Data Scientist Intern (TikTok-Product-Data Science)-2026 Summer (PhD)
About this internship
TikTok is hiring a Data Scientist Intern (TikTok-Product-Data Science) for Summer 2026 in San Jose, CA, with an on-site work model. This PhD-level internship focuses on applying data science to product and data science work in the content creators and content discovery space. The role is listed at $35/hr and is geared toward candidates pursuing a PhD in a relevant technical field (or with equivalent practical experience) who are comfortable querying data and using a scripting language like Python or R.
Qualifications
Required
- Pursuing a PhD in Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, Computer Science, Data Science etc relevant technical field, or equivalent practical experience
- Proficient in data querying languages and at least one scripting language (e.g. PythonγR)
- Experience in one or more of the following methods: forecasting, statistical and causal inference, classification methods.
Nice to have
- Ability to clearly communicate analysis results and assumptions to both technical and non-technical partners.
- Comfort working with large datasets, including checking data quality and documenting definitions.
- Experience translating open-ended product questions into testable hypotheses and measurable metrics.
- Familiarity with designing and evaluating experiments or quasi-experiments to support causal inference.
- Track record of applying forecasting, classification, or inference methods in prior research projects.
How to stand out (TUN tip)
Before you apply, prepare one or two research examples where you used SQL (or another querying language) plus Python or R to answer a product-style question, and be ready to explain your method choice (forecasting, classification, or causal inference) and how you validated results. If you have code samples, consider sharing a clean, well-documented excerpt that demonstrates your data querying and analysis workflow.