STEM OPT Backend Infrastructure Engineer Jobs
Backend Infrastructure Engineer roles in cloud platforms, distributed systems, and DevOps pipelines qualify for the 24-month STEM OPT extension when your employer is enrolled in E-Verify. A STEM degree in computer science, electrical engineering, or a related CIP-coded field makes you eligible to work up to 36 months on OPT total.
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The TikTok User Growth team is central to the strategic acquisition, engagement, and expansion of TikTok's global user base. Our team focuses on driving user growth through organic traffic channels, content optimization, AIGC technologies, and scalable backend systems across TikTok surfaces such as Web, Lite, and other emerging platforms. We build growth and content optimization systems that turn search, discovery, data, and AI-driven capabilities into measurable business impact. Typical projects include Search Engine Optimization for organic acquisition, AIGC-powered content generation and quality evaluation, AI / Agentic workflow automation, Auto Research systems for growth opportunity discovery, and backend platforms that support experimentation and large-scale production rollout. 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. Candidates can apply to a maximum of two positions and will be considered for jobs in the order you apply. The application limit is applicable to our Company and its affiliates' jobs globally. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis - we encourage you to apply early.
Responsibilities:
- Participate in the design and development of backend systems for TikTok user growth, content optimization, experimentation, and organic acquisition across global markets.
- Build scalable services and data pipelines for SEO/GEO, search and discovery, content understanding, content quality evaluation, and traffic optimization.
- Apply AIGC capabilities to support content generation, prompt workflows, quality assessment, and automated optimization for growth scenarios.
- Contribute to AI / Agentic workflow and Auto Research systems, including tool calling, evaluation pipelines, human-in-the-loop workflows, and feedback loops.
- Collaborate with product, data, algorithm, and design teams to deliver reliable production systems with measurable user growth and business impact.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications:
- Individuals who are completing or have recently completed a Bachelor's degree in computer science or a related discipline.
- Familiar with one or more programming languages such as Golang, Python, Java, or C++, with a good understanding of data structures and algorithms.
- Familiar with backend development, system design, microservice architecture, and distributed systems.
- Familiar with databases, cache systems, and cloud-native components such as MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, Docker, Kubernetes, or similar technologies.
- Good communication skills, strong learning ability, and willingness to collaborate with cross-functional and international teams.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Internship, project, or research experience in backend development, distributed systems, microservices, data platforms, or large-scale consumer-facing systems.
- Experience or strong interest in AI-related backend systems, such as LLM service integration, prompt workflows, model evaluation, vector retrieval, feature serving, or AI-powered automation.
- Experience building or experimenting with AI agents, agentic workflows, AI coding tools, tool-calling applications, or workflow automation systems.
- Experience or interest in search, recommendation, discovery, content platforms, SEO/GEO, growth engineering, experimentation, or traffic optimization.
- Strong self-drive, sense of ownership, and curiosity about applying AIGC technologies to real-world product and engineering problems.
Job Information
【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)
The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $128000 - $256000 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
The TikTok User Growth team is central to the strategic acquisition, engagement, and expansion of TikTok's global user base. Our team focuses on driving user growth through organic traffic channels, content optimization, AIGC technologies, and scalable backend systems across TikTok surfaces such as Web, Lite, and other emerging platforms. We build growth and content optimization systems that turn search, discovery, data, and AI-driven capabilities into measurable business impact. Typical projects include Search Engine Optimization for organic acquisition, AIGC-powered content generation and quality evaluation, AI / Agentic workflow automation, Auto Research systems for growth opportunity discovery, and backend platforms that support experimentation and large-scale production rollout. 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. Candidates can apply to a maximum of two positions and will be considered for jobs in the order you apply. The application limit is applicable to our Company and its affiliates' jobs globally. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis - we encourage you to apply early.
Responsibilities:
- Participate in the design and development of backend systems for TikTok user growth, content optimization, experimentation, and organic acquisition across global markets.
- Build scalable services and data pipelines for SEO/GEO, search and discovery, content understanding, content quality evaluation, and traffic optimization.
- Apply AIGC capabilities to support content generation, prompt workflows, quality assessment, and automated optimization for growth scenarios.
- Contribute to AI / Agentic workflow and Auto Research systems, including tool calling, evaluation pipelines, human-in-the-loop workflows, and feedback loops.
- Collaborate with product, data, algorithm, and design teams to deliver reliable production systems with measurable user growth and business impact.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications:
- Individuals who are completing or have recently completed a Bachelor's degree in computer science or a related discipline.
- Familiar with one or more programming languages such as Golang, Python, Java, or C++, with a good understanding of data structures and algorithms.
