Search Engineering Intern

Job Description

About the Role
The Search Engineering Team is responsible for building and owning TikTok’s search engine to provide users with the best search experience. As an intern, you will have the opportunity to build full-stack search engine systems, combining information retrieval technology with modern machine learning methods from related fields such as NLP, CV, and recommender systems.

What You’ll Do
• Participate in the improvement of the search core algorithm.
• Apply cutting-edge NLP and CV technology and leverage LLM for content understanding to match relevant videos and continuously improve search relevance.
• Solve recommendation problems in search for user behavior modeling, increasing personalization and understanding users better.
• Utilize NLP, CV, and LLM for video understanding to improve the authority, credibility, and usefulness of search results.

You’re a Good Fit If You
• Must be able to commit to a 12-week full-time work period during Summer or Fall 2026.
• Are currently pursuing a Bachelor’s or Master’s in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Must obtain work authorization in country of employment at the time of hire, and maintain ongoing work authorization during employment.
• Have proficient coding skills and a strong algorithm & data structure basis.
• Possess effective communication and teamwork skills.
• Have experience in one or more of the following areas: NLP, Ranking, Ads, search engine, recommender system, distributed system, and machine learning.

Bonus Qualifications
• Graduating December 2026 onwards with intent to return to degree-program after the completion of the internship.
• Have demonstrated software engineering experience from previous internship, work experience, coding competitions, or publications.
• Possess high levels of creativity and quick problem-solving capabilities.

Role Highlights & Compensation
• The hourly rate range for this position is $45- $60.
• Interns have day one access to health insurance, life insurance, and wellbeing benefits.
• Interns receive 10 paid holidays per year and paid sick time (56 hours if hired in first half of year, 40 if hired in second half of year).
• Interns who are not working 100% remote may also be eligible for housing allowance.