Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Large Language Models & Generative AI

$194,000 - $355,000/Yr

Tiktok - San Jose, CA

Full-time - Senior

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. As a Senior Machine Learning Engineer focusing on Large Language Models and Generative AI, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our AI-driven applications. Our team is dedicated to developing long-term memory capabilities and enhancing user experiences through personalized chat, search, and recommendation systems. We leverage our deep expertise in artificial intelligence to create advanced algorithms that can understand, learn, and predict, significantly improving user interactions with our platform. In this role, you will be responsible for setting the direction and goals for a sizable team, focusing on project impact, machine learning system design, and excellence in machine learning practices. You will adapt standard machine learning methods to exploit modern parallel environments, such as distributed clusters and GPUs, and re-evaluate the trade-offs of existing features and systems. Your leadership will guide the team in developing best practices and influencing the engineering culture, while also serving as a go-to person for resolving complex online and production performance issues. You will develop highly scalable classifiers and tools, leveraging machine learning, data regression, and rules-based models. Additionally, you will be involved in suggesting, collecting, and synthesizing requirements to create an effective feature roadmap, while coding deliverables in collaboration with the engineering team. This position requires a strong foundation in software engineering and a passion for pushing the boundaries of what language model-based applications can achieve.

Responsibilities

• Play a critical role in setting the direction and goals for a sizable team, in terms of project impact, ML system design, and ML excellence
• Adapt standard machine learning methods to best exploit modern parallel environments (e.g., distributed clusters, multicore SMP, and GPU)
• Re-evaluate the tradeoffs of already shipped features/ML systems, and drive large efforts across multiple teams to reduce technical debt
• Lead a team from a technical perspective to develop ML best practices and influence engineering culture
• Serve as a go-to person to escalate complex online/production performance and evaluation issues
• Develop highly scalable classifiers and tools leveraging machine learning, data regression, and rules-based models
• Suggest, collect and synthesize requirements and create effective feature roadmap
• Code deliverables in tandem with the engineering team

Requirements

• 4+ years of experience in software engineering, or a relevant field; 2+ years of experience if you have a PhD
• 3+ years of experience in one or more of the following areas: Large Language Models, machine learning, recommendation systems, pattern recognition, data mining, artificial intelligence, or related technical field
• Experience building and shipping high quality work and achieving high reliability
• Experience with developing machine learning models at scale from inception to business impact
• Knowledge developing and debugging in C/C++ and Java, or experience with scripting languages such as Python, Perl, PHP, Javascript, and/or shell scripts
• Experience demonstrating technical leadership working with teams, owning projects, defining and setting technical direction for projects
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, relevant technical field, or equivalent practical experience

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
• 17 days of Paid Personal Time Off (PPTO)
• 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