Model Validation Lead - Security & Privacy

TikTok USDS Joint Venture; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 187,000 - 438,000; Full time

Job summary

TikTok USDS Joint Venture is seeking a Model Validation Lead to build a scalable safety and security validation program for all generative AI models. You will set the technical direction, define testing methods, and lead complex engagements without managing people directly.

You will partner with TnS, Penetration Testing, and Red Team to design evaluations, validate safeguards, and identify cyber threats. You will establish pipelines, acceptance criteria, and governance for model deployment and

Qualifications

• Bachelor degree in CS, Info Security, AI, or related field; 8+ years in security testing or related discipline.
• Hands-on experience evaluating large language models or multimodal generative AI for adversarial behavior or unsafe outputs.
• Ability to set technical direction, lead cross-functional programs, and mentor engineers without formal mgmt authority.
• Experience designing repeatable test plans, adversarial datasets, automated evaluations, and measurable criteria.
• Strong knowledge of application security, cloud security, offensive security, and threat modeling.
• Proficiency in Python and another language; building test harnesses and automating validation workflows.
• Able to explain complex model failures and attack paths to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Define the technical strategy, roadmap, and operating model for model safety and security assurance.
• Establish testing methods, tooling, test infrastructure, and specialist capacity for JV models.
• Design and execute adversarial evaluations of safeguards including content controls and policy enforcement.
• Validate cyber threats from generative AI with Penetration Testing and Red Team partners.
• Lead pre-deployment and continuous testing of foundation and updated models and agents.
• Build automated evaluation pipelines and curated adversarial test suites.
• Translate failures into clear risk, remediation, and governance actions.
• Define SOPs, ROE, evidence requirements, and testing methodologies for validation.
• Produce an authoritative view of coverage, risk, and regression trends for leadership.

Skills

Generative AI Security

Technical Leadership

Evaluation Design

Security Knowledge

Python Automation

Communication

Adversarial Testing

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Info Security/AI or related field

Job description

Responsibilities

About the Team

We are seeking a Model Validation Lead to build the technical capability and team that independently assures the safety and security of all generative AI models used internally and externally by the JV. This is a senior technical individual contributor role, not a people-management position. You will set the technical direction, establish testing methods, lead complex validation engagements, and help develop the specialists and partnerships required for a scalable model-assurance program.

About the Role

You will work closely with TnS to test model safety features and with Penetration Testing and Red Team partners to identify cyber threats created or amplified by generative AI. You will turn emerging attack techniques, model behaviors, and policy requirements into repeatable evaluations that provide evidence of whether safeguards work before deployment and throughout the model lifecycle.

• Technical Leadership: Serve as the technical lead for model validation without direct people-management responsibility. Define the technical strategy, quality bar, roadmap, and operating model for independent generative AI safety and security assurance.
• Build the Model Validation Capability: Establish the methods, tooling, test infrastructure, and specialist capacity needed to assess every generative AI model used internally or externally by the JV. Help shape hiring profiles, interview technical candidates, mentor practitioners, and coordinate work across a virtual or dedicated team.
• Safety Feature Testing: Partner with TnS to design and execute adversarial evaluations of model safeguards, including harmful-content controls, abuse prevention, age-appropriate protections, policy enforcement, and resistance to jailbreaks or safety-control bypasses.
• Cyber Threat Validation: Work with Penetration Testing and Red Team partners to identify and validate cyber threats stemming from generative AI, including prompt injection, sensitive-data disclosure, insecure tool use, agent manipulation, model and application supply-chain weaknesses, and AI-assisted attacks.
• Independent Model Assessments: Lead pre-deployment and continuous testing of foundation models, fine-tuned models, retrieval-augmented generation systems, agents, and model-enabled products. Assess both intended behavior and foreseeable misuse across internal and external use cases.
• Evaluation Engineering: Build automated, repeatable evaluation pipelines and curated adversarial test suites. Define measurable acceptance criteria, regression thresholds, coverage indicators, and release gates that can be integrated into model development and deployment workflows.
• Threat Modeling and Research: Maintain model-specific threat models and convert emerging research, incidents, and adversary techniques into practical tests. Conduct hands-on experimentation to understand novel failure modes and develop custom tooling where commercial or open-source solutions are insufficient.
• Findings and Remediation: Translate model failures into clear security, safety, privacy, and business risks. Partner with model owners, Engineering, Product, TnS, Privacy, and control owners to recommend mitigations and independently validate remediation.
• Methodology and Governance: Define and maintain Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Rules of Engagement (ROE), evidence requirements, and testing methodologies for model safety and security validation. Ensure results are reproducible, auditable, and suitable for risk and release decisions.
• Metrics and Reporting: Produce an authoritative view of model‑assurance coverage, safeguard efficacy, unresolved risk, remediation status, and regression trends. Communicate technical findings to engineering teams and convert them into concise decision support for leadership.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor degree in Computer Science, Information Security, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience. 8+ years in security testing, adversarial testing, AI or machine-learning security, trust and safety engineering, red teaming, or a related discipline, including demonstrated experience as a senior technical lead.
• Generative AI Security and Safety: Hands-on experience evaluating large language models or multimodal generative AI systems for adversarial behavior, misuse, safeguard bypasses, data exposure, or unsafe outputs.
• Technical Leadership: Proven ability to set technical direction, lead cross-functional programs, mentor engineers, and build a new capability through influence rather than formal people‑management authority.
• Evaluation Design: Experience designing repeatable test plans, adversarial datasets, automated evaluations, and measurable acceptance criteria for complex systems where expected behavior is probabilistic.
• Security Breadth: Strong knowledge of application security, cloud security, offensive security, and threat modeling, with the ability to connect model behavior to risks in the surrounding product, data, identity, and tool‑execution layers.
• Coding and Automation: Proficiency in Python and at least one additional language, with experience building test harnesses, integrating model APIs, analyzing results, and automating validation workflows.
• Communication: Ability to explain complex model failures and attack paths to technical and non‑technical stakeholders and to provide clear, risk‑appropriate remediation guidance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced Model Testing: Experience with jailbreak research, prompt injection testing, agent and tool‑use security, retrieval‑augmented generation security, multimodal testing, model privacy attacks, or AI supply‑chain assessment.
• Trust and Safety Partnership: Experience translating platform or content policies into technical evaluations and working with TnS teams on abuse scenarios, safety taxonomies, and enforcement effectiveness.
• Offensive Security: Experience in penetration testing, red teaming, vulnerability research, exploit development, or adversary emulation, including testing AI‑enabled applications in realistic attack chains.
• Frameworks and Standards: Familiarity with the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, MITRE ATLAS, OWASP guidance for large language model applications, and emerging model‑evaluation or AI governance standards.
• Research and Community Impact: Contributions to AI safety or security research through publications, open‑source tooling, vulnerability disclosures, benchmarks, or presentations at recognized conferences.
• Regulated Environments: Experience conducting independent technical assurance in highly regulated, privacy‑sensitive, or national security‑focused environments.

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)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $187040 - $438000 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;
3. Exercising sound judgment.