Research Scientist Intern (Data-TnS-Algo)- 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. Our global headquarters are located in Los Angeles and Singapore, with additional offices in major cities around the world. At TikTok, we believe that creation is at the core of our purpose, and we strive to help imaginations thrive. This philosophy extends to our teams, who work together to inspire creativity and bring joy to our users. We view every challenge as an opportunity to learn, innovate, and grow as a cohesive unit. Our algorithm team plays a crucial role in this mission by developing state-of-the-art computer vision, natural language processing (NLP), and multimodality models and algorithms. These efforts are essential in protecting our platform and users from content and behaviors that violate community guidelines and local regulations. Through our continuous efforts, TikTok aims to provide the best user experience and spread joy to everyone around the globe. We are currently seeking talented individuals for an internship in 2025. Our internship program is designed to offer students industry exposure and hands-on experience, allowing them to turn their ambitions into reality. Interns will have the opportunity to develop fundamental skills and explore potential career paths while participating in a vibrant blend of social events and enriching development workshops. This internship program will run for 12 weeks, beginning in May/June 2025. Successful candidates must be able to commit to one of the specified summer internship start dates. We encourage candidates to clearly state their availability in their resumes, including start and end dates. Candidates can apply to a maximum of two positions and will be considered in the order of their applications. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so we recommend applying early. Those who pass the resume evaluation will be invited to participate in TikTok's technical online assessment in HackerRank.

Responsibilities

• Develop computer vision model or multimodality model to recognize violation content in TikTok.
• Explore the application of large language models (LLM) in business scenarios, including pre-training, zero-shot/few-shot learning, and hard case mining.
• Gain a deep understanding of TikTok's moderation system and propose optimized methods for the current moderation system.
• Collaborate with product teams to define business objectives and improve trust and safety strategies.

Requirements

• Currently pursuing a PhD in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Able to commit to working for 12-24 weeks during the Summer of 2025.
• Solid knowledge in at least one of the following areas: machine learning, large language models, NLP, multi-modal models, LLM, and data mining.
• Good understanding of data structures and algorithms.
• Passion for techniques and solving challenging problems.

Nice-to-haves

• Great communication and teamwork skills.

Benefits

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