TikTok R&D Engineer (Open Platform)

Responsibilities

TikTok's Open Platform team builds the core infrastructure that enables external developers to integrate with TikTok safely and efficiently. The team provides APIs, SDKs, and platform capabilities that allow partners to create innovative experiences while ensuring data security, ecosystem integrity, and scalable performance. We focus on delivering reliable developer tools, enforcing platform policies, and maintaining a secure, high-quality environment for the broader TikTok ecosystem.
• Deliver end-to-end Open Platform APIs, including both server-side and client-side development.
• Design and implement an AI-Agent-based delivery model to accelerate the full development lifecycle (PRD → coding → testing → launch).
• Ensure the security of the open ecosystem and build technical capabilities that connect native developers, supporting a secure and scalable open platform.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications
• 1+ years of software development experience with strong business understanding and abstraction skills.
• Experience designing and developing distributed systems; able to independently complete system design and implementation.
• Strong ownership, self-motivation, and a growth mindset.
• Experience exploring vertical domains or independently driving product or business initiatives.
• AI-Native or related experience, such as Agent, LLM, Prompt Engineering, Agentic Workflow, or deep usage of tools like Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Devin, etc.

Preferred Qualifications
• Experience leading Agent Fleet-type products and evaluating differences across major model families (Anthropic, OpenAI, GLM, Doubao, etc.).
• Experience building and scaling AI systems end-to-end, ideally in startup or 0→1 product environments.
• Strong intuition for model behavior, safety, and governance in generative-AI systems.

Job Information

[For Pay Transparency] Compensation Description (annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $156000 - $316800 annually.

Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate's qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location. Base pay is one part of the Total Package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role may be eligible for additional discretionary bonuses/incentives, and restricted stock units.

Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Employees have day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) savings plan with company match, paid parental leave, short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, wellbeing benefits, among others. Employees also receive 10 paid holidays per year, 10 paid sick days per year and 17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure).

The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.

For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates:

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:

1. Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;

2. Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and

3. Exercising sound judgment.