ML Engineer Graduate (TikTok Core Feed Recommendation - User Growth) - 2025 Start (PhD)

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 its offices include New York, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.

Why Join Us
Creation is the core of TikTok's purpose. Our platform is built to help imaginations thrive. This is doubly true of the teams that make TikTok possible.
Together, we inspire creativity and bring joy - a mission we all believe in and aim towards achieving every day.
To us, every challenge, no matter how difficult, is an opportunity; to learn, to innovate, and to grow as one team. Status quo? Never. Courage? Always.
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 User Growth (UG) algorithm team is the core engine propelling the rapid growth of TikTok, globally renowned as the fastest growing app. Facing real-world challenges in manifold scenarios, the team skillfully leverages machine learning techniques and massive data to forge efficient growth pathways.
In close collaboration with product teams, and firmly anchored by robust data analysis, we formulate high ROI strategies that encompass both user acquisition and retention. Based on the profound understanding and abstract interpretation of these scenarios, we develop innovative methods and versatile insights to accelerating user growth at an unprecedented rate.

We are looking for strong research scientist 2025 Graduates , who are excited about growing their business understanding, building scalable and high-performance models and systems, and partnering across disciplines with global teams, in pursuit of excellence.

Responsibilities
1. Develop large-scale machine learning algorithms to optimize new user acquisition efficiency and retention rates.
2. Data-driven: connect data to real-world user experiences using superior data sensitivity and analytical skills.
3. Using deep understanding of systems and scenarios, deliver end-to-end solutions to achieve the growth targets in diverse scenarios and recommendation systems.
4. Work cross-functionally with product managers, data scientists, and engineers to understand insights, formulate problems, and design, refine, and test machine learning algorithms and strategies.Minimum Qualifications
1. PhD degree or equivalent degree in computer science, machine learning, or related fields.
2. Familiar with one or more of the following areas: recommendation systems, machine learning, deep learning, pattern recognition, data mining, computer vision, NLP, causal inference or multimodal machine learning.
3. Strong proficiency in Python and/or C/C++, and familiarity with a machine learning framework. Have a deep understanding of data structures and algorithms.
4. Good communication and teamwork skills, be passionate about learning new techniques and taking on challenging problems.

Preferred Qualifications
1. A strong record of first-author publications in top AI conferences or journals (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, etc.) is preferred.
2. Internship experience in an AI research organization.
3. Participation in high visible public/open-source AI-related projects.

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

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.