PhD Data Science Intern – Data Science

Job Description

Data Science Intern (Advertisement Team) – 2026 Start (PhD) | TikTok

The Tone:
This is a PhD internship at TikTok, with a start date in 2026, primarily located in Los Angeles, CA. TikTok is recognized as the leading destination for short-form mobile video, driven by its mission to inspire creativity and bring joy globally. This internship within the TikTok Monetization Products data science team is vital for students to actively contribute to the company’s products, research, and future technological advancements. The role focuses on enabling and championing data-driven decision making, rigorously using data to drive all strategic choices and ensuring sustainable revenue growth for the platform.

The TL;DR
• Role: Internship
• Location: Los Angeles, CA
• Pay: $55 hourly
• Team: TikTok Monetization Products data science team
• Mission: Drive monetization and sustainable revenue growth for TikTok through data science.
• Tech Stack: SQL, Python, R, Matlab

What You’ll Actually Do
• Problem Solving: Work with extensive and intricate data sets to address a diverse range of challenging problems, applying various analytical methods to extract meaningful insights.
• End-to-End Project Ownership: Take a project from its initial data requirement gathering phase through to data processing, modeling, and the delivery of impactful business recommendations, ensuring a comprehensive understanding and execution.
• Strategic Partnership: Collaborate with cross-functional teams to proactively identify new opportunities that necessitate the application of sophisticated analytical and modeling techniques, expanding the scope of data science impact.
• Experimental Design: Design, execute, and meticulously interpret the results of experiments, such as A/B testing, to validate hypotheses and inform product and monetization strategies.
• Influence & Communication: Effectively articulate complex insights and data-driven recommendations to team leadership, playing a key role in influencing strategic decision-making and business outcomes.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Currently pursuing a PhD degree in a highly quantitative field such as Economics, Statistics, Applied Math, Engineering, Computer Science, or Business Analytic, demonstrating a strong foundation in theoretical and practical quantitative methods.
• Experience: Proven experience in data querying and manipulation using industry-standard tools like SQL, Python, or R. Additionally, practical experience with data analysis in a scripting language, including R, Python, or Matlab, is required.
• Skills: Ability to effectively manage and extract value from large and complex data sets, design and critically interpret experimental results (e.g., A/B testing), and clearly communicate analytical findings and strategic recommendations.
• Bonus: Prior internship experience or research experience in data science, demonstrating practical application of skills. Experience collaborating effectively with cross-functional teams, coupled with an agile, self-motivated, and creative approach to problem-solving in a culturally diverse and globally distributed environment.