Machine Learning Engineer Intern (TikTok-Data-Search-Search Quality) - Summer 2027

TikTok’s Search team builds the systems that help users find relevant, reliable, and engaging content across the platform. The team works across search retrieval, ranking, recommendation signals, query understanding, relevance, infrastructure, and product experiences. This internship offers hands-on experience, industry exposure, and opportunities to apply knowledge to real-world challenges while building a foundation for personal and professional growth.

About the role

Interns will gain practical experience, explore potential career paths, and participate in social events, learning programs, and development workshops alongside industry professionals.

Responsibilities

• Support the design, implementation, testing, and iteration of Search features, services, or tools under the guidance of engineers and mentors.
• Work with large-scale data, logs, metrics, or experiments to understand user search behavior and improve product or system quality.
• Collaborate with engineering, product, data science, and machine learning partners to define requirements and deliver project milestones.
• Write clear, maintainable code and documentation for assigned workstreams.
• Communicate progress, risks, and learnings with mentors and stakeholders throughout the internship.

Requirements

• Currently pursuing a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Data Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related technical discipline.
• Experience with at least one programming language such as Python, Java, C++, Go, or JavaScript through coursework, projects, internships, or equivalent practical experience.
• Familiarity with data structures, algorithms, software engineering fundamentals, and basic system design concepts.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with search, recommendation, machine learning, information retrieval, natural language processing, ranking, ads, content understanding, or data mining projects.
• Familiarity with databases, distributed systems, data pipelines, experimentation, or large-scale backend services.
• Experience using data to investigate product, user, or system problems.
• Ability to communicate technical ideas clearly and collaborate with cross-functional partners.
• Interest in improving search experiences for large-scale consumer products.

All successful candidates must be able to establish authorization to work in the United States. The company does not provide sponsorship or any immigration-related benefits for this position.

Pay

The hourly rate range for this position is $45–$60.

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 the first half of the year, 40 if hired in the second half).
• Eligibility for housing allowance if not working 100% remote.

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.