Applied Scientist Intern; Recommendation AI Lab PhD San Jose PhD Intern

Applied Scientist Intern (Recommendation AI Lab) - 2026 Start (PhD)

Location:

San Jose

Employment Type:

Intern

Job Code: A125123

This team builds next-generation monetization platforms for Tik Tok ads, focusing on generative technologies in search, recommendation, and advertising. The internship focuses on foundation models for recommender and language tasks.

• Explore scaling laws for foundation models in recommendation and advertising, and build a foundation model based on unified multimodal semantic modeling.
• Build an intelligent ad placement system optimized for users' Long-Term Value (LTV) and long-term ROAS, achieving an optimal balance between commercial value and user experience.
• Optimize the full-process training and online inference framework for foundation models, balance computing power costs and real-time response performance, and resolve the performance‑latency trade‑off in real-world deployment.

• Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Modeling experience in one or more of the areas:
  Ads, Search engine, Recommender System, NLP/CV.
• Solid foundation in algorithms related to LLMs, including comprehensive learning and practical experience in areas such as single-modal LLM application and deployment.
• Priority for candidates with research results and extensive practical experience in natural language processing, computer vision, data modeling, or algorithm optimization.
• Excellent programming abilities with strong command of data structures and fundamental algorithms. Proficiency in C/C++ for traditional coding roles; proficiency in Python for intelligent coding roles.
• Strong publication record in top conferences (e.g., ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML, ACL, EMNLP, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV) is a plus.

Hourly Rate: $60- $60.

• Day one access to health insurance, life insurance, wellbeing benefits and more.
• 10 paid holidays per year and paid sick time (56 hours if hired in first half of year, 40 if hired in second half).
• Eligibility for housing allowance for interns not working 100% remote.

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: