Machine Learning Engineer, TikTok Content Recommendation (Ecosystem & Cold-Start)
TikTok
San Jose, CA · Posted November 13, 2026
Just laid off? Start here: a plan for the first weeks
More in California job market · Machine Learning Engineer jobs in San Jose, CA (36) · All Machine Learning Engineer jobs (214) · Technology & Software · Data & Analytics jobs
More roles at TikTok
- TikTok Shop - Head of Listing Quality - US · Seattle, WA
- Machine Learning Engineer, TikTok Brand Ads · San Jose, CA
- Head of Global Events and Experiential Marketing, GIMC GBM - GBS
- TikTok Shop - Category Manager, Personal Care, K Beauty
- Research Scientist in Generative AI Graduate (Intelligent Creation) - 2026 Start (PhD) · San Jose, CA
- TikTok Shop - Partner Development Manager, ISV Commerce Partnerships · Seattle, WA
Similar jobs
- Staff Software Engineer, Imitation Learning - Behavior Planning, Embodied AI · General Motors · Sunnyvale, CA
- Lead Software Engineer, AI Workflow Generation (Agentforce Operations) · Salesforce · San Francisco, CA
- Senior Software Engineer, AI Compute Scheduling · Nvidia · Santa Clara, CA
- Senior AI Systems Engineer, Chip Design · Nvidia · Santa Clara, CA
- Senior Data Scientist, Marketplace Economics · Roblox · San Mateo, CA
- Lead Data Analyst · Childrens Institute · Los Angeles, CA
Where San Jose, CA ranks
Where San Jose, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Best cities for marketing pay after cost of living$204k · of 16
- #1Best cities for aerospace and defense pay after cost of living$187k · of 19
- #2Best cities for security pay after cost of living$220k · of 10
- #3Best cities for technology pay after cost of living$205k · of 80
- #5Best cities for technology jobs1,449 openings · of 100
- #5Cities with the most jobs that do not need a four-year degree in the West Coast162 jobs · of 47
Rankings about data & analytics jobs
- Best cities for data and analytics jobs #1 New York (1,713 openings)
- Best cities for data and analytics pay after cost of living #1 Foster ($232k)
- Most requested AI skills in data and analytics jobs #1 Machine learning engineering (17.1%)
- AI tools named most often in data and analytics jobs #1 Databricks (7.6%)
- Employers with the most data and analytics jobs #1 Amazon (711 roles)
Data & Analytics jobs · Top Data & Analytics employers · All rankings
Pay compared with the market
This listing does not state pay. Across 60 open machine learning engineer listings that state pay, the middle half runs $174,000 to $266,000 and the median is $210,500.
Listed pay is what employers advertise, not what people are paid.
Machine Learning Engineer salaries by state · Check your own pay
TikTok has filed one layoff notice in the last twelve months, covering 250 workers, most recently August 2026. These are public filings with state labor departments, and an open role can sit alongside them. See the filings
Skills this job asks for
Say which you have and which you want to build. We use it to match you to jobs like this one.
About the job
About the Team Our team is responsible for designing and optimizing TikTok's content distribution and author growth mechanism to ensure the healthy and sustainable development of TikTok's content ecosystem. Our work involves optimizing large-scale recommendation algorithms, solving optimization problems with complex constraints, designing and implementing recommendation architectures for various scenarios, and conducting complex and in-depth analyses of product data. Here, you can drive deeper into the improvement and optimization of machine learning/deep learning algorithms, including but not limited to Mathematics, CV/NLP technology, multi-task learning, multi-modal technology, meta-learning, reinforcement learning, causal inference, metric learning, graph neural networks, active learning, life long learning, etc.
Responsibilities - What You'II Do - Build industry-leading recommendation system, improving user experience, the content ecosystem and platform security; - Deliver end-to-end machine learning solution to address critical product challenges; - Own the full stack machine learning system and optimize algorithms and infrastructure to improve recommendation performance. - Work with cross functional teams to design product strategies and build solutions to grow TikTok in important markets.
Minimum Qualifications - Bachelor degree or above in computer science or a related major, with 2+ years of related work experience; - Strong software development experience with C++, Python or other programming language; - Experience in one or more of the following areas: applied machine learning, machine learning infrastructure, large-scale recommendation system, market-facing machine learning product; - Strong communication and teamwork skills; - Passion about techniques and solving challenging problems.