Tech Lead, Machine Learning Engineer, Foundation Model Applications

$163,400 - $320,000/Yr

Tiktok - Seattle, WA

Full-time - Mid Level

Seattle, WA

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 Tech Lead in the Machine Learning Engineer team focusing on Foundation Model Applications, you will be at the forefront of innovation, leveraging cutting-edge technologies to enhance TikTok's user experience. Our team is dedicated to optimizing TikTok's industry-leading recommendation system, deploying and fine-tuning advanced foundation models, and applying these models to improve our product offerings for billions of users. We believe in a culture of collaboration, where you will work closely with product managers, data scientists, and engineers to solve complex problems and refine machine learning algorithms. Your role will also involve running A/B tests, analyzing results, and iterating on algorithms to ensure we are continuously improving our systems. In this position, you will be part of a pioneering Machine Learning team that values First Principles Thinking, focusing on understanding the core of problems and delivering well-grounded solutions. You will have the opportunity to make a significant impact on the TikTok platform, enhancing the experience for both consumers and creators. We are looking for individuals who are passionate about learning new techniques and tackling challenging problems, as well as those who thrive in a dynamic and innovative environment.

Responsibilities

• Understand and optimize TikTok's industry-leading recommendation system
• Deploy, prompt, and fine-tune cutting-edge foundation models
• Apply foundation models to enhance TikTok's recommendation system and product offerings, improving the experience of billion-scale consumers and creators
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including product managers, data scientists, and product engineers, to form and solve problems, refine machine learning algorithms, and communicate results
• Regularly run A/B tests, perform analyses, and iterate algorithms based on results
• Work with infrastructure teams on improving the efficiency and stability of machine learning systems

Requirements

• Hands-on experience in one or more of the following areas: Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Recommender Systems, Data Mining, Natural Language Processing, or Computer Vision
• Strong programming skills in Python and/or C/C++, and a deep understanding of data structures and algorithms
• Familiar with architecture and implementation of at least one mainstream machine learning programming framework (TensorFlow/PyTorch/MXNet)
• Excellent communication and teamwork skills, and a passion for learning new techniques and tackling challenging problems

Nice-to-haves

• Prior research/industry experience with deploying, prompting, and fine-tuning foundation models
• Prior research/industry experience with applied machine learning, or large-scale recommendation systems
• Publications at major AI-related conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, AAAI, IJCAI, ACL, NAACL, EMNLP, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, KDD, ICDM, SDM, RecSys, or simply on arXiv but with large impact
• Strong track record in AI-related competitions, or participation in public/open-source AI-related projects of high visibility
• A strong passion for First Principles Thinking

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