Software Engineer – Global E-Commerce Search Infrastructure (TikTok Shop)

Job description

About the Team: Search is no longer just a feature—it is the defining battleground that will determine whether TikTok Shop becomes the first truly global e-commerce super-app. Our Search platform is the core engine behind the "shelf-field" (product card) strategy, and the key to competing head-to-head with Amazon, Taobao, and Pinduoduo in a global market worth over $10 trillion. Search will propel TikTok Shop from tens of billions to hundreds of billions in annual GMV by activating real shopping intent, unlocking zero-sales products, and ensuring every item becomes instantly discoverable the moment a user types or taps. We innovate where extreme performance, massive global scale, and uncompromising consistency meet. Responsibilities: You will design, build, and optimize the core infrastructure that supports TikTok Shop’s recall, ranking, and re-ranking pipelines globally. - Core Search Engine Development: Design and implement high-performance online retrieval systems. Optimize core components including the inverted index, vector retrieval (ANN/HNSW), query understanding, and merger logic. - Real-Time Data Pipelines: Build highly scalable and fault-tolerant data pipelines using Flin...