Machine Learning Engineer Intern – (LLM Risk Surface) – 2025 Summer (PhD) Full-time

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 Business Risk Integrated Control (BRIC) team is missioned to:
– Protect TikTok users, including and beyond content consumers, creators, advertisers;
– Secure platform health and community experience authenticity;
– Build infrastructures, platforms and technologies, as well as to collaborate with many cross-functional teams and stakeholders.

The BRIC team works to minimize the damage of inauthentic behaviors on TikTok platforms (e.g. TikTok, CapCut, Resso, Lark), covering multiple classical and novel community and business risk areas such as account integrity, engagement authenticity, anti spam, API abuse, growth fraud, live streaming security and financial safety (ads or e-commerce), etc.
In this team you’ll have a unique opportunity to have first-hand exposure to the strategy of the company in key security initiatives, especially in building scalable and robust, intelligent and privacy-safe, secure and product-friendly systems and solutions. Our challenges are not some regular day-to-day technical puzzles — You’ll be part of a team that’s developing novel solutions to first-seen challenges of a non-stop evolvement of a phenomenal product eco-system. The work needs to be fast, transferrable, while still down to the ground to making quick and solid differences.

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.

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. This Internship Program runs for 12 weeks beginning in May/June 2025. Successful candidates must be able to commit to one of the following summer internship start dates below:
Monday, May 12
Monday, May 19
Tuesday May 27 (Memorial Day May 26)
Monday, June 9
Monday, June 23

We will prioritize candidates who are able to commit to these start dates. Please state your availability clearly in your resume (Start date, End date).

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

Online Assessment (Only for RD)
Candidates who pass resume evaluation will be invited to participate in TikTok’s technical online assessment in HackerRank.

Responsibilities
1. Responsible for the research and development of algorithms for AI native applications and optimization of LLM (Large Language Models), driving the exploration and application of cutting-edge technologies.
2. Enhance the capabilities of natural language understanding based on LLM, such as content understanding/classification, vector retrieval, structuring, and representation learning of short/long texts.
3. Combine the most advanced LLM technology to summarize, understand, and classify user behavior/features.
4. Explore the application of Agent in complex tasks and achieve the application of complex tasks in the risk control field based on LLM.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:
– Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Math, Statistics or a related technical discipline
– Able to commit to working for 12 weeks during Summer 2025;
– Good coding standards, a passion for writing code, and the ability to produce high-quality designs and code.
– Excellent problem analysis and problem-solving abilities, capable of identifying the essence of issues from complex data.
– Experience in algorithmic research and development of mainstream risk control strategies and LLM systems development experience is a plus.
– Strong sense of responsibility, proactive attitude, and good communication and teamwork skills.

Preferred Qualifications:
– Graduating December 2025 onwards with the intent to return to degree program after the completion of the internship.
– Priority will be given to those who master the algorithm principles of LLM (Large Language Models), Fine-tuning, Prompt Engineering, vector databases, and Agent application frameworks such as LangChain/Autogen; familiarity with the latest LLM technologies and experience in training or applying them is a plus.

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