AI Machine Learning Engineer - Graduate (TikTok Content Ecology) - 2027 Start (PhD) - Graduate (TikTok Content Ecology) - 2027 Start (PhD)

The Tik Tok Content Ecology team builds the core algorithm systems for content understanding and ecosystem governance on Tik Tok. Drawing on platform-scale video content and interaction signals, we apply multimodal large models, natural language processing, computer vision, and recommendation systems to build a content foundation platform supporting search, local services, product infrastructure, PGC, and UGC across Tik Tok's global business.

Our work spans three areas:

1. Unified content understanding. We use multimodal large models for fine-grained semantic parsing of video, building a cross-category, multilingual labeling and event knowledge system that provides reliable foundations for search, recommendation, and safety.
2. Platform-level content governance. We develop high-precision recognition and review models that handle billions of pieces of content daily, addressing low-quality and non-compliant material and supporting compliance requirements for goods and content in areas such as local services.
3. Business growth and user experience. Through trending discovery, inspiration recommendations, and intelligent customer service, we serve creators and users worldwide, improving distribution efficiency, the precision of creative recommendations, and the speed of customer service response.

We work on understanding hundreds of languages and processing multimodal data at hundred-billion scale, in a global business that keeps growing. You will apply NLP, multimodal, and large model technology at real-world scale, seeing your work reach hundreds of millions of users.

About the Team:

The Content Ecology team builds next-generation AI products and scalable platform capabilities that power how content is created, understood, discovered, and governed across Tik Tok globally. Leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as LLMs/MLLMs, multimodal learning, and Agentic AI, the team addresses complex, high-impact challenges across Local Services, Search, Short Drama, Creator Assistance, and AIGC. By uniting frontier AI research with product innovation, our team drives scalable solutions that elevate experiences for users, creators, and merchants worldwide.

We are looking for talented individuals to join our team. As a graduate, you will get opportunities to pursue bold ideas, tackle complex challenges, and unlock limitless growth.

Successful candidates must be able to commit to an onboarding date by the end of the year. Please state your availability and graduation date clearly in your resume.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and optimize LLM/MLLM, Agent, NLP, CV, and recommendation models to improve Tik Tok’s content ecosystem.
• Design, build, and optimize advanced Agentic AI frameworks, focusing on core components like planning, tool use, skills, and memory.
• Implement multimodal AI solutions, integrating video, text, and speech understanding.
• Train and fine-tune deep learning models using Tensor Flow, Py Torch, or other ML frameworks.
• Deploy and scale machine learning solutions in a distributed computing environment.
• Work closely with AI researchers, software engineers, and business teams to apply AI technologies effectively.

Requirements:

Minimum Qualifications:

• Individuals who are completing or have recently completed a PhD degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, applied mathematics, or a related discipline.
• Strong programming skills in Python, C++, or similar languages.
• Hands-on experience with deep learning frameworks such as Tensor Flow or Py Torch.
• Hands-on experience with LLMs/MLLMs, specifically focusing on Post-Training (SFT, RL) and/or Inference optimization.
• Solid understanding of machine learning fundamentals and the modern AI stack.
• Strong proficiency in integrating AI tools into knowledge discovery and research workflows.
• Excellent communication skills to collaborate across teams.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with distributed computing and optimizing AI models for real-world applications.
• Experience in applying machine learning techniques to enhance business and user experiences.
• Deep knowledge of agent architectures, including planning, tool use (e.g., Lang Chain, Llama Index), skills, and memory systems.
• Strong experience in working with Agentic modeling, workflows, and frameworks.
• Publications in top AI/ML conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, CVPR, ACL, AAAI, etc.) or strong contributions to open-source AI projects.