TikTok
Research Scientist Intern, Multimodal (TikTok AI Innovation Center) – 2025 Summer (PhD)
Job Description
Responsibilities
TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok’s global headquarters are in Los Angeles and Singapore, and its offices include New York, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.
Why Join Us
Creation is the core of TikTok’s purpose. Our platform is built to help imaginations thrive. This is doubly true of the teams that make TikTok possible.
Together, we inspire creativity and bring joy – a mission we all believe in and aim towards achieving every day.
To us, every challenge, no matter how difficult, is an opportunity; to learn, to innovate, and to grow as one team. Status quo? Never. Courage? Always.
At TikTok, we create together and grow together. That’s how we drive impact – for ourselves, our company, and the communities we serve.
Join us.
The mission of the TikTok Eng-AI Innovation Center is to explore cutting-edge AGI technologies, including but not limited to LLM, multi-modal LLM (video/image/audio/text/code), etc., to let machine better understand user creations on Tiktok platform. Regarding video/image/audio/text, enhanced content understanding can bring better user experience of searching, recommendation, and can more accurately identify and defend internet abuse and fraud on our platform. Regarding code, developed LLM aims to automatically re-organize/optimize Tiktok codebase, and make the code/coding become more accessible for Tiktok engineers.
In short, our team is a foundation model LLM group in Tiktok, aiming to explore large-scale&multi-modal LLMs and optimize systems to the level of other advanced models, e.g., Gemini and GPT4o.
We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship in 2025. Internships at TikTok aim to offer students industry exposure and hands-on experience. Turn your ambitions into reality as your inspiration brings infinite opportunities at TikTok.
Internships at TikTok aim to provide students with hands-on experience in developing fundamental skills and exploring potential career paths. A vibrant blend of social events and enriching development workshops will be available for you to explore. Here, you will utilize your knowledge in real-world scenarios while laying a strong foundation for personal and professional growth. This Internship Program runs for 12 weeks beginning in May/June 2025. Successful candidates must be able to commit to one of the following summer internship start dates below:
Monday, May 12
Monday, May 19
Tuesday May 27 (Memorial Day May 26)
Monday, June 9
Monday, June 23
We will prioritize candidates who are able to commit to these start dates. Please state your availability clearly in your resume (Start date, End date).
Candidates can apply to a maximum of two positions and will be considered for jobs in the order you apply. The application limit is applicable to TikTok and its affiliates’ jobs globally. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis – we encourage you to apply early.
Responsibilities:
1. Take part in one of our research topics, e.g., multi-modal LLM pretraining, instruction tuning, preference alignment, and model compression; and propose new ideas and do experiments to solve selected problems.
2. In-depth research and collaboration with researchers from top-tier universities worldwide; Publish research papers and apply for patents
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications:
1. PhD Degree with majors in artificial intelligence, computer science, automation, and mathematics or related fields
2. Able to commit to working for 12 weeks during Summer 2025
3. Candidates with top AI conference papers in ML/CV/NLP are required.
4. Solid foundation in data structure and algorithm design, proficient in one or more of Python/C++, proficient in deep learning frameworks such as pytorch and tensorflow.
5. Strong sense of responsibility, active and proactive, good communication and teamwork skills.
6. Must obtain work authorization in country of employment at the time of hire, and maintain ongoing work authorization during employment.
7. Graduating December 2025 onwards with the intent to return to degree program after the completion of the internship.
Preferred Qualifications
1. Candidates with hands-on experience with LLM and multimodal LLM are preferred.
2. In-depth research experience in Machine Learning, with a particular emphasis on Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI
TikTok is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.
TikTok is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at https://shorturl.at/cdpT2
Job Information
【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description Intern (hourly)
The hourly rate range for this position in the selected city is $60- $75. We cover 100% premium coverage for Full-Time intern medical insurance after 90 days from the date of hire. Medical coverage only, no dental or vision coverage.
Our time off and leave plans are: Paid holidays and paid sick leave. The sick leave entitlement is based on the time you join.
We also provide mental and emotional health benefits through our Employee Assistance Program and provide reimbursements for your mobile phone expense. The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.
For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates:
Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:
1. Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
2. Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
3. Exercising sound judgment.
