Research Scientist Intern (Data-TnS-Algo-Foundations & Intelligence Service)- 2026 Start (PhD) jobs in United States
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TikTok · 2 weeks ago

Research Scientist Intern (Data-TnS-Algo-Foundations & Intelligence Service)- 2026 Start (PhD)

TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video, and they are seeking a Research Scientist Intern to contribute to their foundation-model team focused on LLM and VLM capabilities. This internship will provide hands-on experience in developing approaches to improve AI safety and capability while collaborating with industry experts.

Content CreatorsContent DiscoveryMedia and EntertainmentSocial MediaVideo
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H1B Sponsor Likelynote

Responsibilities

Explore and develop approaches that improve general capability and safety for LLMs and VLMs via pretraining/CPT
Build advanced evaluation systems to study emerging LLM/VLM skills and safety behaviors, aligned with real downstream use
Develop advanced reinforcement-learning strategies (e.g., RLHF/RLAIF/DPO variants), and investigate how to balance pretraining and post-training for better capability and safety alignment
Probe new failure modes and pitfalls in scaffolded environments (agents, workflows, tool use), and translate insights into robust mitigations

Qualification

Research experience in LLMsDeep learning frameworksAI SafetyComputer VisionMultimodalityAnalytical skillsAI-safety developmentsPublications in AI venuesProblem-solving abilityCommunication skillsCollaboration skills

Required

Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science or a related technical field
Research experience in at least one of: LLMs, AI Safety, Computer Vision, Multimodality
Actively track recent AI-safety developments (familiar with current papers, benchmarks, and terminology)
Proficient with at least one deep learning framework (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow)
Excellent analytical/problem-solving ability, clear logical thinking, and strong communication/collaboration skills

Preferred

Publications in top AI or Security venues (e.g., NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, COLM, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, USENIX Security, ACM CCS, IEEE S&P, NDSS)

Benefits

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

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)

Funding

Current Stage
Late Stage

Leadership Team

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N Ali Mohamed
CEO
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Blake Chandlee
VP Global Business Solutions
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Company data provided by crunchbase