Project Intern – Security

Job Description

Security Software Engineer Project Intern (Product Security) – 2026 Start (BS/MS) | TikTok

The Tone:
This is an internship at TikTok, a company with global headquarters in Los Angeles and Singapore, and offices in numerous other cities worldwide. TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video, focused on inspiring creativity and bringing joy to its users. This role is crucial for protecting TikTok’s users, products, and infrastructures by building scalable, secure-by-design systems and solutions. The team addresses new challenges not previously tackled by major technology companies, working quickly and at scale to make a significant impact.

The TL;DR
• Role: Internship
• Type: Temporary
• Location: In-person, Los Angeles, CA
• Pay: $45–$60 hourly
• Team: Missioned to build infrastructures, platforms, and technologies to protect users, products, and infrastructures.
• Mission: Protect TikTok’s users, products, and infrastructure by contributing to secure-by-design systems and innovative security solutions, especially through LLM integration.
• Tech Stack: JavaScript (Node JS), Go, Python, Java, C++, Rust, LLM

What You’ll Actually Do
• Security Assessments: Participate in security assessments, including penetration tests, on web or mobile applications.
• Tooling Development: Take part in projects focused on developing security tools, such as those for code review and API testing, benefiting LLM integration.
• AI System Optimization: Assist in building evaluations, harnesses, and optimizations for existing AI tooling and systems used in security reviews.
• SDLC and Infrastructure Enhancement: Improve the application of Large Language Models (LLM) within the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) process and enhance overall infrastructure security.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Undergraduate or Postgraduate student pursuing a degree/master in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Systems, or other STEM disciplines, with prior experience in security engineering, threat modeling, security mitigation development, security tooling development, or privacy engineering.
• Experience: Ability to commit to at least a 3-month long internship period. Experience in writing and reviewing code in at least one of JavaScript (Node JS), Go, Python, Java, C++, or Rust. Demonstrated expertise in at least one area among web application security, mobile app security, network security, operating system internals and hardening, applied cryptography, or cloud computing.
• Skills: Strong problem-solving skills and excellent debugging/troubleshooting abilities. Understanding of various security disciplines including web application security, mobile app security, network security, operating system internals and hardening, applied cryptography, and cloud computing.
• Bonus: Experience with Natural Language Processing (NLP) or Large Language Models (LLM). Knowledge of distributed systems, edge computing, or high-performance network programming.