Operations Research Internship Jobs in Seattle, WA

Responsibilities
Team Introduction The TikTok General Architecture team sits at the intersection of business and infrastructure, responsible for designing and optimizing the planet-scale business architecture that supports billions of users worldwide. Our mission is to embrace AI, build the most advanced business architecture infrastructure, establish public trust and compliance, focus on resource management and cost optimization, user experience and reliability, engineering quality, and development efficiency. Here, you will not only experience how technology directly empowers top-level business, but also deepen your technical expertise in planet-scale architecture research and engineering practices-transforming cutting-edge theory into real-world production solutions. Join us in exploring and driving the evolution of the next-generation planet-scale business architecture! We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship in 2026. PhD Internships at TikTok 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 TikTok provide 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). Responsibilities: - Contribute to research and optimization of TikTok's planet-scale business architecture, supporting billions of users, globally distributed ultra-large-scale data centers, and microservice clusters with millions of services. - Assist in data modeling and algorithmic optimization to address key challenges in large-scale infrastructure and business architecture, including but not limited to capacity forecasting and planning, service and data placement optimization, traffic scheduling optimization, and risk prediction. - Under the guidance of mentors, transform research insights into prototypes, tools, or frameworks, and explore their applicability in selected business scenarios. - Participate in analyzing research data, summarizing experimental results, and contributing to academic publications in top-tier conferences/journals. - Collaborate with architecture, platform, and business teams to understand real-world production challenges and explore potential optimization opportunities.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications: - Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, Operations Research, Applied Mathematics, or related fields. - Solid research background in distributed systems, large-scale system optimization, or AI for Systems. - Able to commit to working for 12 weeks during Summer 2026 - Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to model planet-scale, complex business and infrastructure systems, abstract key variables and constraints, and clearly articulate solutions through rigorous logical reasoning and effective communication. - Familiarity with optimization algorithms such as integer programming, dynamic programming, graph optimization, heuristic search, or reinforcement learning, with the ability to apply them to large-scale optimization problems. - Proficiency in at least one mainstream programming language (e.g., Go, Java, C++, Python), with the capability to build research prototypes. - Ability to quickly learn and deeply understand complex architectural patterns, while leveraging AI tools and automation methods to improve research and development efficiency. Preferred Qualifications: - Experience in data modeling and analysis for large-scale systems or business architectures. - Research publications or submissions to top-tier conferences/journals such as OSDI, SOSP, NSDI, SoCC, SIGCOMM, KDD, NeurIPS. - Hands-on project experience in distributed systems, resource scheduling, or architecture optimization (including academic projects or previous internships). - Familiarity with performance and optimization challenges in cross-data-center or cross-region architectures. 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
Job Information
[For Pay Transparency]Compensation Description (Hourly) - Campus Intern
The hourly rate range for this position in the selected city is $57- $57.
Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Interns have day one access to health insurance, life insurance, wellbeing benefits and more. Interns also receive 10 paid holidays per year and paid sick time (56 hours if hired in first half of year, 40 if hired in second half of year). Interns who are not working 100% remote may also be eligible for housing allowance.
The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.
For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates:
Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:
1. Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
2. Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
3. Exercising sound judgment.
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.
TikTok Accommodation
TikTok is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at