Machine Learning Intern – Content Recommendation

Job Description

Machine Learning Engineer Intern – Global E-Commerce Content Recommendation – 2026 Summer (BS/MS) | TikTok

The Tone:
This is an internship at TikTok, a leading global destination for short-form mobile video. The company’s mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy to its users worldwide. This role is crucial to the Global E-Commerce Content Recommendation team, which plays a central part in driving product decisions and platform growth by innovating on and supporting production recommendation models. Interns will gain industry exposure and hands-on experience, contributing to systems that elevate user experience, strengthen platform safety, and empower a vibrant content ecosystem.

The TL;DR
• Role: Internship
• Type: Summer Internship (12 weeks)
• Location: Various global locations or remote, depending on assignment
• Pay: $42.75–$57 hourly
• Team: Global E-Commerce Content Recommendation team, comprised of machine learning researchers and engineers
• Mission: Drive critical product decisions and platform growth through innovation and support of production recommendation models.
• Tech Stack: PyTorch, TensorFlow, C/C++, Python, shell programming languages

What You’ll Actually Do
• System Development: Drive the development of industry-leading recommendation systems that elevate user experience, strengthen platform safety, and empower a vibrant content ecosystem.
• Generative Exploration: Explore generative recommendation techniques, including Diffusion Models, prompt learning, and multimodal content generation, to unlock new capabilities in content discovery.
• Solution Building: Build multi-model and cross-scenario systems for unified recommendation across livestreams, short videos, and search, delivering impactful, end-to-end machine learning solutions for high-priority product challenges.
• Pipeline Ownership: Own and optimize the full-stack ML pipeline—from algorithm design to system infrastructure—to continuously push the boundaries of recommendation performance.
• Strategic Collaboration: Collaborate with cross-functional teams to craft innovative product strategies and develop intelligent solutions that fuel TikTok’s growth in key global markets.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Currently pursuing a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in computer science, machine learning, or similar fields; Student career level.
• Experience: Good knowledge of theoretical and empirical research for addressing research problems, and able to commit to working for 12 weeks during Summer 2026.
• Skills: Solid knowledge and experience with at least one popular deep learning framework (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow) and familiarity with deep neural network architectures; proficient in C/C++, Python, and shell programming languages, with a deep understanding of data structure and algorithm design.
• Bonus: Research experience in applied machine learning, machine learning infrastructure, large-scale recommendation systems, or market-facing machine learning products; strong first-author publications record in top AI conferences or journals; internship experience in an AI research organization.