Research Scientist - End-to-End Generative Search Technology Based on Pre-Trained Foundation Models - Global Frontier Tech Recruitment Program - 2027 Start (PhD)
Apr 16, 2026 Singapore
About us
TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video and our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy.
- Size: 10,000+ employees
- Industry: Technology: Consumer Internet
Why you should apply for a job to TikTok:
4.5/5 in overall job satisfaction
4.5/5 in supportive management
100% say women are treated fairly and equally to men
100% would recommend this company to other women
100% say the CEO supports gender diversity
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Responsibilities
We are looking for talented individuals to join our team in 2027. As a graduate, you will get opportunities to pursue bold ideas, tackle complex challenges, and unlock limitless growth. Launch your career where inspiration is infinite at our Company.
Successful candidates must be able to commit to an onboarding date by end of year 2027. Please state your availability and graduation date clearly in your resume.
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. Individuals who are completing or recently completed a PhD in AI, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
2. Excellent coding skills and a solid foundation in Machine Learning/Deep Learning/LLM, proficient in C/C++ or Python.
Preferred Qualifications
1. Outstanding ability to define, analyze, and solve problems; candidates with publications at AI conferences such as AAAI, NeurIPS, ACL, etc., or in-depth research experience are preferred.
2. Strong resilience, excellent communication and teamwork skills; passionate about technology, willing to embrace challenges with the team, and a drive for innovation.
We are looking for talented individuals to join our team in 2027. As a graduate, you will get opportunities to pursue bold ideas, tackle complex challenges, and unlock limitless growth. Launch your career where inspiration is infinite at our Company.
Successful candidates must be able to commit to an onboarding date by end of year 2027. Please state your availability and graduation date clearly in your resume.
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.
Minimum Qualifications
1. Individuals who are completing or recently completed a PhD in AI, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
2. Excellent coding skills and a solid foundation in Machine Learning/Deep Learning/LLM, proficient in C/C++ or Python.
Preferred Qualifications
1. Outstanding ability to define, analyze, and solve problems; candidates with publications at AI conferences such as AAAI, NeurIPS, ACL, etc., or in-depth research experience are preferred.
2. Strong resilience, excellent communication and teamwork skills; passionate about technology, willing to embrace challenges with the team, and a drive for innovation.
We are looking for talented individuals to join our team in 2027. As a graduate, you will get opportunities to pursue bold ideas, tackle complex challenges, and unlock limitless growth. Launch your career where inspiration is infinite at our Company.
Successful candidates must be able to commit to an onboarding date by end of year 2027. Please state your availability and graduation date clearly in your resume.
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. Individuals who are completing or recently completed a PhD in AI, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
2. Excellent coding skills and a solid foundation in Machine Learning/Deep Learning/LLM, proficient in C/C++ or Python.
Preferred Qualifications
1. Outstanding ability to define, analyze, and solve problems; candidates with publications at AI conferences such as AAAI, NeurIPS, ACL, etc., or in-depth research experience are preferred.
2. Strong resilience, excellent communication and teamwork skills; passionate about technology, willing to embrace challenges with the team, and a drive for innovation.
Responsibilities
ResponsibilitiesWe are looking for talented individuals to join our team in 2027. As a graduate, you will get opportunities to pursue bold ideas, tackle complex challenges, and unlock limitless growth. Launch your career where inspiration is infinite at our Company.
Successful candidates must be able to commit to an onboarding date by end of year 2027. Please state your availability and graduation date clearly in your resume.
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
QualificationsMinimum Qualifications
1. Individuals who are completing or recently completed a PhD in AI, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
2. Excellent coding skills and a solid foundation in Machine Learning/Deep Learning/LLM, proficient in C/C++ or Python.
Preferred Qualifications
1. Outstanding ability to define, analyze, and solve problems; candidates with publications at AI conferences such as AAAI, NeurIPS, ACL, etc., or in-depth research experience are preferred.
2. Strong resilience, excellent communication and teamwork skills; passionate about technology, willing to embrace challenges with the team, and a drive for innovation.
Additional Information
- Posted: Apr 16, 2026