Machine Learning Engineer Intern (TikTok Search) - 2026 Start (PhD)

Responsibilities

Our Search Engineering Team builds and owns TikTok's search engine, aiming to provide the best search experience for our users. In the TikTok Search Team, you'll develop a full-stack search engine system and integrate information retrieval techniques with modern machine learning methods from fields like NLP, CV, and recommender systems.

We foster a culture of self-direction, intellectual curiosity, openness, and problem-solving. We seek talented individuals to join our internship program in 2026. PhD internships at TikTok offer opportunities to contribute to our products and research, and to the organization's future plans and emerging technologies.

The internship experience includes hands-on learning, community-building events, and collaboration with industry experts. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Please specify your availability in your resume (Start date, End date).

• Participate in the improvement of the search core algorithm, exploring areas such as:
  • Content understanding: Applying cutting-edge NLP and CV technology and leveraging LLM to match the most relevant videos for each search query, and continuously improving search relevance.
  • User Behavior Modeling: Solving recommendation problems in search to enhance personalization based on "relevance," and gain deeper insights into user behavior.
  • Video understanding: Utilizing NLP, CV, and LLM to comprehensively analyze videos from both their own content and social networks, enhancing their authority, credibility, and usefulness.

Qualifications

• Must commit to a 12-week full-time work commitment.
• Currently pursuing a PhD in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Proficient in coding and strong foundation in algorithms and data structures.
• Effective communication and teamwork skills.
• Experience in one or more of the following areas: NLP, Ranking, Ads, search engine, recommender system, distributed system, and machine learning.

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated software engineering experience from previous internships, work experience, coding competitions, or publications.
• High levels of creativity and quick problem-solving capabilities.

Job Information

[For Pay Transparency] Compensation Description (Hourly) - Campus Intern: The hourly rate range for this position in the selected city is $60-$60. 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. They receive 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 of the year). Interns who are not working 100% remotely may also be eligible for a 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: 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: 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. Our 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. We strive to inspire creativity and bring joy to our communities through our innovative product.

Diversity & Inclusion

TikTok is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. We celebrate our diverse voices and strive to reflect the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.