Senior Platform Engineer - USDS

Responsibilities

About the Team The Cyber Defense & Engineering team is missioned to run and operate security infrastructures, platforms and technologies, as well as to support cross-functional teams to protect our users, products and infrastructures. This team is responsible for enhancing security tools and identifying vulnerabilities, with a specific focus on content assurance and the application of large language models (LLMs). You'll collaborate cross-functionally with partners inside and outside TikTok to fortify our products and users' security, helping to establish TikTok as the most trusted platform. In order to enhance collaboration and cross-functional partnerships, among other things, at this time, our organization follows a hybrid work schedule that requires employees to work in the office 3 days a week, or as directed by their manager/department. We regularly review our hybrid work model, and the specific requirements may change at any time. About the Role We are seeking a hands-on Platform Engineer to architect, build, and operate the greenfield on-premise infrastructure that powers our next-generation AI initiatives. This is a unique opportunity to build an AI-native platform from the ground up. You will bridge the gap between classic security services such as SPIFFE/Spire, which enables all our service-to-service communication, and modern AI workloads, leveraging a stack that includes Kubernetes, GPUs, Vector Databases, and streaming technologies like Kafka and Flink. You will solve complex challenges in distributed computing, network latency, and automated provisioning to foster a culture of innovation and velocity. There is also responsibility for designing multi-tenant cloud architecture. Responsibilities - Architect and operate highly available, on-premise Kubernetes-based GPU compute cluster. You will manage the scheduling and orchestration of high performance workloads. Build robust CI/CD pipelines specifically for LLM applications. - Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Lead the design and implementation of IaC (using Terraform, Ansible or Saltstack) to fully automate the provisioning bare metal servers, network and storage layers, and ensuring the environment is reproducible and idempotent. - Lead and perform hands-on technical work, including architecture design and code development for an on-premise, highly scalable, and parallelized infrastructure. The role includes developing internal tools to manage the entire lifecycle of a large scale RAG pipeline . - Architect, implement, and manage a high-performance compute cluster for LLM workloads. This involves the selection and configuration of specialized hardware like GPUs, as well as the design of a robust network fabric to facilitate efficient inter-node communication for parallel processing. - Implement security best practices for a private data center environment. This includes configuring network firewalls, managing access controls, and encrypting data at rest and in transit. - Establish comprehensive monitoring and alerting systems to track the health and performance of the compute cluster and LLM workloads. This involves analyzing metrics related to GPU utilization, memory usage, network throughput, and model inference latency. You will proactively resolve performance issues to enhance platform reliability and operational support for internal teams. - Collaborate with internal stakeholders to optimize resource utilization and improve the platform's efficiency. You'll work closely with data scientists and machine learning engineers to understand their compute needs and ensure the infrastructure is optimized for their specific workloads.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications: - Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, with 5+ years of experience in platform, systems, or infrastructure engineering. - Proven expertise in infrastructure automation using tools like Terraform, Ansible or Saltstack, with strong hands-on experience in automating deployments and managing bare-metal hardware and virtual machines. - Deep experience with on-premises infrastructure, with a solid understanding of large scale data processing, distributed computing and other big data infrastructure. - Strong grasp of networking, storage, and virtualization technologies, with practical knowledge of building and supporting complex distributed systems for parallel processing of LLM workloads. - Hands-on experience with container technologies (e.g., Docker) and managing on-premises Kubernetes clusters in production environments. - Proficiency in scripting and automation using languages like Python and Go, and experience with full-stack development in languages such as Rust to build internal platforms. Preferred Qualifications - Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional teams to build scalable, reliable, and high-performance internal platforms and services specifically tailored for AI and LLM use cases. - Relevant certifications such as Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Architect, CKA (Certified Kubernetes Administrator), RHCE (Red Hat Certified Engineer), or other Network Engineering certifications. - Technical writing and communication skills that enable effective problem-solving and strengthen interpersonal relationships - Critical thinking and architectural decision making skills to support effective, collaborative leadership in a fast-paced, dynamic environment - Strong team and XFN co-ordination & management abilities - Experience with cloud platforms other than OCI e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform

Job Information

[For Pay Transparency]Compensation Description (Annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $187040 - $359720 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 USDS

TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. Our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. U.S. Data Security ("USDS") is a subsidiary of TikTok in the U.S. This new, security-first division was created to bring heightened focus and governance to our data protection policies and content assurance protocols to keep U.S. users safe. Our focus is on providing oversight and protection of the TikTok platform and U.S. user data, so millions of Americans can continue turning to TikTok to learn something new, earn a living, express themselves creatively, or be entertained. The teams within USDS that deliver on this commitment daily span across Trust & Safety, Security & Privacy, Engineering, User & Product Ops, Corporate Functions and more.

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.

USDS Reasonable Accommodation

USDS 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