Machine Learning Engineer Graduate - Global E-commerce Recommendation/Search - 2026 Start (PhD)

Responsibilities

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 TikTok. 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. Candidates can apply to a maximum of two positions and will be considered for jobs in the order you apply. The application limit is applicable to TikTok and its affiliates' jobs globally. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis - we encourage you to apply early. The Data-E-commerce team oversees algorithmic and corresponding engineering work in the e-commerce business. Our responsibilities encompass not only utilizing recommendation and search algorithms to help users discover appealing products but also implementing risk control and content safety algorithms to identify malicious sellers/influencers and violations in products/videos/live streams, ensuring a secure shopping experience. Furthermore, we are involved in constructing intelligent customer service technology and large-scale product knowledge graphs, aiming to enhance efficiency across various transaction processes. Through operations optimization and intelligent supply chain algorithms, we work to improve logistics efficiency. Responsibilities:
Work in a team to conduct cutting-edge research in machine learning algorithms, such as retrieval and recommendation algorithms.
Participate in building large-scale (10 million to 100 million) e-commerce recommendation algorithms and systems, including commodity recommendations, live stream recommendations, short video recommendations etc in TikTok.
Build long and short term user interest models, analyze and extract relevant information from large amounts of various data and design algorithms to explore users' latent interests efficiently.
Apply machine learning algorithms to improve the different business scenarios, such as search ranking, natural language and video understanding, and trust and safety.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications 1. Final year or recent graduate with a background in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline. 2. Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills. 3. Strong foundation in machine learning and deep learning, with experience in: NLP (Natural Language Processing). Personalization. 4. Exceptional coding skills with solid knowledge of data structures and algorithms. 5. Proficiency in Linux development environments. Preferred Qualifications 1. Prior experience in search, recommendation, or advertisement algorithms. 2. Familiarity e-commerce businesses. By submitting an application for this role, you accept and agree to our global applicant privacy policy, which may be accessed here: ;br>
Job Information

[For Pay Transparency]Compensation Description (Annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $129960 - $246240 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