Machine Learning Engineer Intern (Search E-commerce) - 2025 Summer (MS)

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 Search E-Commerce team plays a crucial role in this mission by developing the search algorithm for TikTok's rapidly growing global e-commerce business. We leverage state-of-the-art large-scale machine learning technology, cutting-edge natural language processing (NLP), computer vision (CV), and multi-modal technology to build a top-class search engine that provides the best e-commerce search experience for over 1 billion monthly active users worldwide. Our goal is to create a world where no good-priced product is hard to sell, and we are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship in 2025. Internships at TikTok are designed to offer students industry exposure and hands-on experience, allowing them to turn their ambitions into reality. This program runs for 12 weeks, beginning in May/June 2025, and includes a vibrant blend of social events and enriching development workshops. Interns will utilize their knowledge in real-world scenarios while laying a strong foundation for personal and professional growth. Successful candidates must be able to commit to one of the specified summer internship start dates and will be prioritized based on their availability. Candidates can apply to a maximum of two positions and will be considered in the order they apply, with applications reviewed on a rolling basis. The responsibilities of the internship include improving the basic search quality and user experience by optimizing query analysis and text relevance matching, understanding e-commerce video content, and implementing multi-modal matching. Interns will also design and implement the end-to-end ranking system to enhance users' personalized shopping interests and improve shopping conversion efficiency. Additionally, they will promote the healthy development of the ecosystem by addressing challenges such as supply and demand matching and sustainable business growth, ensuring long-term growth of gross merchandise volume (GMV).

Responsibilities

• Improve the basic search quality and user experience by optimizing query analysis and text relevance matching.
• Understand e-commerce video content and implement multi-modal matching.
• Improve users' perception of product authority and participate in the design and implementation of core search products.
• Comprehensively improve the end-to-end shopping experience from browsing to after-sales.
• Design and implement the end-to-end ranking system including recall, first stage ranking, final stage ranking, and mixed row.
• Improve users' personalized shopping interests model.
• Enhance shopping conversion efficiency for merchandise, video, and live stream to promote GMV growth.
• Promote the healthy development of the ecosystem by solving supply and demand matching and business cold start challenges.
• Analyze and adjust the evolution of the system to achieve long-term and sustainable growth of GMV.

Requirements

• Currently pursuing a Master's in Computer Science or a related technical discipline.
• Able to commit to working for 12 weeks during Summer 2025.
• Must obtain work authorization in the country of employment at the time of hire and maintain ongoing work authorization during employment.
• Excellent coding skills with solid knowledge of data structures and algorithms.
• Strong analytical, modeling, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to distill complex data into essential insights.
• Publication records in top journals or conferences are a plus.
• Experience winning ACM-ICPC medals is a plus.

Nice-to-haves

• Graduating December 2025 onwards with the intent to return to degree program after the completion of the internship.

Benefits

• Hands-on experience in developing fundamental skills.
• Opportunities to explore potential career paths.
• Access to social events and development workshops.