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TikTok · 3 weeks ago

Machine Learning Engineer Intern (TikTok Short Video Content Understanding/Multimodal Recommendation) - 2026 Summer (BS/MS)

United States

Internship

Remote

Intern

$45/hr - $45/hr

Start in 2026 Summer

TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. They are seeking a Machine Learning Engineer Intern to empower content understanding for TikTok's Short Video business by developing advanced algorithms and applications in multimodal recommendation systems.

Content CreatorsContent DiscoveryMedia and EntertainmentSocial MediaVideo

H1B Sponsor Likely

Responsibilities

Lead multimodal algorithm development for TikTok’s short-video business, explore applications of multimodal technologies in recommendation systems and other scenarios to improve key business metrics

Conduct cutting-edge research in multimodal and MLLM technologies, design advanced algorithms to solve business requirements while achieving technical breakthroughs

Drive engineering deployment and implementation, ensuring model stability, scalability, and efficiency in production environments

Focus on key areas including (but not limited to):

General AI platform design and development, including few-shot/zero-shot on MLLM, AI-labeling, auto prompting, active-learning, continue pretraining and RL

Integration of content understanding with recommendation systems (e.g., UGC ecosystems, cold start, interest exploration, comment understanding)

Leveraging multimodal techniques to develop next-generation recommendation systems, such as generative models and end-to-end approaches

Qualification

Multimodal content understandingLarge language models (LLMs)Deep learning frameworksProactive mindsetMachine learning backgroundCommunication skillsCollaboration skillsHands-on experience

Required

Proven experience in multimodal content understanding, with expertise in large language models (LLMs) and familiarity with cutting-edge progress in the field

Strong technical foundation in at least one major deep learning framework (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow)

Proactive mindset, strong sense of ownership, excellent communication skills, and ability to collaborate across teams

Currently pursuing a Master degree with a background in computer science, machine learning, or similar fields

Able to commit to working for 12 weeks during Summer 2026

Preferred

Hands-on experience deploying content understanding solutions in search, advertising, recommendation, or related domains

Benefits

Interns have day one access to health insurance

Life insurance

Wellbeing benefits

10 paid holidays per year

Paid sick time (56 hours if hired in first half of year, 40 if hired in second half of year)

Housing allowance

Company

TikTok

Glassdoor3.4

TikTok is a short-form video entertainment app and social network platform. It is a sub-organization of ByteDance.

Founded in 2003

Los Angeles, California, USA

10001+ employees

https://www.tiktok.com

H1B Sponsorship

TikTok has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)

Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship

Represents job field similar to this job

Trends of Total Sponsorships

2025 (979)

2024 (601)

2023 (387)

2022 (322)

2021 (133)

2020 (72)