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Tik Tok

Senior Software Engineer

• Global E-Commerce Search Infrastructure (Tik Tok Shop)

2 months ago• Seattle, WA
Viewed on February 1, 2026
Apply on company site

About Us

Tik Tok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video and our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy.

• Size: 5001-10000 employees
• Industry: Entertainment & Gaming, Social Media, Technology

View Company Profile:

Responsibilities:

About the Team:

Search is no longer just a feature-it is the defining battleground that will determine whether Tik Tok Shop becomes the first truly global e-commerce super-app. Our Search platform is the core engine behind the "shelf-field" (product card) strategy, and the key to competing head-to-head with Amazon, Taobao, and Pinduoduo in a global market worth over $10 trillion.
Search will propel Tik Tok Shop from tens of billions to hundreds of billions in annual GMV by activating real shopping intent, unlocking zero-sales products, and ensuring every item becomes instantly discoverable the moment a user types or taps.
We innovate where extreme performance, massive global scale, and uncompromising consistency meet.

Responsibilities:

• You will design, build, and optimize the core infrastructure that supports Tik Tok Shop's recall, ranking, and re-ranking pipelines globally.
• Core Search Engine Development: Design and implement high-performance online retrieval systems. Optimize core components including the inverted index, vector retrieval (ANN/HNSW), query understanding, and merger logic.
• Real-Time Data Pipelines: Build highly scalable and fault-tolerant data pipelines using Flink, Kafka, and Spark to ensure product changes (price, stock, and new listings) are reflected in search results in near real-time.
• System Stability & Performance: Drive latency, throughput, and cost optimizations for services handling hundreds of thousands of QPS. Troubleshoot complex distributed system issues, manage cross-region failover, and design high-availability disaster recovery solutions.
• Large-Scale Storage & Retrieval: Design and optimize distributed storage libraries (based on RocksDB/Redis) and columnar databases tailored for high-speed e-commerce feature retrieval.
• ML Infrastructure Collaboration: Work closely with Algorithm/ML Engineers to productionize state-of-the-art Large Language Models (LLMs) , AI Search, and multi-modal search models, ensuring the infrastructure supports massive model serving and real-time feature engineering.

Qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.
• At least 5 years of hands-on experience building large-scale distributed systems, search engines, or low-latency online services.
• Strong coding proficiency in C++, Go, or Java (C++/Go is heavily preferred for core infra roles).
• Deep understanding of computer science fundamentals: Data structures, algorithms, operating systems, network programming, and multi-threading.
• Experience with distributed system technologies, such as RPC frameworks (gRPC/Thrift), Message Queues (Kafka), and Stream Processing (Flink/Spark).

Preferred Qualifications:

• Search Internals: Direct experience with search engine internals (e.g., Lucene, Elasticsearch, Solr, Vespa) or building custom inverted index/retrieval systems.
• Vector Search: Experience with vector database technologies or libraries (FAISS, HNSW, ScaNN).
• Storage Engines: Deep understanding of NoSQL and KV stores (Redis, RocksDB, HBase) or columnar storage systems.
• Performance Optimization: Proven track record of reducing p99 latency, optimizing memory usage in C++, or driving measurable efficiency gains in high-traffic systems.
• Domain Knowledge: Experience working in E-commerce, Ad Tech, or large-scale consumer platforms.

Job Information:

For Pay Transparency Compensation Description (annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $177688 - $341734 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 may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Employees have day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) savings plan with company match, paid parental leave, short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, wellbeing benefits, among others. Employees also receive 10 paid holidays per year, 10 paid sick days per year and 17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure).

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, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:

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Client-provided location(s): Seattle, WAJob ID: Tik Tok-7576821074423286021Employment Type: OTHERPosted: 2025-12-01T20:12:19Apply on company site

Perks and Benefits

Health and Wellness

• Health Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• HSA
• Life Insurance
• Fitness Subsidies
• Short-Term Disability
• Long-Term Disability
• On-Site Gym
• Mental Health Benefits
• Virtual Fitness Classes

Parental Benefits

• Fertility Benefits
• Adoption Assistance Program
• Family Support Resources

Work Flexibility

• Flexible Work Hours
• Hybrid Work Opportunities

Office Life and Perks

• Casual Dress
• Snacks
• Pet-friendly Office
• Happy Hours
• Some Meals Provided
• Company Outings
• On-Site Cafeteria
• Holiday Events

Vacation and Time Off

• Paid Vacation
• Paid Holidays
• Personal/Sick Days
• Leave of Absence

Financial and Retirement

• 401(K) With Company Matching
• Performance Bonus
• Company Equity

Professional Development

• Promote From Within
• Access to Online Courses
• Leadership Training Program
• Associate or Rotational Training Program
• Mentor Program

Diversity and Inclusion

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Program
• Employee Resource Groups (ERG)

Company Videos

Hear directly from employees about what it is like to work at Tik Tok.
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• 02:18Working at Tik Tok- Get Ready With Ali01:20Tik Tok Client Provided Video 100:33Client Provided Video 2 - Tik Tok02:07Working at Tik Tok
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• BLXCK01:27Working at Tik Tok
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with BLXCK
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