Head of Insider Risk - USDS

TikTok USDS Joint Venture; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 206,000 - 397,000; Full time

Job summary

TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is seeking an Insider Risk Program Lead to own the strategy, maturity, and daily operations of the insider risk program. You will define vision, build a team of investigators, establish policy frameworks, and serve as the senior insider risk advisor across the organization.

The role combines DFIR expertise with program-building, cross-functional leadership, and executive-level reporting to drive risk reduction and policy enforcement.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5+ years in insider risk, digital forensics, incident response, or cybersecurity investigations, incl. 2+ years in leadership.
• Experience standing up or maturing insider risk programs, with policy and governance.
• Expertise with digital forensic tools and scripting for automation and analysis.
• Advanced forensic knowledge of Windows/macOS/Linux, memory analysis, log parsing.
• Hands-on with EDR, SIEM, DLP, and UEBA; cloud logging capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end insider risk program strategy, roadmap, policies, playbooks, and metrics.
• Build and mentor a team of investigators and analysts; define roles and career paths.
• Design detection/monitoring using SIEM, EDR, DLP, UEBA, and cloud logs.
• Oversee investigations with forensics rigor and chain-of-custody integrity.
• Develop risk-scoring and analytics to prioritize high-risk activity.
• Coordinate with Security, Legal, HR, IT, and Engineering leadership; advise senior stakeholders.
• Provide executive reporting on program health, trends, and KPIs.
• Define tooling strategy for forensics, monitoring, case management, analytics.
• Lead insider risk awareness training and tabletop exercises.
• Track evolving insider threat TTPs and regulatory requirements.

Job description

Responsibilities

About the Team We partner across Security, Legal, HR, IT, and Engineering to detect, investigate, and mitigate insider risks ranging from data exfiltration and policy violations to fraud and unauthorized access.

About the Role We are seeking a Insider Risk Program Lead to own the strategy, maturity, and day-to-day operations of our insider risk program. This is a leadership role: you will define program vision, build and mentor a team of investigators and analysts, establish policy and process frameworks, and serve as the senior point of contact for insider risk across the organization. The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise in digital forensics and incident response (DFIR) with proven program-building experience and strong cross-functional leadership skills.

• Own the end-to-end insider risk program - strategy, roadmap, policies, playbooks, and success metrics - and drive continuous maturity improvements aligned with industry frameworks (NIST, CISA, Carnegie Mellon CERT).
• Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing team of insider risk investigators and analysts; establish clear roles, career development paths, and performance standards.
• Design and operationalize detection and monitoring capabilities using SIEM, EDR, DLP, UEBA, and cloud-native logging (AWS CloudTrail, Azure Monitor, GCP Audit Logs) to identify behavioral indicators of insider threats.
• Oversee complex investigations involving data exfiltration, intellectual property theft, unauthorized access, fraud, and policy violations; ensure forensic rigor, defensible evidence handling, and chain-of-custody integrity.
• Develop and refine risk-scoring models and behavioral analytics that prioritize high-risk activity - including exfiltration via email, cloud storage, USB, and lateral movement within internal networks.
• Partner with Security & Privacy, Legal, HR/ER, IT, and Engineering leadership to coordinate investigations, remediation actions, and policy enforcement; serve as the primary insider risk advisor to senior stakeholders.
• Deliver executive-level reporting on program health, investigation outcomes, risk trends, and key performance indicators; translate technical findings into business-relevant narratives for leadership and audit audiences.
• Define tooling strategy and manage the insider risk technology stack - evaluate, select, and optimize platforms for forensics, monitoring, case management, and analytics.
• Establish and maintain insider risk awareness and training initiatives to promote a security-conscious culture; develop tabletop exercises and simulations to validate program readiness.
• Stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape by tracking emerging insider risk TTPs, regulatory requirements, and best practices in forensic analysis, incident response, and privacy-preserving monitoring.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity, Digital Forensics, Information Technology, Computer Science, or equivalent professional experience in related fields as well as minimum 5 years of progressive experience in insider risk, digital forensics, incident response, or cybersecurity investigations, with at least 2 years in a team lead, manager, or program-owner capacity.
• Demonstrated experience standing up or materially maturing an insider risk or insider threat program, including policy development, detection engineering, and cross-functional governance.
• Expertise in digital forensic tools (e.g., EnCase, FTK, Cellebrite, X-Ways, AXIOM) and scripting languages (Python, Bash, PowerShell) for automation and analysis.
• Advanced knowledge of Windows, macOS, and Linux at a forensic level - file systems (NTFS, APFS, HFS+, ext4), memory analysis, artifact extraction, and log parsing.
• Hands-on experience with EDR solutions (e.g., CrowdStrike Falcon, Carbon Black), SIEM platforms (e.g., Splunk, QRadar, Sentinel), DLP, and UEBA technologies.
• Familiarity with cloud service providers (AWS, Azure, GCP) and their logging, auditing, and investigation capabilities.
• Strong communication skills with demonstrated ability to brief senior leadership and external stakeholders on sensitive investigations and program status.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Cybersecurity, Information Assurance, or a related discipline and/or Industry certifications: GCFE, GCFA, GCIH, EnCE, CCE, CISSP, CISM, or OSCP.
• SANS training (FOR508, FOR498, MGT512) or equivalent program management and advanced forensics coursework.
• Experience operating insider risk programs in highly regulated environments (financial services, government, critical infrastructure) or at companies with 10,000+ employees.
• Knowledge of MITRE ATT&CK (particularly the Insider Threat matrix), NIST SP 800-53, and CISA insider threat best practices.
• Experience with data analytics or machine learning approaches to behavioral anomaly detection.

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) - Washington, DC

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $ 205920 - $ 397440 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.