Machine Learning Engineer Intern (E-Commerce Knowledge Graph - CV/Multimodal/NLP) - 2025 Summer/Fall (PhD)

Responsibilities

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 its offices include New York, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.

Why Join Us
Creation is the core of TikTok's purpose. Our platform is built to help imaginations thrive. This is doubly true of the teams that make TikTok possible.
Together, we inspire creativity and bring joy - a mission we all believe in and aim towards achieving every day.
To us, every challenge, no matter how difficult, is an opportunity; to learn, to innovate, and to grow as one team. Status quo? Never. Courage? Always.
At TikTok, we create together and grow together. That's how we drive impact - for ourselves, our company, and the communities we serve.
Join us.

The Knowledge Graph team is responsible for the neural network of e-commerce, which includes tasks such as categorizing products, influencers, and merchants, mining product information, and providing this data to the recommendation team. Additionally, they manage operations related to product tags and category attributes. When we come across a product, they determine whether it belongs to the clothing or sports category, who thie product will be suitable for, etc. Furthermore, the team conducts competitive research, identifying top-performing items on the platform and analyzing why one similar product outperforms others. They are also involved in brand recognition. This team plays a pivotal role, in bridging various aspects of our business and maintaining close collaboration with other teams.

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

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. We encourage you to apply early. 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.
Internships at TikTok aim to provide students with hands-on experience in developing fundamental skills and exploring potential career paths. A vibrant blend of social events and enriching development workshops will be available for you to explore. Here, you will utilize your knowledge in real-world scenarios while laying a strong foundation for personal and professional growth. It runs for 12-24 weeks and begins in May/June 2025 or August/September 2025. Successful candidates must be able to commit to one of the following start dates below:

(Select below options for Summer)
- Monday, May 12
- Monday, May 19
- Tuesday May 27 (Memorial Day May 27)
- Monday, June 9
- Monday, June 23

(Select below options for Fall)
- Monday, August 11
- Monday, August 25
- Monday, September 8
- Monday, September 22
Please state your availability clearly in your resume (Start date, End date).

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. We encourage you to apply early. 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.

Responsibilities:
- Craft intricate knowledge graphs, encompassing areas like product/content insights and category/brand/SPU development;
- Architect knowledge maps detailing buyer and product connections.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:
- Currently pursuing a PhD in computer science, computer engineering, statistics, applied mathematics, data science or other related disciplines;
- Experience in at least one of the technological areas:
- LLM, natural language generation, named entity recognition, machine translation, question answering, knowledge graph, information extraction, text mining and classification etc.
- Computer vision, facial recognition, multimodal learning, object detection & tracking, image classification etc.
- Machine learning, transfer learning, graph embedding, representative learning, large-scale optimization, recommendation, reinforcement learning, etc.
- Work experience in e-commerce or the Internet industry is preferred;
- Strong coding skills in at least one of the following programming frameworks, e.g. Python, Java, C/C++, Spark etc.; Familiar with at least one of the following deep learning frameworks, e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras etc.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills;
- Work and collaborate well with team members.

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.

TikTok is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at https://shorturl.at/cdpT2.

Job Information

【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description Intern (hourly)

The hourly rate range for this position in the selected city is $72- $72. We cover 100% premium coverage for Full-Time intern medical insurance after 90 days from the date of hire. Medical coverage only, no dental or vision coverage.​

Our time off and leave plans are: Paid holidays and paid sick leave. The sick leave entitlement is based on the time you join.​

We also provide mental and emotional health benefits through our Employee Assistance Program and provide reimbursements for your mobile phone expense. 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.​