Data Scientist Intern (Privacy and Data Protection Office)- 2026 Summer (BS/MS)
About this internship
TikTok is hiring a Data Scientist Intern for its Privacy and Data Protection Office for Summer 2026 in San Jose, CA, with an on-site work model. This role is geared toward BS/MS students in Computer Science, Engineering, Analytics, Mathematics, or a related technical field. You’ll likely work with large-scale data systems and support data workflows using tools such as SQL and Python. The pay listed is $35/hr.
Qualifications
Required
- Current pursuing an Undergraduate or Master in Computer Science, Engineering, Analytics, mathematics or related technical field
- Hands-on experience and deep understanding of various Big Data technologies (Hadoop, M/R, Hive, Spark, Metastore, Presto, Flume, Kafka, ClickHouse, Flink etc.)
- Proficient in SQL, Python, Schema design, ETL (Extraction, Transformation & Loading)
Nice to have
- Coursework or project experience related to privacy, data protection, or responsible data use.
- Comfort reading and working with complex datasets across multiple Big Data tools, even if you have deeper experience in only a subset.
- Experience building or maintaining data pipelines end-to-end, from schema design through ETL and validation.
- Ability to write clear SQL for analysis and debugging, and to explain results to a mixed technical audience.
- Hands-on class or personal projects in Python that demonstrate clean, well-documented code and reproducible analysis.
How to stand out (TUN tip)
Before you apply, pick one project that shows your SQL and Python skills and be ready to describe your schema choices and ETL steps in a few sentences. If you’ve used any of the listed Big Data technologies, note what you did with them (e.g., querying, pipeline work, or performance troubleshooting) so your experience is easy to match to the posting.