Research Engineer, Video Processing and Codec(Realtime Codec Optimizations)
TikTok
San Diego, CA · Posted November 13, 2026
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Where San Diego, CA ranks
Where San Diego, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Cities hosting the most business conferences in the West Coast78 conferences · of 17
- #2Cities hosting the most human resources conferences6 conferences · of 10
- #3Best cities for life sciences and biotech jobs454 openings · of 41
- #3Best cities for aerospace and defense jobs377 openings · of 67
- #3Cities hosting the most legal services conferences7 conferences · of 17
- #3Cities hosting the most staffing & human capital conferences6 conferences · of 8
Rankings about engineering jobs
- Best cities for software and engineering jobs #1 San Francisco (3,412 openings)
- Best cities for engineering pay after cost of living #1 San Mateo ($216k)
- Most requested AI skills in engineering jobs #1 AI tools in daily work (6.1%)
- AI tools named most often in engineering jobs #1 Claude (1.7%)
- Employers with the most engineering jobs #1 Amazon (2,992 roles)
Pay compared with the market
This listing does not state pay. Across 40 open research engineer listings that state pay, the middle half runs $190,000 to $280,000 and the median is $250,000.
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How AI is used in this kind of work
AI use among mechanical engineers is little observed so far. Measured exposure for mechanical engineers: 8% (little observed).
Share of this job’s tasks that AI is already used for at work, from real usage. It is not a forecast of job loss, and a low number means no use seen yet. Source: Anthropic Economic Index.
TikTok has filed one layoff notice in the last twelve months, covering 250 workers, most recently August 2026. These are public filings with state labor departments, and an open role can sit alongside them. See the filings
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About the job
Team Introduction Our Realtime Codec Optimization Team’s mission is to promote cutting-edge research in multimedia (including, but not limited to compression, image/video data processing), and to transfer technologies into our live-streaming products for better serving our hundreds of millions of users. We are looking for exceptional individuals from all areas of video compression and processing, who have a track record of research excellence, a passion to shape the future of video processing, and the potential to become an outstanding leader in the field.
Responsibilities - Design and develop commercial realtime video codecs for 2D/3D video, Multiview video, 360-degree video, light field, et al. - Design and develop encoding and decoding framework and optimization algorithms for live-streaming usecases - Research and develop video encoding algorithms in heterogeneous platforms - Research and develop visual quality-oriented video coding and processing algorithms - Prepare encoder/decoder interface documentations - Participate in the design and implementation of self-developed transmission protocols
Minimum Qualifications - Bachelor’s degree or above in computer science/electrical engineering/mathematics/statistics and related disciplines - Strong Computer Science fundamentals (algorithms, data structures, software design) and problem-solving skills - Good understanding of state-of-art compression algorithms - Excellent programming, debugging, and optimization skills in one or more general-purpose programming languages including but not limited to: C/C++ - Collaborative mindset, with solid written and verbal communication skills
Preferred Qualifications - Experience in development of image/video related applications, such as live streaming, video conference, offline transcoding - Familiar with Neural Network-based image/video coding and processing - Familiar with one of the video compression standards, e.g., AVS/H.264/H.265/VVC/AV1 and its reference software - Familiar with NEON/SIMD, and multi-threading design - Experience in international standardization work - Rich experience in video coding standards (e.g., for image/video compression, file format, system) - Publications in the academic conferences or journals in the subject