Machine Learning Engineer Intern (Trust & Safety) - 2026 Start (PhD)

About the Team
Our team is responsible for developing state-of-the-art machine learning models and algorithms to protect our platform and users from the content and behaviors that violate community guidelines and related local regulations. With the continuous efforts from our team, TikTok is able to provide the best user experience and bring joy to everyone in the world.

We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship in 2026. Internships at TikTok aim to offer students industry exposure and hands-on experience. Watch your ambitions become reality as your inspiration brings infinite opportunities at TikTok.

Responsibilities
1. Build industry-leading content safety systems for TikTok;
2. Develop highly-scalable classifiers, tools, models and algorithms leveraging cutting-edge machine learning, computer vision and data mining technologies;
3. Understand product objectives and improve trust and safety strategy and model's performance;
4. Work with cross-functional teams to protect TikTok globally.

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.

Successful candidates must be able to commit to at least 3 months long internship period.

Successful candidates must be able to commit to either of the following Internships
- From January to June
- From May to August (Summer)

Minimum Qualifications
- Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, engineering or quantitative field;
- Solid experience in at least one of the following areas: machine learning, pattern recognition, NLP, data mining, or computer vision;

Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in recommendation, search, advertising, or other related projects;
- Published papers in the top AI conferences or journals is a plus, including KDD, IJCAI, WWW, WSDM, ICML, NeurIPS, CVPR, ECCV, ICCV, ACL, etc.;
- Competition experience in machine learning, data mining, CV, NLP, etc.;
- Good understanding of data structures and algorithms;
- Passion for techniques and solving challenging problems.

By submitting an application for this role, you accept and agree to our global applicant privacy policy, which may be accessed here: https://careers.tiktok.com/legal/privacy

If you have any questions, please reach out to us at apac-earlycareers@tiktok.com