Machine Learning Engineer Intern (TikTok - PGC - LLM/Content Understanding) - 2025 Start (PhD)

At TikTok, we create together and grow together. That's how we drive impact - for ourselves, our company, and the communities we serve.
Join us.

About the Team
Our mission is to empower professional creators, media partners, and organizations to produce high-quality content that engages, entertains, and informs TikTok's diverse global audience. We are a product facing team and you will work closely with a multi-disciplinary team (Product, Engineers, Design, and Data) to define and build solutions for creators who inspire members of our community every day. We are looking for a Machine Learning Engineer who is passionate about leveraging AI to empower creators.

We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship in 2025. Internships at TikTok aim to offer students industry exposure and hands-on experience. Turn your ambitions into reality as your inspiration brings infinite opportunities at TikTok.

Internships at TikTok aim to provide students with hands-on experience in developing fundamental skills and exploring potential career paths. A vibrant blend of social events and enriching development workshops will be available for you to explore. Here, you will utilize your knowledge in real-world scenarios while laying a strong foundation for personal and professional growth. This Internship Program runs for 12 weeks beginning in May/June 2025. Successful candidates must be able to commit to one of the following summer internship start dates below:
Monday, May 12
Monday, May 19
Tuesday May 27 (Memorial Day May 26)
Monday, June 9
Monday, June 23

We will prioritize candidates who are able to commit to these start dates. Please state your availability clearly in your resume (Start date, End date).

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.

What You'II Do
- Develop and optimize LLM-based content understanding models to enhance video, text, and multimodal content analysis.
- Build and fine-tune domain-specific LLMs for creator-related applications.
- Design scalable, high-performance AI architectures, working closely with Applied AI infra engineers to ensure efficient model serving.
- Implement innovative techniques such as Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and multi-modal learning to improve AI-driven insights.
- Collaborate with product teams to translate business challenges into AI solutions and drive measurable product impact.
- Optimize training, inference, and fine-tuning pipelines to improve efficiency, scalability, and real-time performance.
- Stay at the cutting edge of LLM research, exploring and applying the latest advancements to YouTube's ecosystem.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:
- Master's or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, AI, or a related field.
- Strong experience in training, fine-tuning, and deploying LLMs (e.g., GPT, LLaMA, PaLM, Mistral).
- Proficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX).
- Solid understanding of transformers, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and prompt engineering.
- Hands-on experience with scalable machine learning pipelines and working with distributed computing frameworks (e.g., Ray, Spark).
- Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to work in cross-functional teams.

Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience in LLM inference optimization, distillation, or model compression.
- Knowledge of vector databases (e.g., FAISS, Milvus), embedding search, and retrieval systems.
- Familiarity with real-world deployment of LLMs in production environments at scale.
- Contributions to research papers, open-source AI projects, or AI conferences.

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 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://shorturl.at/cdpT2.