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

At Tik Tok, we are building the next-generation recommendation systems to deliver highly personalized and engaging content to billions of users worldwide. The Tik Tok Recommendation team pioneers cutting-edge technologies by harnessing the power of large-scale models and massive user data to drive breakthrough innovations in accuracy, scalability, and user experience.

As a PhD new graduate, you will join a fast-paced, research-inspired engineering team focused on applying large model technologies to real-world recommendation scenarios. Through our General Hire track, you'll have the opportunity to explore multiple research and engineering directions across teams including but not limited to:

• Generative Recall
• Large Generative Reranking Models
• Agentic AI
• MLLM Pre-training & Post-training
• VLM + LLM for Cold Start
• Lifelong Sequence Modeling
• LLM Applications for Push & EDM

We are looking for talented individuals to join our team in 2026. As a graduate, you will get unparalleled opportunities for you to kickstart your career, pursue bold ideas and explore limitless growth opportunities. Co-create a future driven by your inspiration with Tik Tok.

Successful candidates must be able to commit to an onboarding date by end of year 2026.

We will prioritize candidates who are able to commit to these start dates. Please state your availability and graduation date clearly in your resume.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. We encourage you to apply early.

Responsibilities:

• Research and develop next-generation recommendation models leveraging LLMs, MLLMs, and generative techniques.
• Design and optimize large-scale systems for multimodal content understanding and personalized ranking.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (infra, PMs, research) to turn prototypes into scalable solutions.
• Stay at the forefront of academic advancements and apply SOTA ideas to solve large-scale, real-world recommendation challenges.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Final-year Ph.D. candidate or recent Ph.D. graduate in Computer Science or a related field

• Research or applied experience in recommendation systems, LLMs, MLLMs, or multimodal learning

• Strong programming skills (Python preferred), with a solid grasp of data structures and system-level thinking

• Familiarity with Transformer architectures and large model optimization techniques (e.g., Sparse/Flash/Linear Attention)

• Ability to work collaboratively across teams and adapt research into practical production solutions

• Preferred Qualifications

• Publications in top-tier conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, AAAI, IJCAI, Rec Sys, KDD, WWW, or WSDM

• Prior internship or project experience in industry-scale ML systems

Job InformationFor Pay Transparency Compensation Description (annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $136800 - $359720 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:

Email Address

Send me The Muse newsletters for the best in career advice and job search tips.

Get jobs!

1. Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;2. Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and3. Exercising sound judgment.

Client-provided location(s): San Jose, CA

Job ID: Tik Tok-7524946339990374664

Employment Type: OTHER

Posted: 2025-07-13T00:28:28
Apply 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.

Apply on company site

Similar Jobs

Suggested Searches

entry jobsTikTok jobsAll jobs

Search Additional Jobs

Research Scientist Graduate Jobs in San Jose, CAJobs in San Jose, CA