What are the responsibilities and job description for the Policy Escalation Lead, High Harm - USDS position at TikTok USDS Joint Venture?
Responsibilities
This role will sit within the USDS Policy Implementation team and support USDS. As the Team Lead, you are responsible for overseeing the strategic direction and execution of US Policy Escalations across TikTok U.S. Data Security.
This pivotal role demands a leader who can not only envision and drive strategy but also adeptly manage projects independently and navigate through highly ambiguous spaces with agility. You will need to cultivate a deep understanding of the platform and how it can be abused by actors to exploit vulnerable populations while championing freedom of expression for our users and ensuring policies protect users of all experiences and backgrounds. This will role will require a swift ability to make policy decisions in a fast-paced environment. You will work closely with a variety of internal partners including Regional Policy, Risk and Response, Product, and Legal Policy Operations to ensure that TikTok is able to detect, triage, and prevent safety incidents.
Responsibilities
- Provide strategic leadership, management, and direction to a multifaceted team, fostering innovation and excellence to significantly reduce high-harm content and strengthen platform trust and safety at scale.
- Own program performance tracking and evaluation, implement strategies to meet and exceed organizational goals and objectives.
- Act as senior escalation lead and coverage for the USDS Policy Implementation team to swiftly respond to and mitigate the proliferation of high harm escalations.
- Interface with internal cross-functional teams including government relations and communications on time-sensitive topics and escalations to drive our risk containment strategy.
- Drive the strategic response to high-harm issue areas by staying at the forefront of US-based abuse trends; synthesize complex adversarial patterns into actionable insights that strengthen platform defenses.
- Provide policy implementation support for safety strategies including keywords, hashtags and search.
- Proactively identify and evaluate emerging policy risks to our platform and drive solutions to help mitigate them.
- Rely on data-driven assessments of high harm content to inform policy development.
- Analyze existing policies and procedures to identify gaps, inconsistencies, or conflicts.
- Collaborate with internal stakeholders and industry experts to track evolving US and Global trends, transforming real-time insights into proactive enforcement strategies that protect the platform and its users.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications
- 5 years of work experience in Trust & Safety, content policy, or brand safety roles or another relevant field with a focus on high harm issues including Violent Extremism, Integrity and Authenticity or Youth Safety.
- Demonstrated ability to lead and inspire a team of senior professionals, managing multiple projects and initiatives across diverse operational areas.
- Excellent leadership and interpersonal skills, with experience managing high-performing teams.
- Ability to work with multiple external partners to ensure our policy and procedure expectations are met.
- Demonstrated systematic thought process regarding policy and thorough operational experience.
- Background in operational excellence with a proven ability to structure policy and process-oriented milestones.
- Ability to thrive in ambiguous environments, identify trade-offs, and make decisions.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience briefing executive leadership and demonstration of polished communication skills.
- Your resilience and commitment to self-care to manage the emotional demands of the role.
Trust & Safety
Content that this role interacts with includes images, video, and text related to every-day life, but it can also include (but is not limited to) bullying; hate speech; child safety; depictions of harm to self and others, and harm to animals. Hence, it is possible that this role will be exposed to harmful content on a daily basis.
TikTok recognises that keeping our platform safe for the TikTok communities is no ordinary job which can be both rewarding and psychologically demanding and emotionally taxing for some. This is why we are sharing the potential hazards, risks and implications in this unique line of work from the start, so our candidates are well informed before joining.
We are committed to the wellbeing of all our employees and promise to provide comprehensive and evidence-based programs, to promote and support physical and mental wellbeing throughout each employee's journey with us. We believe that wellbeing is a relationship and that everyone has a part to play, so we work in collaboration and consultation with our employees and across our functions in order to ensure a truly person-centred, innovative and integrated approach.
About USDS
TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is dedicated to the safety and security of millions of Americans who create, discover, and connect with what they love on the apps we operate. The Joint Venture has been established in compliance with the Executive Order signed by President Trump on September 25, 2025. Our foundation is a comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity program we operate under defined safeguards to protect national security and secure U.S. user data, apps and the algorithm. We safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem, holding decision-making authority for trust and safety policies and moderation. USDS Joint Venture helps ensure Americans can continue to express their creativity, discover new hobbies and interests, and build thriving communities and businesses on a global scale.
On-site presence across teams allows the company to operate with greater speed, alignment, and agility — especially in areas like real-time decision-making, team development, and integrated execution. As such, the company is shifting from a hybrid work model to a fully in-person schedule up to 5 days a week.
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.
