Project Intern – AI Security Engineering

Job Description

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

The Tone:
This is an internship at ByteDance, a company founded in 2012 that builds a suite of products including TikTok, Lemon8, CapCut, and various platforms specific to the China market like Toutiao and Douyin. The security engineering team aims to develop security services, platforms, and technologies to safeguard users, products, and infrastructure. This role is crucial for contributing to key security initiatives, specifically in constructing scalable and secure-by-design systems and solutions, while offering a glimpse into professional real-world experience.

The TL;DR
• Role: Internship
• Type: Temporary
• Location: In-person, US Campus
• Pay: $45–$60 hourly
• Team: The security engineering team builds services, platforms, and technologies to protect users, products, and infrastructures.
• Mission: Engage in impactful short-term projects to gain practical skills and a deeper understanding of career interests in security engineering.
• Tech Stack: Python, Go, C++, Java

What You’ll Actually Do
• System Development: Work with the team to design and build experimental prototypes and production-grade systems in areas like AI/agent safety, AI-powered threat detection, and advanced security analytics.
• Rapid Exploration: Partner with mentors on rapid exploration sprints, framing hypotheses, designing experiments, running evaluations, and iterating from concept to early productization.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Work closely with product, platform, and research teams to understand real-world requirements and translate them into practical, high-impact security solutions.
• Lifecycle Participation: Participate in each phase and part of security product or service projects, gaining a comprehensive understanding of the development lifecycle.
• Skill Development: Gain practical skills through on-the-job learning within a work environment focused on security initiatives.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Currently pursuing an undergraduate or postgraduate degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Security, AI, or other STEM disciplines, with a grasp of computer science fundamentals (algorithms, data structures, operating systems, networking).
• Experience: Proven experience writing comprehensive automated tests, performing effective code reviews, and debugging issues to ensure high standards of code quality and reliability.
• 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 areas like AI/agent safety, model evaluation and red teaming, threat intelligence, security analytics, detection engineering, system hardening, or security automation.