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Research Engineer Intern (Agentic Systems & AI… at TikTok · San Jose
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@2026TikTok
Algorithm
Research Engineer Intern (Agentic Systems & AI Infrastructure - TikTok-Generalized Arch) - 2027 Start (PhD)
Location:
San Jose
Employment Type:
Intern
Job Code:
A42915A
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Responsibilities
TikTok is an international short video platform available in over 150 countries and regions, where we aim to inspire creativity and bring joy by helping people discover authentic and interesting moments. TikTok has offices around the world, with global headquarters in Los Angeles and Singapore, and additional offices in New York, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo, among others.
The TikTok Agentic Arch team is building AI-native engineering infrastructure that transforms how software is designed, built, and operated at TikTok scale. We research and deploy reliable long-horizon agents that can reason over large codebases, interact with complex tools and environments, and complete consequential engineering work across distributed production systems.
Our environment provides a unique opportunity to advance agent research through real-world execution feedback. You will develop frontier methods, evaluate them rigorously, and bring them into production through platforms used at large scale—creating measurable improvements in engineering productivity, software quality, and operational effectiveness.
We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship. PhD internships at Our Company provide students with the opportunity to actively contribute to our products and research, as well as to the organization's future plans and emerging technologies.
Our dynamic internship experience blends hands-on learning, enriching community-building and professional development events, and collaboration with industry experts.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so we encourage you to apply early. Please clearly state your availability in your resume (Start date, End date).
Responsibilities:
- Currently pursuing or recently completed a PhD in Computer Science or a related field, with relevant work in machine learning, natural language processing, software engineering, distributed systems, programming languages, or a related area.
- Demonstrated research or engineering experience in AI agents or closely related areas such as large language model reasoning, reinforcement learning, program synthesis, or AI for code.
- Strong understanding of one or more relevant areas, including agent planning and reasoning, model post-training, reinforcement learning, memory and context systems, tool learning, multi-agent systems, or agent evaluation.
- Strong programming and systems-building ability in at least one language such as Python, C++, Go, or Java, with the ability to turn research ideas into robust implementations.
- Ability to formulate ambiguous real-world problems, design rigorous experiments and evaluations, analyze results, and iterate from evidence.
- Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work across research, infrastructure, platform, and product teams.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications:
- Currently pursuing or recently completed a PhD in Computer Science or a related field, with relevant work in machine learning, natural language processing, software engineering, distributed systems, programming languages, or a related area.
- Demonstrated research or engineering experience in AI agents or closely related areas such as large language model reasoning, reinforcement learning, program synthesis, or AI for code.
- Strong understanding of one or more relevant areas, including agent planning and reasoning, model post-training, reinforcement learning, memory and context systems, tool learning, multi-agent systems, or agent evaluation.
- Strong programming and systems-building ability in at least one language such as Python, C++, Go, or Java, with the ability to turn research ideas into robust implementations.
- Ability to formulate ambiguous real-world problems, design rigorous experiments and evaluations, analyze results, and iterate from evidence.
- Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work across research, infrastructure, platform, and product teams.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Evidence of research excellence through influential publications, open-source work, deployed systems, or other significant contributions. Relevant venues include NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, MLSys, OSDI, SOSP, NSDI, ICSE, and FSE.
- Experience building or deploying LLM agents, AI developer tools, or agent platforms in complex or large-scale environments.
- Hands-on experience with model post-training, reinforcement learning, execution-feedback loops, tool-using agents, distributed agent runtimes, or scalable evaluation systems.
- Experience working with large codebases, distributed systems, CI/CD and testing infrastructure, developer platforms, or production operations.
- A track record of translating research into measurable production impact.
As a condition of employment, all successful candidates must be able to establish authorization to work in the United States. For this position, the Company does not provide sponsorship or any immigration-related benefits.
By submitting an application for this role, you accept and agree to our global applicant privacy policy, which may be accessed here: https://careers.tiktok.com/legal/privacy
Job Information
【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Hourly) - Campus Intern
The hourly rate range for this position in the selected city is $60- $60.
Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. 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.
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 https://tinyurl.com/RA-request
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