Technology

Research Scientist Intern - End-to-End Generative Search Technology Based on Pre-Trained Foundation Models - Global Frontier Tech Recruitment Program - 2027 Start (PhD)

Location
:

Singapore

Employment Type
:

Intern

Job Code
:

A150491

Responsibilities

We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship in 2027. PhD Internships at our Company aim to provide students with the opportunity to actively contribute to our products and research, and to the organization's future plans and emerging technologies.
PhD internships at Our Company provides students with the opportunity to actively contribute to our products and research, and to the organization's future plans and emerging technologies. Our dynamic internship experience blends hands-on learning, enriching community-building and development events, and collaboration with industry experts.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis - we encourage you to apply early. Please state your availability clearly in your resume (Start date, End date).

Team Introduction: Our Search Team is responsible for building and owning our search engine which provides our users the best search experience. On the Search Team, you’ll have the opportunity to build a full-stack search engine system and combine information retrieval technology with modern machine learning methods from related fields such as NLP, Computer Vision, Multimodal, and Recommender Systems. We embrace a culture of self-direction, intellectual curiosity, openness, and problem-solving.

Topic Content: With the rapid advancement of foundation model technology, the field of AI-powered search is encountering new opportunities and challenges. Traditional search technologies have begun to reveal significant limitations when confronted with massive data volumes, multimodal information, and complex multi-turn user needs. It is therefore necessary to leverage foundation models to build next-generation AI search systems, enhancing the intelligence of search systems and optimizing user experience. Specific objectives include:
1. Explore the integration of foundation models with ranking algorithms to improve personalized ranking accuracy and user experience.
2. Explore end-to-end generative search models based on multimodal pre-training.
3. Explore LLM-based agent technology to improve user satisfaction under complex ambiguous queries and multi-turn search scenarios.

Topic Challenges:
1. Personalized ranking: Traditional ranking algorithms struggle to fully leverage multimodal information, and their limited model complexity fails to meet user demands for precise and personalized search.
2. Ultra-large-scale retrieval and ranking: Traditional discriminative cascaded ranking systems cannot meet the efficiency requirements for retrieval and ranking across hundred-billion-scale candidate pools.
3. Increasingly complex search needs: User search needs are growing increasingly complex. Traditional search frameworks struggle to accurately understand the semantics of long, complex, and ambiguous queries in multi-turn conversations, resulting in low search result satisfaction.

Topic Value:
1. Technical value: Break through the bottlenecks of traditional search technology; build a next-generation AI search architecture driven by LLM agents; and address industry challenges including personalized ranking, ultra-large-scale retrieval and ranking, and understanding and fulfilling complex search needs.
2. Business value: Significantly improve search user experience and satisfaction, driving improvements in search LT and users' proactive search intent.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications
1. Currently pursuing PhD in Computer Science, AI, Mathematics, or a related technical discipline, with a strong foundation in data structures, algorithms, and mathematical modeling.
2. AI/ML Expertise: Solid understanding and research experience in Deep Learning, NLP, CV, Reinforcement Learning, Generative Models, or Multimodal Learning.

Preferred Qualifications
1. Priority will be given to candidates with publications in international AI/CS conferences or journals (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ACL, KDD, SIGIR, WWW) or top rankings in recognized algorithmic competitions.
2. Excellent programming abilities in leading or participating in key projects related to Search, Advertising, Recommendation systems, or Large Language Models (LLMs).
3. Strong resilience, excellent communication and teamwork skills; passionate about technology, willing to embrace challenges with the team, and a drive for innovation.

Job Information

About TikTok

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 we also have offices in New York City, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.

​

Why Join Us

Inspiring creativity is at the core of TikTok's mission. Our innovative product is built to help people authentically express themselves, discover and connect – and our global, diverse teams make that possible. Together, we create value for our communities, inspire creativity and bring joy - a mission we work towards every day.

​

We strive to do great things with great people. We lead with curiosity, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn and innovate as one team. We're resilient and embrace challenges as they come. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.

​

​

Diversity & Inclusion

​

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.