Global Head of Child Safety - Trust & Safety

TikTok; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 487,000; Full time

Job summary

TikTok is seeking a Global Head of Child Safety Operations within the Trust & Safety Team to lead a global team focused on the timely detection and removal of content involving child safety concerns. You will partner with Legal, Policy, Product & Process teams to manage escalations and incidents, protecting users and ensuring compliant operations.

You will shape long-term hiring strategies, drive process improvements, and serve as a senior public-facing voice for safeguarding mechanisms.

Qualifications

• Minimum Qualification(s): You have at least 5+ years of experience working with Trust and Safety issues with an emphasis on child safety, including online abuse.
• Minimum Qualification(s): You have at least 5+ years of management experience leading operational and cross regional teams.
• Minimum Qualification(s): You have experience in handling Law Enforcement Child Safety investigations and engaging with Law Enforcement.
• Minimum Qualification(s): You have experience in reviewing or being exposed to sensitive content as a part of removal flows calibrations and escalations management.
• Minimum Qualification(s): You have experience in managing multiple projects and devising team strategies.
• Minimum Qualification(s): You have the ability to work successfully in cross-functional teams, senior stakeholders, and executives.
• Minimum Qualification(s): You have excellent verbal and written communication, and presentation skills.
• Preferred Qualification(s): Experience representing a company externally on safety issues with a range of government stakeholders and regulators

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of Child Safety Leads and Specialists, ensuring daily operational effectiveness, set goals for the team, and be responsible for their wellness.
• Coach/mentor team members and devise development plans for their professional development.
• Lead and manage escalations of child safety requests, including from law enforcement, liaising with Legal, Policy, Product, Government Relations and Law Enforcement Operations colleagues whenever necessary.
• Identify risks and issues across the business and create programs and processes to solve them proactively. Establish regular reporting to keep stakeholders up to date on progress, findings and recommendations.
• Manage multiple projects of moderate-to-high complexity and scope. Work cross-functionally to ensure coordination and alignment on objectives and key results.
• Enhance our operational workflows via process improvements and identification of automation opportunities. Drive innovation regarding processes and best practices for implementing policies.
• Represent TikTok as a senior public-facing voice on our safeguarding and reporting mechanisms for child safety exploitation and abuse material, including participation in external forums with child protection organisations
• Keep abreast and evaluate the impact of global legislative, regulatory and legal developments related to the handling and reporting of child safety material.
• Define and implement a long-term strategy to deal with hiring and volume growth to continue to meet goals in this area for TikTok.
• Set, interpret performance metrics with the goal of impacting organizational change as a result.
• Address sensitive content issues, including but not limited to graphic images, videos and writings, offensive or derogatory language, and other objectionable material.

Job description

Responsibilities

TikTok's Global Child Safety Team (CST) serves as subject matter experts on the assessment and reporting of suspected child sexual exploitation happening on platform. Committed to keeping TikTok a safe and creative space for users of all ages, CST operates in a follow-the-sun model, providing daily coverage, reviewing incoming incidents and when appropriate, reporting those incidents to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's (NCMEC) CyberTipline. From there, these reports are forwarded on to global law enforcement to support their investigations.

As the Global Head of Child Safety Operations within the Trust & Safety Team, you’ll be leading of a global team that ensures the timely detection and removal of content across the broad spectrum of online child endangerment, such as child sexual abuse and exploitation. Through close partnerships with Legal, Policy, and Product & Process teams, you will manage global time-sensitive escalations, and child sexual exploitation and abuse incidents to protect our online community.

You will also work closely with internal teams to create and streamline business and operational processes, and increase our overall operational efficiency and child safety investigative capabilities to ensure our products are free of any violative content.

The team is seeking an experienced leader with excellent judgment, exceptional partnering skills and a passion for protecting children.

Responsibilities

• You will lead a team of Child Safety Leads and Specialists, ensuring daily operational effectiveness, set goals for the team, and be responsible for their wellness.
• You'll coach/mentor team members and devise development plans for their professional development.
• You’ll lead and manage escalations of child safety requests, including from law enforcement, liaising with Legal, Policy, Product, Government Relations and Law Enforcement Operations colleagues whenever necessary.
• You’ll identify risks and issues across the business and create programs and processes to solve them proactively. Establish regular reporting to keep stakeholders up to date on progress, findings and recommendations.
• You’ll manage multiple projects of moderate-to-high complexity and scope. Work cross-functionally to ensure coordination and alignment on objectives and key results.
• You’ll enhance our operational workflows via process improvements and identification of automation opportunities. Drive innovation regarding processes and best practices for implementing policies.
• You’ll represent TikTok as a senior public-facing voice on our safeguarding and reporting mechanisms for child safety exploitation and abuse material, including participation in external forums with child protection organisations
• You’ll keep abreast and evaluate the impact of global legislative, regulatory and legal developments related to the handling and reporting of child safety material.
• You’ll define and implement a long-term strategy to deal with hiring and volume growth to continue to meet goals in this area for TikTok.
• You’ll set, interpret performance metrics with the goal of impacting organizational change as a result.
• You’ll address sensitive content issues, including but not limited to graphic images, videos and writings, offensive or derogatory language, and other objectionable material.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualification(s):

• You have at least 5+ years of experience working with Trust and Safety issues with an emphasis on child safety, including online abuse.
• You have at least 5+ years of management experience leading operational and cross regional teams.
• You have experience in handling Law Enforcement Child Safety investigations and engaging with Law Enforcement.
• You have experience in reviewing or being exposed to sensitive content as a part of removal flows calibrations and escalations management.
• You have experience in managing multiple projects and devising team strategies.
• You have the ability to work successfully in cross-functional teams, senior stakeholders, and executives.
• You have excellent verbal and written communication, and presentation skills.

Preferred Qualification(s):

• Experience representing a company externally on safety issues with a range of government stakeholders and regulators

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 TikTok

TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok's global headquarters are in Los Angeles and Singapore, and we also have offices in New York City, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.

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.

TikTok Accommodation

TikTok 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/RA-request

Job Information

【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $189800 - $487200 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.