Research Scientist
TikTok
Research Scientist
TikTok
Short-form video platform with ads
About the team The TikTok Search team is responsible for delivering a world-class search experience across TikTok’s global ecosystem. Our mission is to connect users with the most relevant and high-quality content through advanced technologies in search ranking, recommendation, and multimodal understanding. As a campus hire, you will collaborate with top engineers and researchers to solve challenging problems at scale, working across the full stack of search—from content understanding and retrieval to ranking and user experience optimization. Project Overview, Challenges & Value With the rapid evolution of pre-trained large models, TikTok Search is advancing toward a new paradigm of AI-native search. Traditional search systems face increasing limitations when handling massive-scale data, multimodal content (video, text, image), and complex user intents. This project focuses on building a next-generation generative search system powered by large models to significantly enhance search intelligence and user experience. Key focus areas include: - Integrating large models with ranking systems to improve personalization and relevance. - Developing end-to-end generative search models based on multimodal pretraining. - Exploring large model–driven agent frameworks to better support complex, ambiguous, and multi-turn search scenarios. Key challenges include: - Personalized ranking: Fully leveraging multimodal signals beyond traditional model capacity. - Ultra-large-scale retrieval and ranking: Scaling search systems to efficiently handle hundreds of billions of candidates. - Complex query understanding: Accurately interpreting long, ambiguous, and multi-turn queries to improve user satisfaction. Project Value: - Technical Value: Drive innovation in large model–powered search architecture and enable agent-based AI search systems. - Business Value: Significantly improve search relevance and user satisfaction, strengthening TikTok’s search engagement and long-term growth. We are looking for talented individuals to join our team in 2027. As a graduate, you will get opportunities to pursue bold ideas, tackle complex challenges, and unlock limitless growth. Launch your career where inspiration is infinite at our Company. Successful candidates must be able to commit to an onboarding date by end of year 2027. Please state your availability and graduation date clearly in your resume. Responsibilities - Develop next-generation AI search systems using large models (LLMs). - Improve ranking, personalization, and relevance in search. - Build generative and multimodal search models (video, text, image). - Explore LLM-based agents for complex and multi-turn queries. - Optimize large-scale retrieval and ranking performance. - Collaborate cross-functionally to ship research into production.
Minimum Qualifications - Individuals who are completing or recently completed a PhD in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline. - Solid foundation in machine learning, deep learning, or information retrieval. - Experience in at least one of the following areas: LLMs, search/recommendation systems, ranking, NLP, or multimodal learning. - Strong programming skills in Python and familiarity with ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow). - Demonstrated research ability through publications, projects, or internships. - Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work in a fast-paced, collaborative environment. Preferred Qualifications - Track record of research contributions through publications, open-source projects, or impactful research work. - Hands-on experience with large-scale systems, distributed training, or real-world ML deployment. - Experience with search, recommendation, or ads ranking systems in industry or research. - Experience with multimodal models (video, image, text) or generative AI applications. - Familiarity with LLM fine-tuning, alignment (e.g., RLHF), or agent-based systems. - Strong interest in building end-to-end AI systems from modeling to production. - Internship or research experience at leading technology companies or research organizations. - Modeling experience in one or more of the following areas: Ads, Search engine, Recommender System, NLP/CV. - Have a solid foundation in algorithms related to LLMs, including but not limited to comprehensive learning and practical experience in areas such as single-modal/multi-modal LLM application and deployment. - Strong publications record in accredited conferences or journals（e.g., ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML, ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, CVPR, ICCV and ECCV）.
【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)
The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $218400 - $480000 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:
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; and
3. Exercising sound judgment.
About TikTok
TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok's global headquarters are in Los Angeles and Singapore, and we also have offices in New York City, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.
Why Join Us
Inspiring creativity is at the core of TikTok's mission. Our innovative product is built to help people authentically express themselves, discover and connect – and our global, diverse teams make that possible. Together, we create value for our communities, inspire creativity and bring joy - a mission we work towards every day.
We strive to do great things with great people. We lead with curiosity, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn and innovate as one team. We're resilient and embrace challenges as they come. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.
Diversity & Inclusion
TikTok is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.
TikTok Accommodation
TikTok is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at https://tinyurl.com/RA-request
TikTok is a short-form mobile video platform that lets people create, discover, and share quick videos. Users upload vertical clips, edit them with built-in tools, and browse a personalized feed powered by an algorithm that highlights relevant content. Advertisers can use in-feed ads, branded hashtags, and the Business Center to plan and measure campaigns, making it easy for brands to reach a global audience. Its goal is to inspire creativity and bring joy by helping people express themselves and by connecting brands with a wide audience.
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