Machine Learning Engineer Intern (Global E-Commerce) - 2027 Start (PhD)

Responsibilities About the Team

The E-commerce Algorithm Team powers TikTok Shop's intelligent commerce ecosystem, connecting users with quality products and sellers through personalized recommendations, search, live streaming, and short-form content.

Our team of Machine Learning Engineers, Applied Scientists, and Data Scientists develops large-scale AI and machine learning solutions that enhance user experience, drive merchant growth, and create business impact. We work on cutting-edge technologies across recommendation systems, search, ranking, LLM applications, and marketplace optimization, transforming innovative research into products used by millions worldwide.

We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship. PhD internships at Our Company provide students with the opportunity to actively contribute to our products and research, as well as to the organization's future plans and emerging technologies.

Our dynamic internship experience blends hands-on learning, enriching community-building and professional development events, and collaboration with industry experts.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so we encourage you to apply early. Please clearly state your availability in your resume (Start date, End date).

Responsibilities

• Design and develop ML algorithms and intelligent systems for large-scale e-commerce scenarios: recommendation, ranking, retrieval, forecasting, content understanding, pricing, governance, and conversational AI.
• Apply machine learning, deep learning, NLP, CV, multimodal models, and LLMs to solve real-world business problems.
• Build end-to-end algorithm solutions: data processing, feature engineering, model training, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, and continuous optimization.
• Develop scalable systems for real-time or offline learning and inference on large-scale structured and unstructured data.
• Partner with product, engineering, data science, and business teams to translate needs into high-impact technical solutions.
• Run experiments, analyze model performance, debug production issues, and iterate rapidly to improve quality and efficiency.
• Explore next-gen intelligent systems: foundation models, generative recommendation, multimodal reasoning, and AI agents.

Qualifications Minimum Qualifications

• Currently Pursuing a PhD in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Solid foundation in machine learning, deep learning, statistics, and algorithms.
• Strong programming skills in Python, C++, Java, Go, or Rust.
• Hands-on experience with PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Self-driven mindset, curiosity for challenging problems, strong ownership, and the ability to turn algorithm ideas into business-impacting solutions.
• Good communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively in cross-functional teams and adapt to fast-changing business needs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with one or more of: recommendation systems, NLP, CV, multimodal learning, LLMs, generative models, RL, or intelligent agents is preferred.
• Practical experience in E-Commerce, overseas internet products, marketplace platforms, content platforms, logistics, supply chain, advertising, or growth-related business scenarios.
• Publications in top-tier conferences or journals such as KDD, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, WWW, SIGIR, WSDM, RecSys, ACL, EMNLP, AAAI, IJCAI, or related venues, or strong performance in programming, data mining, or machine learning competitions such as ACM-ICPC, Kaggle, or KDD Cup.

Job Information

About TikTok TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok's global headquarters are in Los Angeles and Singapore, and we also have offices in New York City, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.

Why Join Us

Inspiring creativity is at the core of TikTok's mission. Our innovative product is built to help people authentically express themselves, discover and connect – and our global, diverse teams make that possible. Together, we create value for our communities, inspire creativity and bring joy - a mission we work towards every day.

We strive to do great things with great people. We lead with curiosity, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn and innovate as one team. We're resilient and embrace challenges as they come. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.

Diversity & Inclusion

TikTok is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.