TikTok

Senior Research Engineer - Foundation Models, Ads Integrity

TikTok$212K — $387K *
Enterprise Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • PhD or MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field with 5+ years of industry research experience.
  • Deep expertise in AIGC algorithms including LLMs and diffusion models.
  • Strong background in NLP or multimodal learning.
  • Proficiency in PyTorch/JAX and distributed training/inference optimization.
  • Experience in team engagement, mentoring, and aligning technical direction with business objectives.

Responsibilities

  • Drive research in Generative AI and foundation models, leading projects in text generation, multimodal understanding, and deepfake synthesis.
  • Architect and deploy AIGC solutions for monetization ecosystems, ensuring measurable business impact.
  • Lead a high-performing team of researchers and engineers in large-scale model development.
  • Spearhead cross-functional collaborations to productionize models, focusing on robustness and ethical AI practices.
  • Shape research through patents, publications, and open-source contributions while guiding strategic investments.

Benefits

  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance from day one of employment.
  • 401(k) savings plan with company match.
  • Paid parental leave and short-term/long-term disability coverage.
  • Life insurance and wellbeing benefits.
  • Paid holidays, sick days, and personal time off (PTO) based on tenure.
Full Job Description
Responsibilities

Our Business Integrity team has a strong user focus and a dedication to technical excellence. We aim to meet our users' needs with reliable and high-performing platforms and services. We are looking for strong machine learning engineers who are excited to grow their business understanding, build highly scalable machine learning models, and partner across disciplines with global teams, in pursuit of excellence. Given the fast growth of TikTok in the world, we are working on building a next-generation content understanding system for TikTok monetization. We are seeking sophisticated Research Engineers who are experienced in machine learning, which can help us create an ecosystem that rewards high quality user experience and advertiser value. Responsibilities 1. Drive cutting-edge research in Generative AI and foundation models, leading projects in text generation/translation, multimodal understanding (image/video-to-text), deepfake synthesis/detection, and efficient training/inference for AIGC models. Define technical roadmaps and align with long-term business goals. 2. Architect and deploy AIGC solutions for monetization ecosystems (ads, e-commerce, short video, live streaming), translating research into scalable systems with measurable business impact. 3. Engage and lead a high-performing team of researchers/engineers, fostering innovation in large-scale model development, content understanding, and AI-driven productization. 4. Spearhead cross-functional collaborations with product, engineering, and infrastructure teams to productionize models, ensuring robustness, efficiency, and ethical AI practices. 5. Shape industry-leading research through patents, publications, and open-source contributions, while maintaining a pulse on emerging trends to guide strategic investments.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications: - PhD or MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related fields with 5+ years of industry research experience (or equivalent) - Deep expertise in AIGC algorithms (LLMs, diffusion models, etc.), with a proven track record of scaling models from research to production - Strong background in either NLP (text generation, RLHF) or multimodal learning (vision-language models) - Proficiency in PyTorch/JAX, distributed training, and inference optimization (e.g., quantization, model compression) - Team engagement experience, with the ability to mentor and collaborate with cross-functional team stakeholders, set technical direction, and align projects with business objectives - Demonstrated ability to design long-term roadmaps, anticipate industry shifts, and make high-impact technical decisions under fast-paced global business settings. Preferred Qualifications: - Experience with AI safety, alignment, or adversarial robustness in generative models - Familiarity with reinforcement learning for autonomous agents or large-scale recommender systems

Job Information

[For Pay Transparency]Compensation Description (Annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $212800 - $387600 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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