Tech Opportunties at TikTok!

TikTok is always looking for new ways to connect with users, candidates, and employees. When we threw our very first Data Trust and Safety networking event at our Sydney, Australia office, it was an opportunity for members of the Australian tech community to come together and learn more about TikTok's unique culture, as well as the projects of the Data Trust and Safety team.

Data Trust and Safety is a foundational pillar of the TikTok platform. It's pivotal to protecting users from harmful content or abusive behavior. Over seventy people attended insightful talks and a panel discussion with teammates Elysia, Yan, Wesley, and Doc, who spoke about their work building content moderation process systems, risk insight systems, support systems for human content moderation, and more.

So, how exactly does the work of the Data TnS teams impact TikTok?

"Our key mission is to solve user issues," says Wesley Fang. "We take what we hear from our users and provide all the insight to the TikTok cross functional teams to implement relevant improvements. We're a team that lives and breathes user feedback."

Yan Xia, who works on TikTok's algorithm (algo) project, went into depth about the work his team does to apply machine learning to content moderation, which protects users every day. "It's well known that TikTok is good at recommendation algorithms. In content moderation, it's a totally different story," he says. "We're working to understand the content in order to make informed decisions on moderation. We have community guidelines, and underlining those guidelines are hundreds of policies. We need the machine learning model to understand the policy, so the algorithm can determine whether a video there is a violation of it."

"We aim to build a world where users from everywhere can safely discover, create and connect on TikTok," says Doc Chen. "Our value is in our ability to identify risks and handle them, ultimately providing a better user experience. For example, recently we launched features to identify and classify different categories of TikTok LIVE content. This will help ensure the content is appropriate for our users."

Panelists also said a highlight of their work is having a significant and tangible impact on over a billion TikTok users. Their impact is vast, and the Sydney office is growing rapidly with dozens of technology positions open, but the team works hard to maintain a start-up mentality, where adaptability and innovation are valued, and all ideas are welcome.

"We work on customer-facing features that users see on TikTok everyday," adds Elysia Giannis. "Although I'm a front-end software engineer, I am not "just" developing. I am involved in reviewing designs, collaborating with people who create multilingual copy, and reviewing business metrics. It is hardly ever just doing one task all day."

"We come from all sorts of backgrounds," says Fang. "So we value & respect individual differences. In fact, each person bringing their own experiences to the table creates a global culture that is open, transparent and inclusive. This allows us to focus on our people's growth and their unique strengths."

Yan Xia cites one of the company's core values, when describing TikTok's culture. "'Always Day 1, one of our core values, strongly resonates with me. I truly see this value being applied in day-to-day work on the team. It's essential for machine learning engineers to approach our work with an attitude of discovery as new technologies are emerging all the time. There is no perfect solution, but there will always be a better solution."

The team also supports personal growth in their work. "My manager provides me with valuable advice on how to navigate the complexity of my work, as well as ensures that I feel capable of completing a challenging task before he assigns it to me," Giannis says. "There are lots of opportunities to engage in activities that'll increase my broader skillset and network. When I was a month into working here, I found a tweak that I thought would be beneficial to other developers. I spoke to my manager about it and he gave me free rein to go ahead and build it. You're given the ability here to take on some of your own technical projects if you find a problem and a solution."

"I have to say this is a very good place for learning," says Xia. "I learn every day because things are constantly evolving."

TikTok Sydney is looking for talented people to accomplish incredible things together. We're continuing to expand our presence with roles not only in Data Trust and Safety, but Global Live Engineering teams, who built TikTok Live, and Security Engineering, Testing, and Operations. Explore open positions across all the teams in Sydney now.