Head of Legal Response Operations

TikTok USDS Joint Venture; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 132,000 - 317,000; Full time

Job summary

TikTok USDS Joint Venture seeks a bold operational leader to head Legal Response Operations, guiding Law Enforcement and Civil Response. This is a hands-on, strategic role at the intersection of legal compliance, product architecture, and leadership excellence.

The ideal candidate will translate PRDs into operational plans, drive risk assessments for executives, and continuously modernize workflows to scale with regulatory demand.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years of complex operations leadership in legal response, trust & safety, or regulated operations.
• Bachelor’s degree required; JD/advanced degree or paralegal certification is a plus.
• Proven track record of scale, process re-engineering, and modernization.
• Legal & technical fluency with ability to read specs and architectural diagrams.
• Strong problem solving, curiosity, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Empathetic leadership with ability to maintain morale under pressure.

Responsibilities

• Bridge product, engineering, and legal teams to ensure operational readiness before code ships.
• Identify and remediate technical debt and tooling gaps; automate workflows.
• Manage high-stakes escalations and provide risk assessments to leadership.
• Maintain high-SLA performance across law enforcement and civil response queues.
• Refine SOPs and workflows to align with evolving regulations and product features.
• Coordinate with outreach to align external strategy with operations.
• Lead and scale multi-pillar teams with direct leadership and hands-on involvement.
• Promote a culture of speed, precision, and sustainable pacing.

Skills

Complex operations leadership

Legal & technical fluency

Self-directed curiosity

Product & engineering literacy

Empathetic leadership

Operational risk assessment

Education

Bachelor’s degree / JD or advanced degree

Job description

About the Team

The Safety Regulatory Compliance Operations (SRCO) pillar executes our US legal obligations while navigating global regulatory overlaps. .Sitting within Trust & Safety, SRCO spans seven specialized pillars: Legal Response, Child Safety, Privacy, Intellectual Property, Emergency Response, Law Enforcement Outreach, and Safety Compliance Operations (for emerging regulations), all backed by a dedicated Quality Assurance engine. We bridge law enforcement, rights holders, and user privacy to build platform trust through precise, high-integrity execution.

Legal Response Operations (LRO) handles incoming US legal process, government demands, and civil litigation requests. Composed of two specialized workflows: Law Enforcement Response and Civil Response, LRO evaluates, validates, and executes complex data and content requests under strict SLAs and robust QA standards. By balancing user privacy rights with law enforcement needs and integrating closely with Product, LRO ensures our infrastructure seamlessly adapts to evolving legal and technical standards.

Role Description

We are seeking an exceptional operational leader to serve as Head of Legal Response Operations, leading our Law Enforcement and Civil Response operations. This role sits at the critical intersection of legal compliance, product architecture, and human‑centered leadership. As our platform and regulatory environment continue to scale, this leader will drive the evolution of our legal response function into a highly mature, proactive center of operational excellence. This is not a passive management role. We are looking for a strategic architect, a product translator, and a hands‑on operator who is equally comfortable presenting risk assessments to executive leadership, evaluating Product Requirement Documents (PRDs) for downstream operational impacts, and auditing complex workflows directly to resolve technical and operational challenges.

Responsibilities

• Product-to-Operations Bridge: Partner directly with Product, Engineering, and Legal teams during design and launch reviews (PRDs, feature specs) to define "Operational Readiness," identify compliance gaps, and ensure downstream legal response capabilities before code ships.
• Technical Debt & Root-Cause Remediation: Systematically identify structural friction, manual workarounds, and tooling gaps. Work directly with cross-functional partners to automate workflows and modernize operational infrastructure.
• Executive & Crisis Escalations: Serve as the ultimate operational point of contact for complex, high‑stakes legal escalations and urgent law enforcement matters, synthesizing operational risk quickly for executive leadership and senior counsel.
• High-SLA Execution: Maintain exceptional accuracy, quality, and speed across all law enforcement and civil response queues, leveraging data insights to optimize performance and workforce planning.
• SOP & Workflow Modernization: Continuously refine operational frameworks, protocols, and standard operating procedures to adapt to evolving legal standards and product features.
• Outreach Alignment: Partner closely with internal outreach functions to ensure operational execution aligns seamlessly with external stakeholder strategy.
• Pillar Leadership: Direct, mentor, and scale a multi‑pillar team, empowering frontline leads while maintaining direct line‑of‑sight to operational realities.
• Sustainable Performance: Foster a high‑bar culture focused on speed, precision, and continuous learning, while actively driving initiatives around mental wellness, team recognition, and sustainable pacing.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Minimum 5 Years of Complex Operations Leadership: Extensive experience leading teams in Legal Response Operations, Trust & Safety, Law Enforcement Compliance, or complex Legal Operations environments.
• Education & Experience: Bachelor’s degree required (J.D., Advanced Degree, or paralegal certification is a strong plus); or equivalent practical experience in legal operations, law enforcement compliance, or regulatory operations.
• Proven Track Record of Operational Maturity: Demonstrated success taking complex operational functions through periods of rapid scale, process re‑engineering, and technical modernization.
• Legal & Technical Fluency: Exceptional ability to grasp complex statutory requirements and technical system architectures rapidly. (Experience transitioning from government, regulatory, or legal backgrounds into tech operations is highly valued).
• Self-Directed Curiosity: A natural problem solver who independently learns new technologies, data tools, and legal frameworks to solve root‑cause problems.
• Product & Engineering Literacy: Comfort evaluating product architecture, reading functional specs, and advocating for operational tooling needs with Product and Engineering managers.
• Empathetic Leadership: Proven ability to manage high‑stress operations while maintaining high morale, psychological safety, and team retention.

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) - Washington, DC

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $ 132300 - $ 316800 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.