Project Intern – AI Security

Job Description

Software Engineer Project Intern (Security-Data) – 2026 Start (BS/MS) | ByteDance

The Tone:
This is an internship at ByteDance, a global technology company with a mission to inspire creativity and enrich life through products like TikTok, Lemon8, and CapCut. This role is crucial for strengthening the company’s security posture by building scalable and secure-by-design systems and solutions. The intern will contribute to key security initiatives, protecting users, products, and infrastructures across the company’s diverse portfolio. This position offers a unique opportunity to gain real-world experience in the security engineering domain.

The TL;DR
• Role: Internship
• Type: Temporary
• Location: In-person, Los Angeles, CA
• Pay: $45–$60 hourly
• Team: Security Engineering Team, supports cross-functional teams to protect users, products, and infrastructures.
• Mission: Design and build experimental prototypes and production-grade systems in areas such as AI/agent safety, AI-powered threat detection, and advanced security analytics.
• Tech Stack: Python, Go, C++, Java

What You’ll Actually Do
• Design and build experimental prototypes and production-grade systems focused on AI/agent safety, AI-powered threat detection, and advanced security analytics.
• Partner with mentors to conduct rapid exploration sprints, framing hypotheses, designing experiments, running evaluations, and iterating from concept to early productization.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including product, platform, and research, to translate real-world requirements into practical security solutions.
• Gain practical skills and professional real-world experience through on-the-job learning in a dynamic work environment.
• Participate in the entire lifecycle of security products or services, contributing to various phases and aspects of projects.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Undergraduate or Postgraduate student currently pursuing a degree/master in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Security, AI, or other STEM disciplines.
• Experience: Proven grasp of computer science fundamentals (algorithms, data structures, operating systems, networking); demonstrated experience writing comprehensive automated tests, performing effective code reviews, and debugging issues; ability to commit to at least a 3-month internship period.
• Skills: Proficiency in one or more backend programming languages such as Python, Go, C++, Java, or similar.
• Bonus: Prior internship, work, or significant project experience in AI/agent safety, model evaluation and red teaming, threat intelligence, security analytics, detection engineering, system hardening, or security automation; a strong personal standard for building software quickly and well, including hands-on experience using AI to accelerate development; a proactive and self-driven mindset with proven ability to think critically, break down complex problems, and formulate clear, practical solutions.