Machine Learning Engineer, Ads Targeting
TikTok
San Jose, CA · Posted November 13, 2026
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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)
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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.
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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
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About the job
The Ads Targeting's goal is to help advertisers reach their desired audience and optimize advertisement performance. As a member of the Ads Targeting, Ads Core team, you will apply machine learning models to scale budgets by understanding user interest and intention, and build large-scale foundations for data processing and serving for next-generation ad targeting products. This team is working on a variety of products such as custom audience, interest, behavior, lookalike, auto targeting etc., as well as new innovative features.
We are seeking Machine Learning Engineers who can help us to improve our existing delivery system that optimizes for advertisers' true business objectives, i.e. desired user value and effectiveness of ROI. You will have a chance to work with a fully globalized team made up of great engineering talents in different countries, and work closely with cross-functional teams to build proper and relevant connections between users, advertisers, and TikTok.
What You'll Do: • Responsible for the development of state-of-the-art applied machine learning projects. • Own key targeting components or strategies in the TikTok ads monetization ecosystem. • Build scalable platforms and pipelines for ads targeting products. • Work with product and business teams on the product vision.
Minimum Qualifications: • BS/MS degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Operation Research, Applied Mathematics, Physics or similar quantitative fields, with related experience. • Hands-on experience in one or more of the following areas: machine learning, deep learning, statistical models and applied mathematical methods. • Strong coding skills, especially in Python/C++/Go. Experience with high-load systems. • Familiarity with online experimentation and analytics. • Familiarity with big data systems including Hadoop and Spark. • Curiosity towards new technologies and entrepreneurship.
Preferred Qualifications: • Experience in reinforcement learning, transfer learning, and counter-factual optimization is a plus. • Understanding of the business value of online advertising. • Experience with user modeling using deep learning methods from large scale datasets. Experience with privacy preserving modeling techniques is a plus. • Experience in developing modern ads ranking/retrieval/targeting systems and recommender systems.