Software Engineer, Performance Automation Platform

Software Engineer, Performance Automation Platform

Location: San Jose

Employment Type: Regular

Job Code: A116055

Responsibilities

About this team We own the Effect SDK powering TikTok's camera and creation experience — the system behind every filter, AR effect, and visual effect used by hundreds of millions of creators every day. This role sits at the business architecture layer of a self-developed rendering engine, partnering closely with rendering, algorithm, and camera pipeline teams to deliver smooth, low-power effect experiences across a massive range of mobile devices.

Responsibilities:

• Maintain and evolve the effect performance automation platform covering benchmarking, regression prevention for both effects and SDK features, effect-vs-effect comparison, performance prediction, and batch optimization pipelines.
• Design and implement new platform capabilities that let effect creators and SDK engineers ship higher-quality, better-performing effects and SDK features.
• Own the physical device farm — from device scheduling and task orchestration to stability, observability, and capacity planning.
• Build tooling and dashboards that turn raw performance signals (FPS, CPU/GPU, memory, power, thermal) into actionable insights for effect producers, algorithm, and SDK teams.
• Keep the system reliable at scale: CI/CD for the platform itself, device farm health, test throughput, and result reproducibility.
• Partner with the Rendering engine, and algorithm teams to close the loop between "problem detected on the platform" and "fix landed in production."

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science or related field; proficient in Python and/or JavaScript/TypeScript, and able to read and reason about C/C++ code.
• Solid fundamentals in OS, networking, and distributed systems; comfortable building services that run 24/7.
• General awareness of mobile development concepts (iOS and/or Android) — enough to understand what "performance" means on a phone and why a given metric matters.
• Ownership mindset, strong communication skills, and willingness to collaborate across client, algorithm, and infra boundaries.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience building automation platforms, CI/CD systems, or engineering productivity tooling at scale.
• Hands-on experience with mobile device farms / lab management or an interest in operating physical infrastructure.
• Familiarity with mobile performance metrics and profiling tools (Perfetto/Systrace, Xcode Instruments, Android GPU Inspector, power monitors).
• Frontend skills (React / Vue) for building internal tooling dashboards; experience building AI Agent; background in game engines, graphics, or AR is a plus for understanding the domain.

Compensation Description (Annually): The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $122574 - $316800 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.

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