Intelligence Analyst, Global Trend Detection - Trust and Safety

TikTok; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 108,000 - 209,000; Full time

Job summary

TikTok is seeking an Intelligence Analyst in Risk Detection to design detection strategies, analyze emerging risks, and implement tactical solutions using AI-powered tooling.

You will own end-to-end risk detection for your portfolio, lead responses during elections and crises, build dashboards, and collaborate with risk, product, policy teams to reduce risk.

This role requires strong communication, project management, and deep knowledge of geopolitical issues affecting online safety.

Qualifications

• Experience managing complex projects with measurable impact.
• Experience with AI tools, data analytics platforms, or technical detection systems.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with experience presenting to leadership.
• Strong quantitative analysis skills, with experience analyzing large datasets to drive decisions.
• Deep understanding of global geopolitical issues, social media dynamics, and emerging online harms.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement detection strategies addressing high-priority risks.
• Coordinate cross-functional collaboration and third-party partners to deliver detection insights.
• Own end-to-end risk detection for projects or risk domains within your portfolio.
• Lead detection and response during elections and high-risk periods.
• Develop dashboards and risk metrics to monitor performance and exposure.
• Present risk assessments and strategic recommendations to leadership.

Skills

Project management

Stakeholder mgmt

Leadership

Data analysis

Geopolitics

Tools

AI tools

Data analytics platforms

Detection systems

Job description

Responsibilities

Risk Detection inspires trust in TikTok by proactively identifying emerging platform risks before they upscale. Within Risk Detection, Global Trend Detection team is responsible for proactively identifying, analyzing, and mitigating emerging risks across all lines of business at TikTok. We leverage a combination of AI-powered tooling, internal detection systems, third‑party partners, and open-source intelligence to deliver early warning signals and actionable insights that protect our users, products, and business operations globally. Our work directly informs policy, product, tooling and enforcement improvements across TikTok.

As Trend Detection scales its capabilities to meet evolving threat landscapes, the Intelligence Analyst role is asked to drive high strategic impact through a combination of cross‑functional collaboration, leverage of technology and deep expertise in risk investigation and analysis across our risk detection portfolio.

The Intelligence Analyst has a dual mandate - they are responsible for designing detection strategies that address high‑priority business risks and are also responsible for the tactical implementation of those strategies, through anomaly monitoring, validation and enrichment. The Intelligence Analyst may help coordinate third‑party partner teams and/or AI agents in delivering those strategies. This role therefore combines technical proficiency with AI and internal tooling with program/project management, strong communication, problem solving and investigation to drive measurable risk reduction across the organization.

Responsibilities:

• Portfolio Risk Management:
• Manage detection strategy, planning and reporting for a portfolio comprising of risks within high‑priority domains (e.g., election integrity, crisis response, emerging harm vectors), globally.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders across risk and regional teams to align on risk priorities and drive adoption of detection insights to influence organizational priorities.
• Within prioritized areas, make independent, data‑driven decisions on further risk breakdown, resource allocation, and coverage strategies for complex issues and ambiguous threat scenarios.
• Design and implement proactive risk detection frameworks, prioritization methodologies, and impact measurement metrics that align with RPR objectives, contributing to or managing team playbooks.
• Design and maintain custom dashboards, risk metrics, and reporting frameworks that provide visibility into detection performance and risk exposure
• Help manage third‑party detection partners, including providing performance monitoring, SLA definition, and quality assurance
• Programmatic risk strategy:
• Own end‑to‑end risk detection responsibility for the projects or risk domains within your portfolio.
• Lead detection and response efforts during high‑stakes planned events (elections, high‑risk periods) and unplanned crises, providing timely intelligence and strategic guidance to the organization
• Produce the coverage plan for each project or risk domain and align resourcing. Ensure detection is launched in priority regions related to that risk domain.
• Track your TD KPIs, report progress to stakeholders, and iterate on program design to drive continuous improvement.
• Tactical execution through advanced data analysis & use of technology:
• Perform complex, multi‑source data analysis to identify emerging trends, quantify risk impact, and generate actionable insights for stakeholders.
• Develop deep technical proficiency with our AI‑powered detection platforms, internal tooling (perception center, scout, etc.), and data analytics systems.
• Incorporate tooling and AI methodologies into TD operating procedures across all lines of business to enhance detection speed, accuracy, and scalability of analysis workflows.
• Translate technical data findings into clear, strategic recommendations that inform policy, tooling, and operational decisions.
• Improve the efficiency of detection operations by helping automate repetitive tasks and streamline or improve workflows.
• Specific to detection, conduct root cause analysis for identified gaps and drive corrective actions to prevent detection risk recurrence.
• Special projects:
• Collaborate closely with Risk Intelligence teams to test new AI/tooling detection and extraction opportunities, and provide feedback to influence tool performance and usability over time.
• Work with external intelligence to customize detection capabilities, integrate their signals into our internal workflows, and maximize the value of partner relationships.
• Present risk assessments, program updates, and strategic recommendations to leadership and cross‑functional governance bodies.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualification(s):

• Proven track record of independently managing complex projects, programs or risk portfolios, delivering measurable impact.
• Demonstrated experience working with AI tools, data analytics platforms, or technical detection systems, including delivering process and workflow improvements.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with experience presenting to leadership.
• Strong quantitative analysis skills, with experience analyzing large datasets to drive decisions.
• Deep understanding of global geopolitical issues, social media dynamics, and emerging online harms.

Preferred Qualification(s):

• Experience working with third‑party vendors or external partner relationships.
• Willingness to try Python/SQL.

Trust & Safety

Content that this role interacts with includes images, video, and text related to everyday 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 $108000 - $208800 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.