- Familiar with backend development, system design, microservice architecture, and distributed systems.
- Familiar with databases, cache systems, and cloud-native components such as MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, Docker, Kubernetes, or similar technologies.
- Good communication skills, strong learning ability, and willingness to collaborate with cross-functional and international teams.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Internship, project, or research experience in backend development, distributed systems, microservices, data platforms, or large-scale consumer-facing systems.
- Experience or strong interest in AI-related backend systems, such as LLM service integration, prompt workflows, model evaluation, vector retrieval, feature serving, or AI-powered automation.
- Experience building or experimenting with AI agents, agentic workflows, AI coding tools, tool-calling applications, or workflow automation systems.
- Experience or interest in search, recommendation, discovery, content platforms, SEO/GEO, growth engineering, experimentation, or traffic optimization.
- Strong self-drive, sense of ownership, and curiosity about applying AIGC technologies to real-world product and engineering problems.
Job Information
【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)
The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $128000 - $256000 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
See all 63+ STEM OPT Backend Infrastructure Engineer Jobs
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Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding STEM OPT Authorization as a Backend Infrastructure Engineer
Verify your degree CIP code eligibility
Check that your degree program appears on the DHS STEM Designated Degree Program List before applying. Computer science, computer engineering, and information systems degrees almost always qualify, but applied computing or interdisciplinary programs can have mismatched CIP codes your DSO needs to confirm.
Filter employers by E-Verify enrollment status
STEM OPT requires your employer to be enrolled in E-Verify before your extension is approved. Ask recruiters to confirm E-Verify participation early in the process, not after an offer. Many infrastructure teams at mid-size startups aren't enrolled, which disqualifies them regardless of willingness to hire.
Target infrastructure roles at E-Verify companies using Migrate Mate
Migrate Mate surfaces backend and infrastructure roles at employers already verified for STEM OPT hiring. Filtering by E-Verify status upfront saves you from pursuing roles at companies that can't legally employ you on an OPT extension.
Build your I-983 training plan around the job description
Your I-983 must map specific learning objectives to your backend infrastructure role. Pull responsibilities from the job description directly and frame them as training goals tied to your STEM degree. Vague plans citing only 'software development' get flagged by DSOs and can delay your extension.
Research prevailing wages before negotiating your offer
Use the OFLC Wage Search to look up wage levels for your SOC code and work location before your offer conversation. Backend infrastructure engineers fall under SOC 15-1244 or 15-1252 depending on scope. Knowing the Level 1 through Level 4 range helps you assess whether an offer is competitive.
Time your extension filing to cover your cap-gap window
If your employer files an H-1B visa petition before your OPT expires, cap-gap rules extend your authorization through September 30. Submit your STEM OPT extension application to USCIS at least 90 days before your current EAD expires to avoid any gap in work authorization during the transition.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a Backend Infrastructure Engineer role qualify for the STEM OPT extension?
Yes, if your degree is in a STEM field listed on the DHS Designated Degree Program List and your employer is enrolled in E-Verify. Backend infrastructure roles typically align with SOC codes for software developers or network and computer systems administrators, both of which fall within qualifying STEM occupational categories. Confirm your specific degree CIP code with your DSO before applying.
How do I confirm my employer is enrolled in E-Verify?
Ask your recruiter or HR contact directly and request written confirmation before signing an offer. You can also ask them to provide their E-Verify company ID number. E-Verify enrollment is a federal requirement for STEM OPT employers, and your extension application cannot be approved without it. Some infrastructure-focused companies, especially smaller startups, enroll specifically when hiring OPT students.
What should my I-983 training plan include for a backend infrastructure role?
Your I-983 should list concrete learning objectives tied to your STEM degree and the actual responsibilities in your job description. For backend infrastructure, that means goals around distributed systems design, cloud architecture, CI/CD pipeline development, or systems reliability engineering. Objectives must be specific enough that a DSO can verify the connection to your academic discipline, not generic references to software work.
What happens to my STEM OPT authorization if my H-1B is selected in the lottery?
If your employer files an H-1B petition before your OPT EAD expires, cap-gap protection automatically extends your work authorization through September 30 of that year. You don't need a new EAD for the cap-gap period, but you should carry your expired EAD, your I-20 with the cap-gap notation, and proof of the pending H-1B petition when traveling.
Where can I find Backend Infrastructure Engineer jobs that accept STEM OPT students?
Migrate Mate lists backend and infrastructure roles at employers already confirmed for E-Verify enrollment, so you can filter by STEM OPT eligibility from the start. Searching there saves time compared to applying broadly and discovering late in the process that an employer can't legally hire you on an OPT extension without first completing E-Verify enrollment.