Machine Learning Scientist Intern (-Recommendation PhD) San Jose Technolog

Discover a career that energizes and excites you every day.

@2026 Tik Tok

Algorithm

Location:

San Jose

Employment Type:

Intern

Job Code:

A68134

About the Team Recommendation algorithm team plays a central role in the company, driving critical product decisions and platform growth. The team is made up of machine learning researchers and engineers, who support and innovate on production recommendation models and drive product impact. The team is fast-pacing, collaborative and impact-driven.

We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship. PhD internships at Our Company provide students with the opportunity to actively contribute to our products and research, as well as to the organization's future plans and emerging technologies.

Our dynamic internship experience blends hands-on learning, enriching community-building and professional development events, and collaboration with industry experts.

• Drive the development of industry-leading recommendation systems that elevate user experience, strengthen platform safety, and empower a vibrant content ecosystem.
• Deliver impactful, end-to-end machine learning solutions that tackle high-priority product challenges related to content understanding, LLMs, robustness, and fairness.
• Own and optimize the full-stack ML pipeline—from algorithm design to system infrastructure—to continuously push the boundaries of recommendation performance.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to craft innovative product strategies and develop intelligent solutions that fuel Tik Tok’s growth in key global markets.

• Currently pursuing a PhD with a background in computer science, machine learning, or similar fields;
• Good knowledge of theoretical and empirical research in addressing research problems;
• Solid knowledge and experience with at least one popular deep learning framework (e.g., PyTorch,Tensor Flow) and familiarity with deep neural network architectures.

• Research experience in one or more of the following fields: applied machine learning, machine learning infrastructure, large-scale recommendation system, market-facing machine learning product;
• Strong first-author publications record in top AI conferences or journals(e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, NAACL etc.);
• Proficient in C/C++, Python, and shell programming languages, and have a deep understanding of data structure and algorithm design;
• Internship experience in an AI research organization.

The hourly rate range for this position in the selected city is $60- $60.

• Interns have day one access to health insurance, life insurance, wellbeing benefits and more.
• Interns also receive 10 paid holidays per year and paid sick time (56 hours if hired in first half of year, 40 if hired in second half of year).
• Interns who are not working 100% remote may also be eligible for housing allowance.

The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.

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

Tik Tok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. At Tik Tok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. Tik Tok'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.

Inspiring creativity is at the core of Tik Tok'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,…