Machine Learning Engineer, TikTok Core Ads Ranking

$145,000 - $250,000/Yr

Tiktok - San Jose, CA

Full-time - Mid Level

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, with a mission to inspire creativity and bring joy. The company has a global presence with offices in major cities around the world. The TikTok Ads Core-Ranking team is seeking innovative Machine Learning Engineers to enhance its ad technologies, focusing on ranking, targeting, bidding, and auction systems. As part of the Ranking team, you will be responsible for optimizing ad formats and ranking models, which includes recall and rough-sort, fine-sort, format personalization, and system framework development. Your work will directly contribute to creating a more advanced advertising delivery system that improves return on investment for advertisers. In this role, you will own key ranking and format components within the TikTok ads monetization ecosystem. You will research and develop state-of-the-art models and strategies aimed at increasing overall TikTok ads revenue. Additionally, you will design and set up system frameworks and standards to continuously improve efficiency and meet the diverse needs of various business verticals. Collaboration with product and business teams will be essential to align on product vision and execution.

Responsibilities

• Own key ranking & format components or strategies in the TikTok ads monetization ecosystem.
• Research & develop state-of-the-art model and strategy to increase overall TikTok ads revenue.
• Design & set up system framework and standard to continuously improve overall efficiency and meet different vertical business needs.
• Work with product and business teams on the product vision.

Requirements

• BS/MS degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Operation Research, Applied Mathematics, Physics or similar quantitative fields, with 3+ years of related experience.
• Hands-on experience in one or more of the following areas: machine learning, deep learning, statistical models and applied mathematical methods.
• Solid programming skills, proficient in C/C++ and Python.
• Familiar with basic data structure and algorithms.
• Familiar with Linux development environment.
• Familiarity with online experimentation and analytics.
• Familiarity with big data systems including Hadoop and Spark.
• Familiar with architecture and implementation of at least one mainstream machine learning programming framework (TensorFlow/Pytorch/MXNet).
• Curiosity towards new technologies and entrepreneurship.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in reinforcement learning, transfer learning, and counter-factual optimization is a plus.
• Understanding of the business value of online advertising.
• Experience in LLM is a plus.
• Paper publication in NLP/CV/recommendation system (RecSys/KDD/NIPs... etc).

Benefits

• 100% premium coverage for employee medical insurance, approximately 75% premium coverage for dependents.
• Health Savings Account (HSA) with a company match.
• Dental, Vision, Short/Long term Disability, Basic Life, Voluntary Life and AD&D insurance plans.
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA) Options like Health Care, Limited Purpose and Dependent Care.
• 10 paid holidays per year plus 17 days of Paid Personal Time Off (PPTO) (prorated upon hire and increased by tenure).
• 10 paid sick days per year.
• 12 weeks of paid Parental leave.
• 8 weeks of paid Supplemental Disability.
• Mental and emotional health benefits through EAP and Lyra.
• 401K company match.
• Gym and cellphone service reimbursements.