Research Engineer
TikTok
Research Engineer
TikTok
Short-form video platform with ads
We are building the next generation of AI-native creation tools powered by intelligent AI agents. Our mission is to transform how people create by embedding agentic AI directly into creative workflows—from AI-powered camera effect generation to AI-driven video editing and storytelling. Our team operates at the intersection of AI research, systems engineering, and creative product development, translating advances in agentic AI into scalable, real-world creation tools used by millions of creators. We work closely with product and design partners to ensure that sophisticated AI systems result in simple, powerful, and intuitive creative experiences. Responsibilities - Build end-to-end agentic video editing systems, working across the agent harness, backend services, and evaluation pipelines. Own scoped features and improvements from prototyping through production. - Develop and improve the agent harness, including planning, tool use, context management, and error recovery for multimodal editing workflows. - Build reliable backend services for agent execution, session management, and media processing, and improve system latency, cost, and reliability. - Develop evaluation and feedback loops, including LLM judges, benchmarks, and human review workflows, to measure editing quality, diagnose failures, and catch regressions. - Propose new ideas and adapt advances from research and industry into practical experiments, using evaluation results and user feedback to continuously improve agent capabilities and video quality. - Collaborate with research, engineering, and product partners to turn successful experiments into useful editing experiences for creators.
Minimum Qualifications - Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, AI, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. - Strong programming skills in Python and solid software engineering fundamentals. - Foundational knowledge of machine learning and large language models. - Hands-on experience building an LLM application, AI Agent, or multimodal AI project through coursework, research, internships, or personal projects. - Ability to design experiments, analyze failures, and turn findings into working improvements. - Interest in video creation and building useful tools for creators. Preferred Qualifications - Experience with tool-use agents, context management, or debugging and improving multi-step agent workflows. - Familiarity with video understanding, audio and visual processing. - Experience with evaluation datasets, human annotation, or model-based evaluation. - Familiarity with video editing tools or media processing libraries such as FFmpeg. - Relevant research, open-source contributions, or projects that demonstrate the ability to build and evaluate AI systems.
【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)
The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $162000 - $387600 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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