Staff Software Engineer, Governance Platform & Enablement

TikTok Inc.; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 209,000 - 438,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Parental leave

Disability insurance

Life insurance

Wellbeing benefits

Paid holidays

Paid sick days

Paid personal time

Job summary

TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is seeking a hands-on Staff Software Engineer to anchor Governance Platform & Enablement. You will architect federated governance platforms, build secure data contracts, and enable scalable workflows and AI-powered systems.

You’ll stay deeply hands-on, deliver critical components, mentor engineers, and drive platform modernization across multiple teams while shaping security, reliability, and auditable operations.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience designing, operating, and modernizing complex production software platforms.
• Hands-on software engineering in Go, Java, Python, or TypeScript with backend focus.
• Deep APIs, data contracts, and asynchronous workflows expertise.
• Proven cross-team architecture leadership without direct authority.
• Translate domain requirements into reusable platform services with measurable outcomes.
• Security and privacy-aware architecture with auditable cross-system integration.

Responsibilities

• Shape technical direction and governance platform roadmap across systems of record, workflow, and evidence integration.
• Lead migrations of platform and shared services with rollback plans and measure reliability and adoption.
• Write production code for core components, SDKs, and integration frameworks; troubleshoot distributed systems.
• Drive cross-team architectural decisions and align teams on scalable, maintainable design.
• Define reusable AI integration patterns and auditable automation for governance workflows and code intelligence.
• Raise engineering standards with secure SDLC, APIs, reliability, and observability practices.
• Mentor senior engineers and grow domain architecture ownership across teams.

Skills

Go

Java

Python

TypeScript

Distributed systems

Security & privacy

Cross-team leadership

AI/ML concepts

Tools

Kubernetes

APIs & data contracts

SDKs & integration frameworks

Job description

We are a core Governance Engineering team within the TikTok USDS Joint Venture, enabling data protection, software assurance, content assurance, and governance efficiency for hundreds of millions of U.S. users.

We build and operate scalable privacy and compliance platforms, governance workflows, systems of record, evidence management, code intelligence, and shared services. Through platform engineering, end-to-end development, Agentic automation, developer-first tooling, and applied research, we turn complex governance requirements into reliable, scalable, and auditable solutions.

We’re looking for a hands‑on Staff Software Engineer to serve as the technical and architectural anchor for Governance Platform & Enablement, identifying high-impact opportunities, shaping technical direction, and driving platform evolution.

You’ll design scalable, federated architectures spanning governance platforms, workflows, evidence management, code intelligence, shared services, and AI-powered systems. You’ll remain deeply hands‑on—building critical components, solving complex technical challenges, and mentoring engineers to deliver secure, reliable, and extensible solutions.

Responsibilities

• Shape technical direction. Identify high-impact technical challenges and opportunities; define the federated platform architecture and roadmap across systems of record, workflow and evidence integration, secure data contracts, and reusable services. Drive decisions that improve platform adoption and developer productivity.
• Lead modernization. Plan and drive incremental platform and shared services migrations using compatibility strategies, progressive rollouts, and rollback plans; measure reliability, adoption, and operating cost outcomes.
• Stay hands‑on. Write and ship production code for critical platform components, SDKs, and integration frameworks; prototype complex solutions and troubleshoot distributed systems and cross-service production issues.
• Drive cross-team architectural decisions. Lead technical design reviews, resolve complex trade-offs, and align engineering teams on scalable, maintainable architecture through collaboration and technical influence.
• Guide AI platform architecture. Define reusable AI integration patterns, secure execution, evaluation standards, and auditable automation supporting governance workflows, evidence analysis, and code intelligence.
• Raise engineering standards. Establish practical secure SDLC, API, reliability, observability, testing, and safe‑deployment practices with infrastructure and domain owners; help lead technical response and follow‑up for complex cross‑system incidents.
• Grow technical leaders. Mentor senior and mid‑level engineers, delegate domain architecture ownership, raise the engineering bar through design reviews and hiring interviews, and communicate technical decisions and outcomes across teams.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Extensive experience designing, operating, and modernizing complex production software platforms or distributed systems.
• Strong hands‑on software engineering skills in Go, Java, Python, TypeScript, or comparable languages, with deep backend/platform experience, working knowledge of frontend technologies, and recent ownership of production systems.
• Deep expertise in APIs, data contracts and modeling, asynchronous workflows, reliability, and platform integration.
• Demonstrated leadership of cross‑team architecture, technical strategy, and engineering standards without direct authority.
• Ability to translate requirements from multiple domain teams into reusable platform services, self‑service integration standards, phased migrations, and measurable engineering outcomes.
• Strong understanding of security, privacy‑aware architecture, data isolation, secure cross‑system integration, authorization, auditability, and production operations.
• Experience designing extensible production systems that integrate emerging technologies, including AI/ML capabilities, with appropriate security, reliability, and operational safeguards.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with governance, privacy, security, compliance, or risk‑management workflows and relevant frameworks (e.g., NIST CSF or AI RMF).
• Experience with domain‑driven design, state machines, workflow systems, and data or risk lineage.
• Experience designing agent platforms, tool integration frameworks, secure execution patterns, or AI evaluation and observability capabilities.
• Experience with multi‑tenant architecture, cross‑region integrations, cloud platforms, Kubernetes, or infrastructure as code.
• Experience shaping frontend architecture and user experiences for complex enterprise applications.
• Experience designing developer platforms, self‑service integration capabilities, or extensible enterprise application frameworks.
• Experience leading large‑scale platform modernization, legacy system integration, or architectural migrations across multiple engineering teams.

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.

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 $208800 - $438000 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.