USDS Reasonable Accommodation
USDS 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/USDS-RA
Job Information
【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)
The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $111467 - $256500 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:
1. Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
2. Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
3. Exercising sound judgment.
This role will sit within the USDS Policy Implementation team and support USDS. As the Team Lead, you are responsible for overseeing the strategic direction and execution of US Policy Escalations across TikTok U.S. Data Security.
This pivotal role demands a leader who can not only envision and drive strategy but also adeptly manage projects independently and navigate through highly ambiguous spaces with agility. You will need to cultivate a deep understanding of the platform and how it can be abused by actors to exploit vulnerable populations while championing freedom of expression for our users and ensuring policies protect users of all experiences and backgrounds. This will role will require a swift ability to make policy decisions in a fast-paced environment. You will work closely with a variety of internal partners including Regional Policy, Risk and Response, Product, and Legal Policy Operations to ensure that TikTok is able to detect, triage, and prevent safety incidents.
Responsibilities
- Provide strategic leadership, management, and direction to a multifaceted team, fostering innovation and excellence to significantly reduce high-harm content and strengthen platform trust and safety at scale.
- Own program performance tracking and evaluation, implement strategies to meet and exceed organizational goals and objectives.
- Act as senior escalation lead and coverage for the USDS Policy Implementation team to swiftly respond to and mitigate the proliferation of high harm escalations.
- Interface with internal cross-functional teams including government relations and communications on time-sensitive topics and escalations to drive our risk containment strategy.
- Drive the strategic response to high-harm issue areas by staying at the forefront of US-based abuse trends; synthesize complex adversarial patterns into actionable insights that strengthen platform defenses.
- Provide policy implementation support for safety strategies including keywords, hashtags and search.
- Proactively identify and evaluate emerging policy risks to our platform and drive solutions to help mitigate them.
- Rely on data-driven assessments of high harm content to inform policy development.
- Analyze existing policies and procedures to identify gaps, inconsistencies, or conflicts.
- Collaborate with internal stakeholders and industry experts to track evolving US and Global trends, transforming real-time insights into proactive enforcement strategies that protect the platform and its users.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications
- 5 years of work experience in Trust & Safety, content policy, or brand safety roles or another relevant field with a focus on high harm issues including Violent Extremism, Integrity and Authenticity or Youth Safety.
- Demonstrated ability to lead and inspire a team of senior professionals, managing multiple projects and initiatives across diverse operational areas.
- Excellent leadership and interpersonal skills, with experience managing high-performing teams.
- Ability to work with multiple external partners to ensure our policy and procedure expectations are met.
- Demonstrated systematic thought process regarding policy and thorough operational experience.
- Background in operational excellence with a proven ability to structure policy and process-oriented milestones.
- Ability to thrive in ambiguous environments, identify trade-offs, and make decisions.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience briefing executive leadership and demonstration of polished communication skills.
- Your resilience and commitment to self-care to manage the emotional demands of the role.
Trust & Safety
Content that this role interacts with includes images, video, and text related to every-day life, but it can also include (but is not limited to) bullying; hate speech; child safety; depictions of harm to self and others, and harm to animals. Hence, it is possible that this role will be exposed to harmful content on a daily basis.
TikTok recognises that keeping our platform safe for the TikTok communities is no ordinary job which can be both rewarding and psychologically demanding and emotionally taxing for some. This is why we are sharing the potential hazards, risks and implications in this unique line of work from the start, so our candidates are well informed before joining.
We are committed to the wellbeing of all our employees and promise to provide comprehensive and evidence-based programs, to promote and support physical and mental wellbeing throughout each employee's journey with us. We believe that wellbeing is a relationship and that everyone has a part to play, so we work in collaboration and consultation with our employees and across our functions in order to ensure a truly person-centred, innovative and integrated approach.
About USDS
TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is dedicated to the safety and security of millions of Americans who create, discover, and connect with what they love on the apps we operate. The Joint Venture has been established in compliance with the Executive Order signed by President Trump on September 25, 2025. Our foundation is a comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity program we operate under defined safeguards to protect national security and secure U.S. user data, apps and the algorithm. We safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem, holding decision-making authority for trust and safety policies and moderation. USDS Joint Venture helps ensure Americans can continue to express their creativity, discover new hobbies and interests, and build thriving communities and businesses on a global scale.
On-site presence across teams allows the company to operate with greater speed, alignment, and agility — especially in areas like real-time decision-making, team development, and integrated execution. As such, the company is shifting from a hybrid work model to a fully in-person schedule up to 5 days a week.
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.
USDS Reasonable Accommodation
USDS 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/USDS-RA
Job Information
【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)
The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $111467 - $256500 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:
1. Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
2. Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
3. Exercising sound judgment.
Salary : $111,467 - $256,500