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TikTok · 1 month ago

Senior Software Engineer – Global E-Commerce Search Infrastructure (TikTok Shop)

Seattle, WA

Full-time

Onsite

Senior Level

$178K/yr - $342K/yr

5+ years exp

TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video, and they are seeking a Senior Software Engineer for their Global E-Commerce Search Infrastructure. This role involves designing and optimizing the core infrastructure that supports TikTok Shop’s search capabilities on a global scale.

Content CreatorsContent DiscoveryMedia and EntertainmentSocial MediaVideo

H1B Sponsor Likely

Responsibilities

You will design, build, and optimize the core infrastructure that supports TikTok Shop’s recall, ranking, and re-ranking pipelines globally

Core Search Engine Development: Design and implement high-performance online retrieval systems. Optimize core components including the inverted index, vector retrieval (ANN/HNSW), query understanding, and merger logic

Real-Time Data Pipelines: Build highly scalable and fault-tolerant data pipelines using Flink, Kafka, and Spark to ensure product changes (price, stock, and new listings) are reflected in search results in near real-time

System Stability & Performance: Drive latency, throughput, and cost optimizations for services handling hundreds of thousands of QPS. Troubleshoot complex distributed system issues, manage cross-region failover, and design high-availability disaster recovery solutions

Large-Scale Storage & Retrieval: Design and optimize distributed storage libraries (based on RocksDB/Redis) and columnar databases tailored for high-speed e-commerce feature retrieval

ML Infrastructure Collaboration: Work closely with Algorithm/ML Engineers to productionize state-of-the-art Large Language Models (LLMs), AI Search, and multi-modal search models, ensuring the infrastructure supports massive model serving and real-time feature engineering

Qualification

Distributed systemsSearch engine developmentC++GoJavaReal-time data pipelinesMachine Learning infrastructurePerformance optimizationNoSQLKV storesVector search technologiesE-commerce domain knowledgeSoft skills

Required

Bachelor's in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field

At least 5 years of hands-on experience building large-scale distributed systems, search engines, or low-latency online services

Strong coding proficiency in C++, Go, or Java (C++/Go is heavily preferred for core infra roles)

Deep understanding of computer science fundamentals: Data structures, algorithms, operating systems, network programming, and multi-threading

Experience with distributed system technologies, such as RPC frameworks (gRPC/Thrift), Message Queues (Kafka), and Stream Processing (Flink/Spark)

Preferred

Search Internals: Direct experience with search engine internals (e.g., Lucene, Elasticsearch, Solr, Vespa) or building custom inverted index/retrieval systems

Vector Search: Experience with vector database technologies or libraries (FAISS, HNSW, ScaNN)

Storage Engines: Deep understanding of NoSQL and KV stores (Redis, RocksDB, HBase) or columnar storage systems

Performance Optimization: Proven track record of reducing p99 latency, optimizing memory usage in C++, or driving measurable efficiency gains in high-traffic systems

Domain Knowledge: Experience working in E-commerce, AdTech, or large-scale consumer platforms

Benefits

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

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

Represents job field similar to this job

Trends of Total Sponsorships

2025 (979)

2024 (601)

2023 (387)

2022 (322)

2021 (133)

2020 (72)