TikTok

(General Hire) Research Scientist Graduate (TikTok Recommendation) - 2026 Start (PhD)

TikTok$156K — $316K *
Information Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Statistics, or a related field
  • Experience in computer vision, natural language processing, and machine learning
  • Solid knowledge of at least one major deep learning framework (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow)
  • Familiarity with deep neural network architectures (transformer, CNN, RNN, etc.)
  • Strong analytical and collaborative problem-solving skills

Responsibilities

  • Conduct research on cutting-edge computer vision, natural language processing, and generative modeling
  • Transform state-of-the-art (SoTA) ideas into production applications
  • Develop models through their complete life cycle from training to deployment and maintenance
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams on model building and business applications
  • Monitor and implement industry advancements into the team's projects

Benefits

  • Day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance
  • 401(k) plan with company match
  • Paid parental leave and disability coverage
  • 10 paid holidays and 10 sick days annually
  • 17 days of Paid Personal Time, increasing with tenure
Full Job Description
Responsibilities

Our team's mission is to empower genAI and content understanding in TikTok businesses. Computer vision and natural language processing are important dimensions in both content generation and understanding. We are working on various foundational models, including multi-modality pretraining, multi-modal large language model, image generation, video generation etc. As a genAI team on the business side, we try to succeed in both achieving business metric gains (recommendation metrics), and also producing state-of-the-art research outputs. This opening is part of the general hiring process for the TikTok Recommendation organization. Applications will be evaluated by multiple teams within the Recommendation organization to ensure the best alignment based on skills and interests. We are looking for talented individuals to join our team in 2026. As a graduate, you will get opportunities to pursue bold ideas, tackle complex challenges, and unlock limitless growth. Launch your career where inspiration is infinite at our Company. Successful candidates must be able to commit to an onboarding date by end of year 2026. Please state your availability and graduation date clearly in your resume. Responsibilities 1. Conducting development and research on cutting-edge CV, NLP, multi-modality, LLM, generative modeling 2. Following SoTA progress in relevant fields and transform the ideas into production 3. Life-cycle model development, from model training, deployment, maintenance, till its use in business scenarios.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications: 1. Individuals who are completing or have recently completed a PhD degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Statistics, or a related field. 2. Experience in one of more areas of computer vision, natural language processing and machine learning Solid knowledge and experience with at least one major deep learning framework (e.g. PyTorch, Tensorflow, MXNet, Caffe/Caffe2). 3. Familiar with deep neural network architectures such as transformer/SSM/CNN/RNN/LSTM etc. 4. Strong analytical and problem solving skills. Ability to work collaboratively in cross-functional teams. Preferred Qualifications: 1. Degree in computer science, electrical engineering or related fields 2. Authors with publications in major AI venues such as SIGGRAPH, SIGGRAPH Asia, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, ICML, NeurIPS, ICLR

Job Information

[For Pay Transparency]Compensation Description (Annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $156000 - $316800 annually.

Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate's qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location. Base pay is one part of the Total Package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role may be eligible for additional discretionary bonuses/incentives, and restricted stock units.

Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Employees have day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) savings plan with company match, paid parental leave, short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, wellbeing benefits, among others. Employees also receive 10 paid holidays per year, 10 paid sick days per year and 17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure).

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 TikTok

TikTok is a social media app that allows users to create and share short videos. The app was launched in 2016 by Chinese tech company ByteDance. TikTok has become one of the most popular social media apps in the world, with over 1 billion active users. The app has been downloaded over 2 billion times worldwide. TikTok has faced controversy over its data privacy practices and its potential ties to the Chinese government. In 2020, the app faced a potential ban in the United States, but a deal was reached with Oracle and Walmart to create a new company called TikTok Global.
Learn more about TikTok
Size
1,750 employees
Industry
Founded
2012

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