Backend Engineer; AI - Local Service

About the Team

Tik Tok Local Service is on a mission to empower local merchants, creators, and users by making local experiences more accessible, enjoyable, and intelligent. Our team focuses on leveraging cutting-edge AI technologies to improve user conversion, enhance creator/merchant operations, and enable new forms of smart digital interaction across the local services ecosystem. You will join an AI Application team that is at the forefront of integrating LLMs and intelligent agents into real-world scenarios such as:

• Smart content generation for creators
• Personalized shopping assistants
• Automated merchant support
• AI-powered analytics for storefront operations

We are building fast, experimenting boldly, and growing rapidly – and we are looking for strong backend engineers to help us build scalable and intelligent platforms that support millions of users and thousands of merchants.

• Design and develop robust, scalable, and high-performance backend systems for AI-driven products in the local service domain.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, and frontend developers to bring intelligent features into production.
• Build APIs, data pipelines, and microservices to support content generation, and operation tools for creators and merchants.
• Optimize systems for reliability, latency, and cost efficiency in a high-traffic environment.
• Participate in system architecture design and tech planning discussions; drive best practices for code quality and engineering excellence.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or higher degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related fields.
• Solid programming skills in Go, Java, or Python, and familiarity with microservice architecture.
• Experience with large-scale backend development and cloud-native systems (Kubernetes, Docker, etc.).
• Familiarity with relational and non-relational databases (e.g., MySQL, Redis, MongoDB).
• Good understanding of data structures, algorithms, and distributed systems.
• Strong communication skills and ability to work in cross-functional, international teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in AI-related backend infrastructure, such as feature serving, vector retrieval, or LLM service integration.
• Familiarity with content platforms, or local commerce ecosystems.
• Experience working with business-side teams (merchants, creators) and understanding of user/product feedback loops.

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, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn and innovate as one team. We're resilient and embrace challenges as they come. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless.

Join us.

Tik Tok is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At Tik Tok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach.

We are passionate about this and hope you are too.