(General Hire) Research Scientist Graduate (TikTok Recommendation) - 2026 Start (PhD)

(General Hire) Research Scientist Graduate (TikTok Recommendation) - 2026 Start (PhD) at TikTok in San Jose, CA.

Responsibilities

Our team's mission is to empower genAI and content understanding in TikTok businesses. Computer vision and natural language processing are important dimensions in both content generation and understanding. We are working on various foundational models, including multi-modality pretraining, multi-modal large language model, image generation, video generation etc. As a genAI team on the business side, we try to succeed in both achieving business metric gains (recommendation metrics), and also producing state-of-the-art research outputs.

• This opening is part of the general hiring process for the TikTok Recommendation organization. Applications will be evaluated by multiple teams within the Recommendation organization to ensure the best alignment based on skills and interests.
• 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 our Company.
• 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.

1. Conducting development and research on cutting-edge CV, NLP, multi-modality, LLM, generative modeling
2. Following SoTA progress in relevant fields and transform the ideas into production
3. Life-cycle model development, from model training, deployment, maintenance, till its use in business scenarios.

Requirements

1. Individuals who are completing or have recently completed a PhD degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Statistics, or a related field.
2. Experience in one of more areas of computer vision, natural language processing and machine learning

Solid knowledge and experience with at least one major deep learning framework (e.g. PyTorch, Tensorflow, MXNet, Caffe/Caffe2).

1. Familiar with deep neural network architectures such as transformer/SSM/CNN/RNN/LSTM etc.
2. Strong analytical and problem solving skills. Ability to work collaboratively in cross-functional teams.

Preferred Qualifications

1. Degree in computer science, electrical engineering or related fields
2. Authors with publications in major AI venues such as SIGGRAPH, SIGGRAPH Asia, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, ICML, NeurIPS, ICLR

Job Information

[For Pay Transparency] Compensation Description (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.

About the Company

The Global Business Solutions (GBS) team is responsible for the revenue growth of the TikTok business, and our teams include Sales, Marketing, Ops, Account Managers, Agency and partnerships, as well as Marketing Science.

At TikTok, our Global Business Solutions (GBS) team plays a key role in generating revenue by promoting our advertising solutions, onboarding new clients, driving ad campaigns, and more. As the TikTok community grows at an unprecedented speed around the world, our GBS team leads groundbreaking projects that are changing the landscape of the advertising industry in real time.

We're seeking an analytically driven, and detail-oriented Client Solutions Manager (CSM) Intern to join our Ecommerce Team. As a CSM, you will partner closely with Client Partners and Client Solutions Managers to drive revenue by identifying opportunities, leveraging data insights, and delivering consultative solutions for advertisers.

This role centers on client education, relationship growth, data analysis, and campaign success. You will provide strategic recommendations to both clients and internal teams, ensuring campaigns achieve business objectives while optimizing long-term partnerships. Success in this role requires strong data analytics skills, adaptability in a fast-paced environment, and a test-and-learn mindset to uncover the best solutions.

Additional Information

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.