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TikTok · 8 hours ago

Research Scientist Graduate (TikTok Recommendation-Agentic AI) - 2026 Start (PhD)

San Jose, CA

Full-time

Onsite

New Grad

$137K/yr - $360K/yr

TikTok is a leading destination for short-form mobile video, and they are seeking a Research Scientist Graduate to join their Agentic Recommendation team. The role involves designing reinforcement learning datasets, optimizing algorithms, and conducting research on agentic recommendation systems to enhance user experiences.

Content CreatorsContent DiscoveryMedia and EntertainmentSocial MediaVideo

H1B Sponsor Likely

Responsibilities

Design and construct reinforcement learning datasets tailored for recommendation scenarios

Explore and optimize reinforcement learning algorithms, and develop scalable training and inference frameworks

Conduct research on agentic recommendation systems and generative recommendation models

Stay up to date to the latest SoTA advancements in relevant areas, and translate research ideas into real-world applications

Qualification

Reinforcement LearningAgent DevelopmentLLM Post-TrainingResearch PublicationsPassion for Research

Required

Final-year Ph.D. candidate or recent Ph.D. graduate in Computer Science or a related field

Strong knowledge and hands-on experience in at least one of the following areas: reinforcement learning, agent development, or LLM post-training

Passion for exploring cutting-edge research topics and bridging theory with practice

Preferred

Publications in top-tier conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, AAAI, IJCAI, RecSys, KDD, WWW, or WSDM

Internship or project experience related to reinforcement learning, agent-based systems, or LLM alignment/post-training

Benefits

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

10 paid holidays per year

10 paid sick days per year

17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure)

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

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Trends of Total Sponsorships

2025 (979)

2024 (601)

2023 (387)

2022 (322)

2021 (133)

2020 (72)