Software Engineer, C/C++ SDK Performance Optimization

About this team

We own the Effect SDK powering TikTok's camera and creation experience — the system behind every filter, AR effect, and visual effect used by hundreds of millions of creators every day. This role sits at the business architecture layer of a self-developed rendering engine, partnering closely with rendering, algorithm, and camera pipeline teams to deliver smooth, low-power effect experiences across a massive range of mobile devices.

Responsibilities

• Drive end-to-end experience optimization of the effect pipeline during shooting — diagnose and resolve frame drops, jank, thermal throttling, and power consumption issues on real user devices.
• Profile the full camera→effect→render→encode pipeline; identify bottlenecks across CPU, GPU, memory, and thread scheduling, and land measurable improvements.
• Collaborate with the rendering engine team to understand and leverage low-level capabilities, and with the on-device algorithm team to co-optimize model integration and execution.
• Build and evolve the business architecture of the Effect SDK (Native, cross-platform for iOS & Android), turning product requirements into robust, maintainable modules.
• Localize and fix technical problems and bugs reported from production, with a strong ownership mindset.
• Learn new techniques quickly, communicate clearly, and collaborate well across teams.

Qualifications

• B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science with 1+ year.
• Proficient in C/C++; Basic understanding of graphics rendering APIs (OpenGL ES / Metal / Vulkan); shader programming experience is a plus at this level.
• Strong interest in performance on mobile devices — you enjoy digging into profilers and chasing down the last millisecond.
• Familiar with iOS and/or Android development, and has experience in video and image processing related applications on mobile phones

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with mobile profiling tools (Xcode Instruments, Perfetto / Systrace, Android GPU Inspector, RenderDoc, etc.).
• Experience optimizing frame rate stability, memory footprint, thermal, or battery consumption in a consumer-scale mobile app.
• Familiarity with camera pipelines (AVFoundation / Camera2 / CameraX) or real-time video processing.
• Experience with AR, game engine, or real-time graphics development.
• Experience integrating on-device inference frameworks (CoreML, TNN, MNN, NCNN, TFLite) and optimizing their runtime cost.

Pay

The base salary range for this position is $156,000 - $316,800 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

• Day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) savings plan with company match
• Paid parental leave
• Short-term and long-term disability coverage
• Life insurance
• Wellbeing benefits
• 10 paid holidays per year
• 10 paid sick days per year
• 17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure)