Software Engineer Intern (Agentic AI Engine - Data Management platform) - 2026 Summer (BS/MS)

About the role

TikTok is seeking a Software Engineer to join our cutting-edge Agentic Engine team. The role offers an opportunity to work with state-of-the-art AI technologies and design architectures that apply Large Language Models (LLMs) to real-world industry challenges in data development platform areas.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement an offline/real-time data architecture for large-scale recommendation systems.
• Design and implement a flexible, scalable, stable, and high-performance storage system and computation model.
• Troubleshoot production systems, and design and implement necessary mechanisms and tools to ensure the overall stability of production systems.
• Build industry-leading distributed systems such as offline and online storage, batch, and stream processing frameworks, providing reliable infrastructure for massive data and large-scale business systems.

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing an Undergraduate/Master's degree in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Able to commit to working for 12 weeks during Summer 2026.
• Proficiency in common big data processing systems like Spark/Flink at the source code level is required, with a preference for experience in customizing or extending these systems.
• A deep understanding of the source code of at least one data lake technology, such as Hudi, Iceberg, or DeltaLake, is highly valuable and should be prominently showcased in your resume, especially if you have practical implementation or customisation experience.
• Knowledge of HDFS principles is expected, and familiarity with columnar storage formats like Parquet/ORC is an additional advantage.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience in data warehousing modeling.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Java, C++, and Scala is essential, along with strong coding skills and the ability to troubleshoot effectively.
• Experience with other big data systems/frameworks like Hive, HBase, or Kudu is a plus.
• A willingness to tackle challenging problems without clear solutions, a strong enthusiasm for learning new technologies, and prior experience in managing large-scale data (in the petabyte range) are all advantageous qualities.