Software Engineer Intern; Distributed NoSQL Database Systems; Summer

Join us as we work together to inspire creativity and enrich life around the globe.

Seattle

Infrastructure

Intern

A10782

About the Team Join Byte Dance’s database R&D team, where you’ll build and own cutting-edge database products supporting Byte Dance’s global infrastructure. Our diverse portfolio includes relational databases, distributed caches, key-value stores, document databases, graph databases, wide-column stores, search engines, and multi-model databases.

About the Role We are building the next-generation AI-native database systems—intelligent, multimodal, and designed for the era of large models. Our systems are not just data stores; they’re reasoning engines, retrieval platforms, and real-time memory for AI agents. As a Software Engineer or Researcher, you will be at the forefront of rethinking how databases work when built from the ground up for AI workloads.

You’ll help create infrastructure that powers intelligent systems across Tik Tok, Cap Cut, and future applications that haven’t been imagined yet.

We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship. Our internship program offers students hands-on experience, industry exposure, and opportunities to apply their knowledge to real-world challenges while building a strong foundation for personal and professional growth.

Interns will gain practical experience, explore potential career paths, and participate in social events, learning programs, and development workshops alongside industry professionals.

Candidates may apply to a maximum of two positions across Our Company and its affiliates globally. Applications will be considered in the order they are submitted.

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, so we encourage you to apply early. Please clearly state your availability in your resume, including your start and end dates.

Candidates who pass resume screening will be invited to participate in Our Company's technical online assessment.

• Develop kernel modules or features for AI-native database systems.
• Solve unique, large-scale, highly complex cloud infrastructure problems
• Partner with PMs and engineers from different teams on building backend support for AI-native database service products
• Participate in technical discussions related to team's product and engineering work

• Currently pursuing an Undergraduate/ Master's in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or other related discipline.
• Knowledge of database kernel, distributed system, query processing and optimization, multi-threaded programming
• Experience coding in C/C++, Golang, Java, Python

• Demonstrated software engineering experience from previous internship, work experience, coding competitions, or publications.
• Curiosity towards new technologies and entrepreneurship.
• High levels of creativity and quick problem-solving capabilities.
• Experience with open-source systems such as Faiss, Milvus, DuckDB, Click House, TiKV, RocksDB.
• Publications at conferences (e.g., SIGMOD, VLDB, NeurIPS, MLSys, ICDE).
• Familiarity with GCP, AWS, or Azure’s database and AI integration strategies.
• Prior contributions to RAG, memory-augmented models, or self-tuning database components.

Founded in 2012, Byte Dance's mission is to inspire creativity and enrich life. With a suite of more than a dozen products, including Tik Tok, Lemon8, Cap Cut and Pico as well as platforms specific to the China market, including Toutiao, Douyin, and Xigua, Byte Dance has made it easier and more fun for people to connect with, consume, and create content.

Inspiring creativity is at the core of Byte Dance's mission. Our innovative…