Senior Software Engineer, Capacity & Optimization - USDS

Responsibilities

About the team: Capacity & Optimization Engineering team focuses on site-wide performance and capacity optimization at the intersection of all TikTok products, services, and physical infrastructure (servers, data centers, network).

This role will focus on optimizing infrastructure performance and capacity at various altitudes to balance services, infrastructure, and business constraints by using operations research skills to build and improve mathematical optimization models and solutions. It is uniquely positioned to optimize infrastructure resources at the most strategic levels with company-level impact, working cross‑functionally with engineering and business teams to drive the rapid growth of TikTok’s products.

• Design and develop large‑scale optimization software systems that ensure reliable and efficient planning, incorporating regional and temporal bin‑packing, optimal service placement, service migrations, and hardware refresh processes.
• Effectively lead large engineering efforts while implementing the most complex parts of the system and process design yourself.
• Partner with finance and business teams to balance cost efficiency with technical and product considerations.
• Work cross‑functionally to define problem statements, collect data, build software‑driven models, and make recommendations to drive change at the most strategic levels.
• Identify capacity‑related issues proactively and work across technical and business teams to define and implement solutions.
• Collaborate with data center engineering teams, strategize, and project infrastructure needs 2–5 years in the future; influence next‑generation data center development and develop recommendations and strategies that give a unique edge to Oracle hardware infrastructure.
• Demonstrated success leading large engineering projects and initiatives, defining goals, managing ambiguity, inspiring and leading other engineers and non‑technical contributors.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, relevant technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Proficient in Golang, C/C++, or other coding languages and designing large‑scale software systems.
• Proficient in scripting languages such as Python and Shell, enabling efficient Linux troubleshooting and automation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of cloud architecture and data center infrastructure.
• Knowledge of server technology, rack architecture, and at‑scale cloud infrastructure deployment.
• Technical understanding of server platform architecture, design, and development, with emphasis on at‑scale deployment.
• Technical understanding of commodity storage and memory technologies (SSDs, HDDs, tape, DRAM, etc.) and knowledge of storage and/or memory industry trends.

USDS 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

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.

For Los Angeles County

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.