Staff Machine Learning Engineer - TikTok Content Ecology

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.

The Content Ecology Algorithm Team is at the forefront of TikTok's AI-driven content understanding. We leverage state-of-the-art LLM/MLLM, NLP, CV, multimodal learning, and recommendation algorithms to develop platform-wide AI capabilities that impact multiple business lines, including Local Services, Search, Core Video Architecture, Professional Content (PGC), and User Growth (UG).

Our team focuses on:
- Short Video Content Understanding: Leveraging multimodal AI to deeply understand video, text, and speech content.
- Global Trending Event Detection: Using real-time AI models to detect viral trends worldwide.
- Intelligent Customer Service: Developing advanced chatbots and automation with LLM-powered solutions.
- Inspiration Recommendation: Creating next-gen AI-driven content discovery experiences.
We operate in a multilingual, multi-modal, multi-task environment, with vast AI challenges across NLP, LLMs, and multimodal AI. With hundreds of millions of users and creators, our work directly influences TikTok's rapid growth in DAU and revenue, making this an exciting opportunity for AI researchers and engineers.

Responsibilities
- Lead the development of core LLM, Multimodal, and Machine Learning projects across TikTok's content ecosystem.
- Architect and implement cutting-edge NLP, CV, multimodal, and recommendation algorithms for various business scenarios.
- Optimize LLM-powered search, discovery, and content recommendation to enhance personalization and user engagement.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with AI research teams, engineering teams, and business stakeholders to deploy scalable ML solutions.
- Research and implement localized AI deployment strategies for different global markets.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:
- Strong hands-on experience leading the development of NLP, LLM, Search, Recommendation, Ads, or large-scale distributed AI systems.
- Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, C/C++ with expertise in ML frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch).

Preferred Qualifications:
- Master's or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, AI, or related fields.
- 5+ years of experience in AI/ML, specializing in NLP, LLMs, Computer Vision, or Recommendation Systems.
- Deep expertise in LLMs (GPT-style models), MLLM (Multimodal Large Models), NLP, CV, and Reinforcement Learning.
- Strong ability to apply machine learning algorithms to real-world products and drive business growth.
- Ability to partner closely with research teams and production teams to execute AI-driven strategies at scale.

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