[Remote] Research Scientist Intern (Data-TnS-Algo-Foundations & Intelligence Service)- 2026 Start (PhD)
Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video, and they are seeking a Research Scientist Intern to contribute to their foundation-model team focused on LLM and VLM capabilities. This internship will provide hands-on experience in developing approaches to improve AI safety and capability while collaborating with industry experts.
Responsibilities
- Explore and develop approaches that improve general capability and safety for LLMs and VLMs via pretraining/CPT
- Build advanced evaluation systems to study emerging LLM/VLM skills and safety behaviors, aligned with real downstream use
- Develop advanced reinforcement-learning strategies (e.g., RLHF/RLAIF/DPO variants), and investigate how to balance pretraining and post-training for better capability and safety alignment
- Probe new failure modes and pitfalls in scaffolded environments (agents, workflows, tool use), and translate insights into robust mitigations
Skills
- Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science or a related technical field
- Research experience in at least one of: LLMs, AI Safety, Computer Vision, Multimodality
- Actively track recent AI-safety developments (familiar with current papers, benchmarks, and terminology)
- Proficient with at least one deep learning framework (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow)
- Excellent analytical/problem-solving ability, clear logical thinking, and strong communication/collaboration skills
- Publications in top AI or Security venues (e.g., NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, COLM, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, USENIX Security, ACM CCS, IEEE S&P, NDSS)
Benefits
- Day one access to health insurance
- Life insurance
- Wellbeing benefits
- 10 paid holidays per year
- Paid sick time (56 hours if hired in first half of year, 40 if hired in second half of year)
- Housing allowance
Company Overview
Company H1B Sponsorship