Software Engineering Intern – AI-Native Engineering Infrastructure

Job Description

AI Engineer Intern (Client Arch) | TikTok

The Tone:
This is an internship at TikTok, located in the United States, for the Summer 2027 term. TikTok is a global short video platform covering 150 countries and regions, aiming to discover authentic and interesting moments to make life better. This role within the General Architecture team is crucial for embracing AI to build advanced business architecture infrastructure, focusing on R&D efficiency, resource management, cost optimization, user experience, and system stability. Interns will gain hands-on experience, industry exposure, and opportunities to apply their knowledge to real-world challenges while contributing to the company’s mission.

The TL;DR
• Role: Internship
• Type: Seasonal
• Location: In-person, United States (Pay rate specified for Los Angeles County)
• Pay: $45 hourly
• Team: TikTok General Architecture team
• Mission: To explore and implement “AI-Native Engineering Infrastructure,” treating AI Agents and human developers as first-class citizens to redefine R&D efficiency.
• Tech Stack: TypeScript/JavaScript, Python, Go, Java, C/C++

What You’ll Actually Do
• Engineering Infrastructure: Explore and implement “AI-Native Engineering Infrastructure,” redefining R&D efficiency by empowering AI Agents and human developers.
• Automated Development: Leverage AI to drive automated maintenance, intelligent refactoring, precise diagnosis/repair, CI/CD optimization, and knowledge management across large codebases.
• Efficiency Measurement: Establish and continuously improve evaluation standards and benchmarking for AI-assisted R&D efficiency, measuring productivity, system stability, and code correctness.
• Architecture Design: Design and build application architectures, service interfaces, and supporting frameworks for AI-driven scenarios, providing a solid foundation for upper-layer innovation.
• Platform Solutions: Partner with business R&D and cross-functional teams to understand pain points, deliver highly available platform solutions at scale, and drive adoption with measurable impact.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Currently pursuing an Undergraduate or Master’s degree in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Experience: Able to commit to working for 12 weeks during the Summer of 2027. Possesses hands-on software development experience from coursework, internships, open-source projects, or personal projects, demonstrating the ability to independently implement, debug, and deliver features. Exhibits an end-to-end delivery mindset with practical experience in at least two of the client/application, server, and data layers, alongside a basic understanding of the others.
• Skills: Solid proficiency in at least one mainstream programming language such as TypeScript/JavaScript, Python, Go, Java, or C/C++. Strong software engineering fundamentals including modularity, abstraction, interface design, testing, and maintainability, with the ability to write clear, evolvable code collaboratively. Basic system design ability to decompose and model small-to-medium systems, articulating module boundaries, data flow, critical paths, and key trade-offs.
• Bonus: Project or internship experience building AI applications/agents or integrating LLMs into developer workflows. Experience with engineering productivity, internal tools, developer platforms, or R&D efficiency projects. Hands-on exposure to CI/CD, build & deployment, automation, or observability tooling. Independent understanding of software architecture and system design. Interest in or early practice with AI-assisted engineering.