About the role#
The Global E-Commerce Search Infrastructure team builds systems that power product discovery on TikTok Shop. We focus on retrieval, indexing, query understanding, real-time data processing, and AI-enabled search infrastructure. Our goal is to help customers find relevant products quickly and reliably at a global scale. As an intern, you will work on a well-scoped project matched to your interests and team priorities. You will receive guidance from a mentor and collaborate with engineers across search, machine learning, and data infrastructure.
What you'll do#
- Design and implement a scoped feature or system component with mentor support.
- Write clear, maintainable, and tested production code using C++, Go, Java, or Python.
- Participate in design discussions, code reviews, testing, documentation, and launch-readiness reviews.
- Evaluate system quality using metrics like latency, throughput, reliability, freshness, or search relevance.
- Investigate technical issues to identify root causes and propose improvements.
- Present your work and results to the team at the end of the internship.
What you'll need#
- Currently pursuing a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, or a related technical field.
- Ability to work full-time for 12 consecutive weeks.
- Experience programming in at least one general-purpose language such as C++, Go, Java, or Python.
- Understanding of data structures, algorithms, and object-oriented or modular software design.
- Ability to communicate and work effectively in a team.
- Familiarity with software systems through coursework, research, personal projects, open-source contributions, or prior internships.
- Experience with search concepts like inverted indexes, BM25, learning-to-rank, vector search, FAISS, or HNSW is helpful.
- Knowledge of distributed systems, databases, storage, or frameworks like Kafka, Flink, or Spark is a plus.
- Interest in AI or machine-learning infrastructure, model serving, retrieval-augmented generation, or agentic systems is beneficial.
- Skills in performance analysis, debugging, Linux development, or competitive programming are valued.
Location & details#
- Location: Seattle, Washington, United States.
- Term: Summer 2027.
- Modality: On-site.
- Employment: Full-time internship.
- Compensation: $42.75 per hour.
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
Landing an internship at TikTok requires speed because early applicants often get seen before the pile grows. Intern Insider sends an instant alert the moment a role matching your target is published anywhere, so you can apply among the first. This gives you a better chance of your resume being reviewed while the team is still actively filling the position. You should aim to be one of the first people to submit your materials. Reaching out to the right person can also improve your chances of getting a response. Intern Insider surfaces the recruiters behind the company roles so you can contact them directly to ask about the role or a referral. This direct approach often works better than waiting for a response from a general application queue.
