TikTok

Senior Software Engineer (Backend) - TikTok Open Platform

TikTok$218K — $387K *
Information Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's in Computer Science or related field; 5+ years in server-side software engineering.
  • Strong skills in Golang, Java, or Python with a focus on concurrent programming.
  • Deep understanding of relational databases, NoSQL, caches, and search engines.
  • Sound knowledge of distributed systems principles such as consensus and fault tolerance.
  • Experience with AI tools like Cursor and Claude Code integrated in development processes.

Responsibilities

  • Design and develop B2B server-side services for TikTok Open Platform.
  • Create core domain models and establish storage architectures.
  • Build open capability frameworks to enhance platform security and compliance.
  • Design scalable and reliable distributed systems for high availability.
  • Utilize AI tools to improve engineering efficiency across the development lifecycle.
  • Participate in producing AI-native capabilities and managing AI traffic.
  • Lead in diagnosing online issues and improving system observability.

Benefits

  • Day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance.
  • 401(k) savings plan with company match.
  • Paid parental leave and disability coverage.
  • Life insurance and wellbeing benefits.
  • 10 paid holidays, 10 sick days, and 17 days of Paid Personal Time per year.
Full Job Description
Responsibilities

The TikTok Open Platform team builds the foundational platform capabilities and infrastructure connecting TikTok's massive ecosystem with developers, enterprise merchants, and third-party partners. We focus on high-concurrency architecture, API gateways, tenant isolation, security/compliance, and next-generation AI-enabled platform services. Responsibilities - System Architecture & Evolution: Responsible for the architecture design, development, and evolution of B2B server-side services for TikTok Open Platform, creating standardized, reusable platform capabilities for developers and ecosystem partners. - Domain Modeling & Storage Architecture: Design core domain models and storage layers. Formulate data partition strategies, read/write pipelines, hot/cold data tiering, capacity planning, and performance optimization according to business growth. - Ecosystem Openness & Security Control: Build open capability frameworks including API gateways, authentication, RBAC/ABAC permissions, multi-tenant isolation, quota/rate limiting, audit logging, and risk controls to ensure platform security and compliance. - Distributed Systems Reliability: Design and deploy high-availability, scalable distributed systems. Implement crucial mechanisms for consistency, idempotency, fault tolerance, circuit breaking, degradation, async processing, and disaster recovery. - AI-Assisted Engineering Practice: Leverage AI programming tools and Agent capabilities (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code) to scale up engineering efficiency across requirement analysis, schema design, coding, testing, Code Review, documentation, and live incident troubleshooting. - AI-Native Platform Capabilities: Participate in building open capabilities for AI-native scenarios, including Agent-friendly API design/semantic descriptions, MCP/Tool integration, context/knowledge feed pipelines, AI traffic auditing, and token cost governance. - Technical Governance: Lead complex online issue diagnosis, continuously improve system observability and fault recovery efficiency, and take ownership of core SLA and long-term tech debt.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications - Experience & Level: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related fields, with 5+ years of server-side software engineering experience. Background in B2B systems, open platforms, or large-scale developer platforms preferred. (Targeting Senior/L3 level). - Language & Core Tech: Solid mastery of Golang, Java, or Python, with a deep understanding of concurrent programming, network models, and runtime mechanisms. - Data & Storage Expertise: In-depth knowledge of relational databases, NoSQL, caches, and search engines. Practical experience in indexing design, sharding, database migration, capacity assessment, and performance tuning. - Distributed Systems: Strong understanding of distributed system fundamentals, including consensus, availability, idempotency, retry mechanisms, message reliability, rate limiting, and circuit breaking. - AI Tooling & Practical Knowledge: Experience incorporating AI coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code, etc.) into daily development workflows. Understanding of LLM concepts, RAG, Function Calling, Agents, and MCP boundaries to judge appropriate AI integration scenarios. - Execution & Ownership: Excellent problem-solving, communication, and cross-team project driving capabilities. Preferred Qualifications - Experience with Open APIs, OAuth, API Gateways, billing/quota systems, or developer ecosystem infrastructure. - Hands-on experience in large-scale data governance, multi-region/multi-active deployment, or high-concurrency core backend pipelines. - Experience building LLM applications, Agent engineering, MCP Servers, or AI Gateways (model routing, token/cost metering, content safety).

Job Information

[For Pay Transparency]Compensation Description (Annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $218400 - $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.

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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