Backend Engineer Intern (TikTok Recommendation Foundation Infrastructure) - 2026 Start (BS/MS)

Responsibilities

Team Introduction
The Recommendation Architecture Team is responsible for designing and developing recommendation system architectures for various products under the company. We ensure system stability and high availability, optimize performance for online services and offline data pipelines, address system bottlenecks, and reduce operational costs. We also abstract reusable system components and services to build recommendation and data middleware platforms, supporting rapid incubation of new products and empowering enterprise clients (ToB).

We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship in from Sept. 2025 onwards. Internships at TikTok aim to offer students industry exposure and hands-on experience. Watch your ambitions become reality as your inspiration brings infinite opportunities at TikTok.

Candidates can apply to a maximum of two positions and will be considered for jobs in the order you apply. The application limit is applicable to TikTok and its affiliates' jobs globally.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis - we encourage you to apply early.
Successful candidates must be able to commit to at least 3 months long internship period.

Responsibilities
- Design intelligent development toolkits for large-scale recommendation systems, providing tooling and productized solutions to enhance R&D efficiency.
- Develop business metrics-driven gray release systems to ensure safe, stable, and efficient release strategies and workflows.
- Enhance observability of recommendation systems in complex global environments (multi-region, multi-data center, multi-language), establish end-to-end tracing systems, and optimize issue attribution mechanisms.
- Build algorithm engineering toolchains to accelerate the end-to-end process from experimental algorithm/model development to deployment, improving iteration efficiency.
- Overhaul platform ecosystem architectures and develop data intelligence assistants.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:
- Undergraduate, or Postgraduate who is currently pursuing a degree/master in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Systems or a related technical major.
- Experience programming in at least one of the following programming languages: C, C++, Java or Golang.
- Effective communication skills and a sense of ownership and drive.

Preferred Qualifications:
- Agile, quick self learner, highly self-motivated with a strong sense of product ownership and creative problem solver.
- Good collaborator and team player, comfortable working in a fast moving, culturally diverse and globally distributed team environment.

By submitting an application for this role, you accept and agree to our global applicant privacy policy, which may be accessed here: https://careers.tiktok.com/legal/privacy

If you have any questions, please reach out to us at apac-earlycareers@tiktok.com