Software Engineer Intern; Recommendation Infrastructure - Fall; BS​/MS

Software Engineer Intern (Recommendation Infrastructure) - 2026 Fall (BS/MS)

Location:

San Jose

Employment Type:

Intern

Job Code: A41396

Team Introduction:
The Recommendation Infrastructure Team is responsible for building reliable, efficient, flexible, and generic recommendation components, systems, and platforms. Our work supports the fast iteration and incubation of Tik Tok's recommendation products. We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship in 2026. Internships at our Company aim to offer students industry exposure and hands-on experience. Watch your ambitions become reality as your inspiration brings infinite opportunities at our Company.

Internships at Our Company aims to provide students with hands-on experience in developing fundamental skills and exploring potential career paths. A vibrant blend of social events and enriching development workshops will be available for you to explore. Here, you will utilize your knowledge in real-world scenarios while laying a strong foundation for personal and professional growth.

Responsibilities:
This internship provides students the opportunity to join one of our engineering teams where you will have the opportunity to:

• Build and maintain high performance online services for Tik Tok recommendation system.
• Build extremely efficient and reliable data pipelines for candidates generation, profile generation, training examples generation, realtime online training, etc.
• Work with your mentor to build globalized large-scale recommendation system.
• Design and develop high performance computing frameworks and storage systems.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Must be able to commit to a 12-week full-time work period during Fall 2026
• Currently pursuing an Undergraduate/Masters degree in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Experience in programming, included but not limited to, the following programming languages: C, C++, Java or Golang.
• Effective communication skills and a sense of ownership and drive.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Demonstrated software engineering experience from previous internship, work experience, coding competitions, or publications.
• Demonstrated experience in one area of the following areas: personalized recommendations, search engine, machine learning, distributed storage system, big data frameworks is a plus.

For Pay Transparency Compensation Description (Hourly) - Campus Intern

The hourly rate range for this position in the selected city is $45- $60.

Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. 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.

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:

• 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;
• 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,…