Backend Software Engineer Intern (TikTok-Growth-Innovative Growth) - 2027 Summer

Our User Growth team is central to the strategic acquisition, engagement, and expansion of TikTok's global user base. We focus on driving user growth through organic traffic channels, content optimization, AIGC technologies, and scalable backend systems across TikTok surfaces such as Web, Lite, and other emerging platforms. We build growth and content optimization systems that turn search, discovery, data, and AI-driven capabilities into measurable business impact.

About the role

Our internship program offers students hands-on experience, industry exposure, and opportunities to apply their knowledge to real-world challenges while building a strong foundation for personal and professional growth. Interns will gain practical experience, explore potential career paths, and participate in social events, learning programs, and development workshops alongside industry professionals.

Responsibilities

• Participate in the design and development of backend systems for TikTok user growth, content optimization, experimentation, and organic acquisition.
• Build or improve services, tools, and data pipelines for SEO/GEO, search and discovery, content understanding, content quality evaluation, and traffic optimization.
• Apply AIGC capabilities to support content generation, prompt workflows, quality assessment, and automated optimization for growth scenarios.
• Explore AI / Agentic workflow and Auto Research capabilities, including tool calling, evaluation pipelines, human-in-the-loop workflows, and feedback loops.
• Collaborate with product, data, algorithm, and engineering partners to deliver reliable features, tools, and backend components with measurable impact.

Requirements

• Currently pursuing a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related technical field.
• Able to commit to working for 12 weeks during the Summer of 2027.
• Familiar with one or more programming languages such as Golang, Python, Java, or C++, with a good understanding of data structures and algorithms.
• Basic understanding of backend development, APIs, databases, cache systems, microservices, or distributed systems.
• Good communication skills, strong learning ability, and willingness to collaborate with cross-functional and international teams.

Qualifications

• Internship, project, course, or research experience in backend development, distributed systems, microservices, data platforms, or large-scale consumer-facing systems.
• Experience or strong interest in AI-related backend systems, such as LLM service integration, prompt workflows, model evaluation, vector retrieval, feature serving, or AI-powered automation.
• Experience building or experimenting with AI agents, agentic workflows, AI coding tools, tool-calling applications, or workflow automation systems.
• Experience or interest in search, recommendation, discovery, content platforms, SEO/GEO, growth engineering, experimentation, or traffic optimization.
• Strong self-drive, sense of ownership, and curiosity about applying AIGC technologies to real-world product and engineering problems.

Pay

The hourly rate for this position is $45.

Benefits

• Day one access to health insurance, life insurance, and wellbeing benefits.
• 10 paid holidays per year and paid sick time (56 hours if hired in first half of year, 40 if hired in second half).
• Housing allowance for interns who are not working 100% remote.