Sr. AI Network Architect, Infrastructure

Responsibilities

About the Team The Network Architecture team brings together top industry talent and is responsible for the long-term planning, design, testing, and validation of TikTok's global network architecture. Our scope spans multiple domains, including Data Center Networks (DCN), High-Performance Networks (HPN), and the global backbone. The networks we design and build power some of the world's most popular applications, including Douyin and TikTok, supporting hundreds of millions of users worldwide with high performance, scalability, and reliability. We are seeking a Senior AI Network Architect to lead the design and evolution of high-performance network infrastructure supporting large-scale AI training and inference workloads. This role requires deep expertise in AI data center networking, strong architectural design, sharp insight into the industry, and the ability to drive complex systems from concept through production deployment. Responsibilities - Lead requirement analysis and capacity planning for AI training and inference networks, with a strong understanding of workload characteristics and scalability needs. - Analyze industry trends and emerging technologies in AI networking, and translate them into practical architectural decisions. - Architect end-to-end AI network solutions optimized for performance, scalability, reliability, and cost. - Own network architecture validation, benchmarking, and performance tuning for large-scale AI clusters. - Partner closely with infrastructure, platform, and operations teams to ensure smooth deployment and production rollout of new network architectures. - Provide technical leadership and mentorship to engineers, and contribute to architecture reviews and long-term infrastructure roadmaps.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications - Bachelor's or higher degree in Computer Science, Electronic Engineering, Network Engineering or related fields. - Deep expertise in high-performance networking technologies, including RDMA, PFC, ECN, DLB, GLB, QoS, and AR, with hands-on experience optimizing large-scale systems. - Strong foundation in core networking protocols and architectures such as TCP/IP, BGP, SRv6, VXLAN, and ACLs. - Solid understanding of AI training and inference workloads, including distributed training patterns and performance bottlenecks. - Strong knowledge of collective communication principles and their impact on large-scale GPU/accelerator clusters. - Hands-on experience with performance testing and benchmarking tools such as perftest and NCCL tests, and the ability to interpret results to drive architectural decisions. - Proven experience designing and deploying AI-focused network architectures in production environments. Preferred Qualifications - Experience operating and scaling large AI or HPC clusters in production. - Experience working with GPU/accelerator fabrics and data center-scale networking. - Strong cross-functional collaboration skills and the ability to influence technical direction across teams.

Job Information

[For Pay Transparency]Compensation Description (Annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $208800 - $616000 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 the leading destination for short-form mobile video. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok'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.

Why Join Us

Inspiring creativity is at the core of TikTok'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.

Diversity & Inclusion

TikTok 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 TikTok, 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.

TikTok Accommodation

TikTok is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at