restricted compliance environment.- Drive robust Capacity Management, including resource allocation, stability optimization, and error attribution, while ensuring strict SLA/SLO compliance.- Drive sustainable incident management, blameless postmortems, and systemic root-cause resolution.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:- Bachelor's degree or above in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.- 1+ years of hands-on SRE, DevOps, or Systems Engineering experience managing large-scale, highly reliable systems.- Strong foundation in Linux operating systems, internal system performance, and networking fundamentals.- Experience programming in at least one standard language: Go, Python, C/C++, or Java.- Demonstrated experience in designing, troubleshooting, and maintaining complex distributed systems, with a proven ability to navigate highly dynamic production environments, troubleshoot high-complexity traffic issues, and modernize operational workflows via Bash/shell scripting.- Familiarity with modern CI/CD practices and automated deployment pipelines.- High resilience and a strong 'system sense' to navigate ambiguity and break down complex, real-world problems. You should thrive in developing or restricted infrastructure environments, turning these constraints into a unique opportunity to pioneer standard developer tools from the ground up.Preferred Qualifications:- Hands-on experience with container orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes) and service mesh architectures.- Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure) and Infrastructure-as-Code (e.g., Terraform).- Experience with modern observability tooling (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, Distributed Tracing).- Track record of identifying opportunities to streamline manual operations and successfully designing/coding self-serve tools or automation to eliminate them.- Interest or experience in leveraging LLMs, Agentic AI, or advanced machine learning concepts to enhance operational efficiency, automate troubleshooting, or build next-generation infra tooling.- Strong technical curiosity and adaptability, with a proven track record of navigating evolving tech stacks and embracing new technical challenges.- Experience with designing and building distributed systems and/or infrastructure is a strong plus.

Job Information

About USDSTikTok 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