Trust and Safety Rapid Response Lead - USDS

About the team

The USDS Risk Containment Team for TikTok USDS is a multi-disciplinary team that handles risk detection, prevention and escalation handling in the United States. The team is dedicated to maintaining a safe and secure online environment for users by actively monitoring and responding to emergent threats, ensuring compliance with legal regulations, and addressing real-life implications of online content. As a USDS Trust & Safety Rapid Response Lead, you will play a critical role in safeguarding the integrity of our platform by effectively managing high-priority escalations and emerging risks. This lead role requires strong leadership skills, strategic thinking, and the ability to collaborate with internal and external stakeholders across multiple regions.

You will be instrumental in designing and operationalizing our response to community guideline escalations, promptly detecting and removing content related to various online risks and harms. Your role involves collaborating with internal and external partners, to ensure user safety in critical situations. You'll also contribute to post-mortem and root cause analyses, enhancing our strategies to mitigate the recurrence of similar incidents.

This position entails a Monday through Friday work week. This position is part of a team that provides 24/7 support and requires working scheduled shifts, which may include holidays.

Responsibilities

Team Leadership & People Management

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of Rapid Response specialists, fostering a culture of resilience, high performance, and continuous learning.
• Set clear KPIs and objectives; conduct regular 1:1s and performance reviews to ensure the team meets operational benchmarks.
• Actively manage the psychological safety and resilience of the team, given their frequent exposure to sensitive and graphic content.

Program Strategy & Execution

• Drive the formal establishment and scaling of the USDS Rapid Response Program, overseeing the creation of training curricula, SOPs, and escalation workflows.
• Act as the primary point of escalation for cross-functional leaders (Legal, Public Policy, Child Safety, and Engineering) to ensure seamless risk containment.
• Serve as the "Incident Commander" during high-stakes viral crises or breaking-news events, directing team resources and making final enforcement decisions.
• Lead comprehensive root-cause analyses following major incidents, presenting findings to executive leadership to prevent recurrence.

Operational Excellence & Tooling

• Oversee the accuracy of content/account enforcement decisions made by the team, ensuring strict adherence to USDS data-sharing and privacy protocols.
• Partner with Product and Engineering teams to advocate for tooling enhancements that reduce response latency and improve detection capabilities.
• Review team-generated analytics to identify macro-trends in platform abuse, using these insights to influence global policy shifts and proactive safety sweeps.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• 5 years of professional experience in Incident Management, Trust & Safety, Investigations, or Crisis Management, with at least 1 year in a leadership or people management role.
• Proven track record of managing high-priority escalations in a fast-paced environment (e.g., social media, government, or tech).
• Exceptional ability to translate complex technical risks into concise briefings for executive leadership.
• Strong experience dealing with sensitive/graphic content and a proven toolkit for managing team burnout and vicarious trauma.

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep knowledge of Child Safety, Violent Extremism, or Human Exploitation policy frameworks.
• Ability to navigate complex data environments and internal proprietary tools to audit team performance and platform health.
• Experience managing distributed teams
• Familiarity with US user privacy regulations and the specific data-handling requirements inherent to USDS operations.