Research Scientist Intern (-Recommendation PhD) San Jose Technology - Algo

Discover a career that energizes and excites you every day.

@2026 Tik Tok

Algorithm

Location:

San Jose

Employment Type:

Intern

Job Code:

A218784

Responsibilities

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. This opening is part of the general hiring process for the Tik Tok Recommendation organization.

Applications will be evaluated by multiple teams within the Recommendation organization to ensure the best match based on skills and interests. 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.

• Build industry‑leading recommendation system, improving user experience, content ecosystem and platform security
• Deliver end‑to‑end machine learning solution to address critical product challenges
• Own the full stack machine learning system and optimize algorithms and infrastructure to improve recommendation performance
• Work with cross functional teams to design product strategies and build solutions to grow Tik Tok in important markets

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a PhD degree in the field of computer science or a related technical discipline
• Proficient coding skills and strong algorithm & data structure using C++/Python or other programming language
• Experienced in Machine Learning, familiar with at least one Deep Learning framework, e.g. PyTorch, Tensorflow.
• Experienced in one or more of the following areas, e.g. NLP, CV, Recommender System, and Machine Learning, etc
• Effective communication and teamwork skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Authors of published papers in top academia conferences is an advantage
• Winners of algorithm and machine learning competitions such as ACM and Kaggle is an advantage

Job Information

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

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 Tik…