Entry Level AI Research Engineer Jobs
New grad ai research engineer jobs are open to recent graduates and entry level candidates with zero to two years of experience, where a strong portfolio of projects or internship work often carries more weight than a long resume. Most openings are on-site roles across Technology & Software, Science & Research, and Education, with employers like TikTok, Distyl, and JPMorganChase hiring at this level now.
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Showing 5 of 51+ Entry Level AI Research Engineer jobs
Responsibilities
We are looking for talented individuals to join our team. As a graduate, you will get opportunities to pursue bold ideas, tackle complex challenges, and unlock limitless growth. Successful candidates must be able to commit to an onboarding date by the end of the year. Please state your availability and graduation date clearly in your resume.
About The Team
The Intelligent Creation – Global GenAI team focuses on applied research in Generative AI, delivering intelligent creation solutions for the TikTok platform. Our mission is to empower users to create and share high-quality content with ease. The team works on cutting-edge areas including multimodal foundation models, image and video generation and editing, efficient model design, and world models.
About The Role
With rapid advances in AGI and foundation models, multimodal content creation across text, image, and video is undergoing a fundamental transformation. This role focuses on building next-generation multimodal and agentic foundation models that enable intelligent, efficient, and end-to-end creative workflows. You will work on full-modal understanding, AIGC-based image and video generation, and agentic systems, optimizing models through large-scale training and post-training (e.g., SFT, RL). The role also involves designing efficient model architectures and advancing reinforcement learning techniques to improve model capability, scalability, and real-world performance in creation scenarios.
Responsibilities
- Conduct research and development in generative AI and multimodal models (e.g., image, video).
- Develop large-scale foundation models (LLMs/VLMs), through post-training techniques.
- Design and build models for creative applications on the TikTok platform, driving end-to-end impact from research to production through cross-functional collaboration.
- Explore new AI-driven product opportunities and contribute to next-generation creative experiences.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications:
- Individuals who are completing or have recently completed a PhD degree in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline
- Proficiency in training generative AI or large models using frameworks such as PyTorch or JAX.
- Strong programming skills and solid fundamentals in machine learning.
- Strong problem-solving ability and motivation to tackle real-world challenges.
- Good communication and collaboration skills in fast-paced environments.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Strong research background in one or more areas: generative AI, LLMs/VLMs, or ML systems.
- Hands-on experience in at least one of the following areas: Image/video generation and editing; VLM/LLM fine-tuning; Efficient model design and optimization; Reinforcement learning methods (e.g., RLHF, DPO, GRPO)
- Track record of research publications in conferences such as CVPR, ECCV, ICCV, NeurIPS, ICLR, SIGGRAPH, or SIGGRAPH Asia.
Job Information
【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)
The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $241680 - $456000 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 (unincorporated) Candidates:
Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:
- Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
- Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
- Exercising sound judgment.
About TikTok
TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok's global headquarters are in Los Angeles and Singapore, and we also have offices in New York City, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.
Why Join Us
Inspiring creativity is at the core of TikTok's mission. Our innovative product is built to help people authentically express themselves, discover and connect – and our global, diverse teams make that possible. Together, we create value for our communities, inspire creativity and bring joy – a mission we work towards every day. We strive to do great things with great people. We lead with curiosity, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn and innovate as one team. We're resilient and embrace challenges as they come. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.
Diversity & Inclusion
TikTok is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.
TikTok Accommodation
TikTok 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 https://tinyurl.com/RA-request
Responsibilities
We are looking for talented individuals to join our team. As a graduate, you will get opportunities to pursue bold ideas, tackle complex challenges, and unlock limitless growth. Successful candidates must be able to commit to an onboarding date by the end of the year. Please state your availability and graduation date clearly in your resume.
About The Team
The Intelligent Creation – Global GenAI team focuses on applied research in Generative AI, delivering intelligent creation solutions for the TikTok platform. Our mission is to empower users to create and share high-quality content with ease. The team works on cutting-edge areas including multimodal foundation models, image and video generation and editing, efficient model design, and world models.
