Machine Learning Engineer Intern (Risk Data Mining) - 2025 Summer (PhD)

Tiktok - San Jose, CA

Full-time - Intern

San Jose, CA

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services

About the position

TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video, and our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. The Business Risk Integrated Control (BRIC) team plays a crucial role in protecting TikTok users, including content consumers, creators, and advertisers, while securing platform health and ensuring community experience authenticity. This team is responsible for building infrastructures, platforms, and technologies, collaborating with various cross-functional teams and stakeholders to minimize the impact of inauthentic behaviors on TikTok's platforms, which include TikTok, CapCut, Resso, and Lark. The BRIC team addresses multiple community and business risk areas such as account integrity, engagement authenticity, anti-spam measures, API abuse, growth fraud, live streaming security, and financial safety related to ads and e-commerce. As an intern in this team, you will have a unique opportunity to gain first-hand exposure to the company's strategy in key security initiatives. You will be involved in developing scalable, robust, intelligent, and privacy-safe systems and solutions that are product-friendly. The challenges you will face are not typical day-to-day technical puzzles; instead, you will be part of a team that is creating novel solutions to unprecedented challenges within a rapidly evolving product ecosystem. The work environment is dynamic, requiring fast-paced and transferable solutions that make a significant impact. Internships at TikTok are designed to provide students with industry exposure and hands-on experience, allowing you to turn your ambitions into reality. You will engage in a vibrant mix of social events and development workshops, utilizing your knowledge in real-world scenarios while laying a strong foundation for personal and professional growth. The internship program runs for 12 weeks, starting in May/June 2025, and successful candidates must be able to commit to one of the specified start dates. Candidates are encouraged to apply early, as applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Those who pass the resume evaluation will be invited to participate in TikTok's technical online assessment in HackerRank.

Responsibilities

• Build machine learning solutions to respond to and mitigate business risks in TikTok products/platforms, including abusive accounts, fake engagements, spammy redirection, scraping, and fraud.
• Improve modeling infrastructures, labels, features, and algorithms towards robustness, automation, and generalization, reducing modeling and operational load on risk adversaries and new product/risk ramping-ups.
• Uplevel risk machine learning excellence on privacy/compliance, interpretability, risk perception, and analysis.

Requirements

• Currently pursuing an Undergraduate/Graduate/Master in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Able to commit to working for 12 weeks during Summer 2025.
• Solid engineering skills with proficiency in at least two of the following: Linux, Hadoop, Hive, Spark, Storm.
• Strong machine learning background with proficiency or publications in modern machine learning theories and applications such as deep neural nets, transfer/multi-task learning, reinforcement learning, time series, or graph unsupervised learning.
• Ability to think critically, objectively, and rationally, with strong communication skills in a result-oriented, data-driven manner.

Nice-to-haves

• Graduating December 2025 onwards with the intent to return to degree program after the completion of the internship.
• Passionate about TikTok, augmented reality, and creating fun, original, and creative ideas and experiences.

Benefits

• Hands-on experience in developing fundamental skills and exploring potential career paths.
• Access to social events and enriching development workshops.
• Opportunity to work in a dynamic and innovative environment.