Senior Software Engineer, Data Foundation - USDS

About the Team

The TikTok U.S. Data Security (USDS) team is responsible for the security, integrity, and compliance of TikTok’s data within the United States. The Data Platform Team builds a scalable, reliable, cost-efficient infrastructure that ensures data integrity and empowers every business unit to win through self-service tools and scientific insights.

Responsibilities

We are seeking a Senior Engineer to lead efficiency, stability, and AI‑driven innovation initiatives. You will be responsible for optimizing the performance and efficiency of our core data engines—Apache Spark, Kafka, ClickHouse, and Doris—while pioneering AI‑powered solutions that enhance platform intelligence, automate operations, and drive cost optimization at a petabyte scale.

Performance & Efficiency

• Optimize Apache Spark performance and resource utilization at petabyte scale
• Enhance ClickHouse and Doris OLAP systems with storage‑compute separation and query optimizations
• Implement AI‑driven resource allocation and cost optimization strategies

Platform Intelligence & Automation

• Develop automated job diagnosis and failure analysis systems using AI/ML techniques
• Build intelligent monitoring and self‑healing capabilities for data pipelines
• Create AI‑powered tools for query optimization and data discovery

Stability & Operational Excellence

• Design robust disaster recovery and data integrity mechanisms
• Integrate AI/ML capabilities to enhance platform efficiency and developer productivity

Technical Leadership

• Drive technical roadmap and mentor junior engineers
• Explore new technologies at the intersection of distributed systems and AI

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Education: BS/MS in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field
• Distributed Systems: 3+ years of experience building and maintaining large‑scale distributed systems
• Stack Expertise: In-depth knowledge of Apache Spark, ClickHouse or Doris

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Kafka & Flink at scale
• Kubernetes (K8s) experience
• AI/ML systems experience

Reasonable Accommodation

USDS 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

Job Information

【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $177,688 - $341,734 annually. Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location.

Base pay is one part of the Total Package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role may be eligible for additional discretionary bonuses/incentives, and restricted stock units.

Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Employees have day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) savings plan with company match, paid parental leave, short‑term and long‑term disability coverage, life insurance, wellbeing benefits, among others. Employees also receive 10 paid holidays per year, 10 paid sick days per year and 17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure).

The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.

Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates

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;
3. Exercising sound judgment.