About The Role
With rapid advances in AGI and foundation models, multimodal content creation across text, image, and video is undergoing a fundamental transformation. This role focuses on building next-generation multimodal and agentic foundation models that enable intelligent, efficient, and end-to-end creative workflows. You will work on full-modal understanding, AIGC-based image and video generation, and agentic systems, optimizing models through large-scale training and post-training (e.g., SFT, RL). The role also involves designing efficient model architectures and advancing reinforcement learning techniques to improve model capability, scalability, and real-world performance in creation scenarios.
Responsibilities
- Conduct research and development in generative AI and multimodal models (e.g., image, video).
- Develop large-scale foundation models (LLMs/VLMs), through post-training techniques.
- Design and build models for creative applications on the TikTok platform, driving end-to-end impact from research to production through cross-functional collaboration.
- Explore new AI-driven product opportunities and contribute to next-generation creative experiences.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications:
- Individuals who are completing or have recently completed a PhD degree in Software Development, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline
- Proficiency in training generative AI or large models using frameworks such as PyTorch or JAX.
- Strong programming skills and solid fundamentals in machine learning.
- Strong problem-solving ability and motivation to tackle real-world challenges.
- Good communication and collaboration skills in fast-paced environments.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Strong research background in one or more areas: generative AI, LLMs/VLMs, or ML systems.
- Hands-on experience in at least one of the following areas: Image/video generation and editing; VLM/LLM fine-tuning; Efficient model design and optimization; Reinforcement learning methods (e.g., RLHF, DPO, GRPO)
- Track record of research publications in conferences such as CVPR, ECCV, ICCV, NeurIPS, ICLR, SIGGRAPH, or SIGGRAPH Asia.
Job Information
【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)
The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $241680 - $456000 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 (unincorporated) Candidates:
Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:
- Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
- Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
- Exercising sound judgment.
About TikTok
TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok's global headquarters are in Los Angeles and Singapore, and we also have offices in New York City, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.
Why Join Us
Inspiring creativity is at the core of TikTok's mission. Our innovative product is built to help people authentically express themselves, discover and connect – and our global, diverse teams make that possible. Together, we create value for our communities, inspire creativity and bring joy – a mission we work towards every day. We strive to do great things with great people. We lead with curiosity, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn and innovate as one team. We're resilient and embrace challenges as they come. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.
Diversity & Inclusion
TikTok is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.
TikTok Accommodation
TikTok 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 https://tinyurl.com/RA-request
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Who's Hiring
Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software26
- Science & Research5
- Education4
- Automotive3
- Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals3
Entry Level AI Research Engineer Jobs: Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get an entry level ai research engineer job?
Employers at this level look for hands-on evidence of research ability: published or preprint papers, open-source contributions, and project work involving model training, evaluation, or experimental design. A strong GitHub profile and familiarity with frameworks like PyTorch or JAX matter more than years on a resume. Internship experience at a lab or tech company is a significant edge, and a master's or PhD opens additional doors at research-focused employers.
Which companies hire entry level ai research engineers?
Companies hiring entry level ai research engineers right now include TikTok, Distyl, and JPMorganChase, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of August 2026. Hiring at this level comes from a mix of large technology companies running dedicated research labs, AI-native startups building foundation models, and enterprise companies integrating applied research into product teams.
Are there remote entry level ai research engineer jobs?
Yes, though most entry level research roles lean on-site or hybrid due to lab access and team collaboration expectations. About 25% of entry level ai research engineer openings are remote or hybrid as of August 2026, so fully remote options exist but are less common at this level than in software engineering broadly.
Are these new grad ai research engineer jobs?
Yes, the listings here include new grad, recent graduate, and junior ai research engineer roles. A posting is typically new-grad friendly when it welcomes zero to two years of experience, counts internships or research assistantships toward that requirement, or accepts a strong portfolio in place of professional history. Look for language like "new graduates encouraged to apply" or "research internship experience considered."
Which industries hire the most entry level ai research engineers?
Entry Level ai research engineer roles concentrate in Technology & Software, Science & Research, and Education, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of August 2026. These sectors drive hiring at this level because they are actively building or scaling AI capabilities and need early-career researchers to support experimentation, benchmarking, and model development alongside senior staff.