About the role#
The Recommendation Foundation team builds shared models across e-commerce scenarios. We focus on an event-sequence-driven generative recommendation paradigm. This work integrates large language and vision-language models, multimodal understanding, and reinforcement learning. We aim to move recommendation systems beyond simple click prediction toward general-purpose agents. You will work in an environment where you can propose hypotheses and test ideas that shape future recommendation systems.
What you'll do#
- Participate in the full training lifecycle of Recommendation Foundation Models, covering pre-training, mid-training, and post-training.
- Design and train multimodal semantic tokenizers for recommendation items. You will use multimodal foundation models to encode item content into discrete tokens.
- Develop LLM-native recommendation by incorporating tasks directly into model training and using world knowledge to improve quality.
- Build new recommendation systems that span retrieval, ranking, and end-to-end generative recommendation.
What you'll need#
- Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related field.
- Strong foundation in machine learning and deep learning, with an interest in LLMs and generative recommendation.
- Proficiency in Python and experience with PyTorch.
- A self-driven approach, a research mindset, and solid engineering skills.
- Experience with pre-training, mid-training, or post-training of LLMs or Foundation Models.
- Research or project experience in generative recommendation, LLM-native recommendation, or multimodal semantic tokenization.
- Publications on LLM-related topics at top-tier conferences like NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, or NAACL, or achievements in major technical competitions.
Location & details#
- Location: San Jose, California.
- Employment: Full-time paid internship.
- Modality: On-site.
- Process: Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
About TikTok
TikTok operates as an entertainment provider. The company maintains a global presence with offices in cities including Los Angeles, Singapore, New York, London, and Tokyo. It employs over 92,000 people. The organization is privately held.
How to get in at TikTok
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