Machine Learning Engineer, TikTok Lead Ads
TikTok
San Jose, CA · Posted November 13, 2026
Just laid off? Start here: a plan for the first weeks
More in California job market · Machine Learning Engineer jobs in San Jose, CA (37) · All Machine Learning Engineer jobs (217) · Technology & Software · Data & Analytics jobs
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Where San Jose, CA ranks
Where San Jose, CA placed in our monthly rankings, month by month. Each month stays online at its own address.
November 2026
- #1Best cities for marketing pay after cost of living$204k · of 16
- #1Best cities for aerospace and defense pay after cost of living$187k · of 19
- #2Best cities for security pay after cost of living$220k · of 10
- #3Best cities for technology pay after cost of living$205k · of 80
- #5Best cities for technology jobs1,449 openings · of 100
- #5Cities with the most jobs that do not need a four-year degree in the West Coast162 jobs · of 47
Rankings about data & analytics jobs
- Best cities for data and analytics jobs #1 New York (1,713 openings)
- Best cities for data and analytics pay after cost of living #1 Foster ($232k)
- Most requested AI skills in data and analytics jobs #1 Machine learning engineering (17.1%)
- AI tools named most often in data and analytics jobs #1 Databricks (7.6%)
- Employers with the most data and analytics jobs #1 Amazon (711 roles)
Data & Analytics jobs · Top Data & Analytics employers · All rankings
Pay compared with the market
This listing does not state pay. Across 48 open machine learning engineer listings that state pay, the middle half runs $167,500 to $239,500 and the median is $199,000.
Listed pay is what employers advertise, not what people are paid.
Machine Learning Engineer salaries by state · Check your own pay
How AI is used in this kind of work
Among computer occupations, all other, AI is already used for a large share of the tasks. Measured exposure for computer occupations, all other: 31% (high).
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
Skills this job asks for
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About the job
Our Lead Ads team empowers TikTok's global monetization (billion-dollar business) via efficiently delivering lead ads on TikTok. Our mission is to push the boundaries of large-scale ads delivery systems and lead the innovations of TikTok's personalized online advertising. Hence, you'll have a chance to get deeply involved in our large-scale distributed systems and state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms. As a Machine Learning Engineer on the Lead Ads team, you will make efforts to develop novel machine learning solutions for ranking, build scalable foundations and launch various products that maximize the efficiency of lead ads delivery.
Key Responsibilities: - Work on the development of a large-scale online ads delivery system and improve its accuracy. - Explore multi-stage ranking models, conduct data analysis, develop feature engineering. - Participate in the innovations of online ads systems using machine learning models, ranking algorithms, etc. - Partner with product managers, data scientists and product strategy & operation team to launch new Lead Ads products and features.
Minimum Qualification(s): - BS/MS degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or other relevant majors. - 3+ years of hands-on experience with applying machine learning methods for ranking. - 3+ years of software development experience and strong coding skills, especially in Python/C++. - Experience with recommender system projects. - Familiarity with online experimentation methods and analytics. Essential knowledge and skills in statistics. - Curiosity toward new technologies and entrepreneurship.
Preferred Qualification(s): - Experience with Tensorflow/PyTorch/MXNet.