Applied Scientist Intern (Recommendation AI… at TikTok · San Jose

Summary: TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video, and they are seeking an Applied Scientist Intern for their Recommendation AI Lab. The role involves exploring and building foundation models for recommendation and advertising, optimizing intelligent ad placement systems, and enhancing the training and inference frameworks for these models. Responsibilities: - Explore scaling laws for foundation models in recommendation and advertising, and build a foundation model based on unified multimodal semantic modeling - Build an intelligent ad placement system optimized for users' Long-Term Value (LTV) and long-term ROAS, achieving an optimal balance between commercial value and user experience - Optimize the full-process training and online inference framework for foundation models, balance computing power costs and real-time response performance, and resolve the performance-latency trade-off in real-world deployment Required Qualifications: - Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline - Modeling experience in one or more of the areas: Ads, Search engine, Recommender System, NLP/CV - Have a solid foundation in algorithms related to LLMs, including but not limited to comprehensive learning and practical experience in areas such as single-modal LLM application and deployment Preferred Qualifications: - Priority will be given to candidates with research results and extensive practical relevant fields, such as outstanding performance in natural language processing, computer vision, data modeling, or algorithm optimization, etc - Excellent programming abilities with a strong command of data structures and fundamental algorithms. For traditional coding roles, proficiency in C/C++ is required; for intelligent coding roles, proficiency in Python is required - Strong publications record in top conferences (e.g., ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML, ACL, EMNLP, NACCL, CVPR, ICCV, and ECCV) is a plus Required Skills: PhD in Computer Science or related technical discipline, Modeling in Ads, Search engine modeling, Recommender System modeling, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Computer Vision (CV), Large Language Models (LLMs) algorithms, Single-modal LLM application and deployment, Programming in C/C++, Programming in Python, Data structures, Algorithm optimization Internship Start Date: Start in 2026 Benefits: Interns have day one access to health insurance, life insurance, wellbeing benefits and more., Interns also receive 10 paid holidays per year and paid sick time (56 hours if hired in first half of year, 40 if hired in second half of year)., Interns who are not working 100% remote may also be eligible for housing allowance.