Operations Associate (Trust & Safety)

Handshake; New York (NY); On-site; USD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Insurance

Fertility benefits

Mental health resources

401k match

Equity program

Learning stipend

Parental leave

Volunteer time off

Job summary

Handshake, based in New York, seeks an Operations Associate for Trust & Safety to serve as the execution partner, analyzing data, triaging escalations, and managing a BPO verification team.

You will collaborate with Support, Fellow Experience, and Delivery teams, drive process improvements, and document recurring issues to inform product and engineering decisions. This role emphasizes fraud reduction and scalable operations.

Qualifications

• Strong SQL skills and ability to pull/analyze data.
• Excellent written communication for user communications.
• Experience in analytics, ops-focused roles.
• Familiarity with identity verification tools (e.g., Persona).
• Experience with BPO/vendor teams.

Responsibilities

• Analyze trust & safety data to track team health metrics.
• Triage and resolve escalations involving fraudulent users.
• Manage the outsourced BPO verification team and SOPs.
• Collaborate with Support, Fellow Experience, and Delivery teams.
• Document larger problems and spin up analyses for Product/Engineering.

Skills

SQL

Data analysis

Written communication

AI tools

Quantitative

Fraud risk

Identity tools

Vendor mgmt

Ambiguity

Education

Quantitative background or data science degree

Tools

Persona

Job description

• The Operations Associate will be the dedicated execution partner for Trust & Safety, helping keep fraudulent activity off the marketplace
• You’ll split time across three areas: analyzing data to track team health metrics, triaging and resolving user-support escalations (and identifying the trends behind them), and managing the team of outsourced BPO reviewers who verify new users — their SOPs, training, and quality
• The goal is to take enough of the daily operational load off the team’s plate that it can spend more time on the structural, product-and-engineering fixes that reduce that load for good
• You’ll work closely with Support, Fellow Experience, and Delivery teams whose work feeds into and depends on Trust & Safety decisions
• Analyze trust & safety data and metrics — precision, recall, verification wait times, and more — to track team health and surface opportunities for improvement
• Triage and resolve escalations involving fraudulent, suspicious, or blocked users, and identify recurring patterns worth solving at the root instead of one ticket at a time
• Manage the BPO verification team, including SOPs, training, quality measurement, and handling of edge cases
• Partner cross-functionally with Support, Fellow Experience, and Delivery teams whose work depends on Trust & Safety’s decisions
• Scope and document larger problems, spinning up analysis on recurring issues so the team can bring clear, well-supported asks to Product and Engineering

Benefits

• Health Insurance: Comprehensive medical , dental, and vision coverage
• Fertility and family forming: Through a partnership, Handshake offers comprehensive family benefits, including infertility treatments and a $15K stipend, to its employees.
• LGTBQ+ coverage: All medical plans cover transgender services.
• Mental health: Discounts on a variety of wellness apps and an Employee Assistance Program with access to five free counseling sessions.
• Tax savings: Tax-advantaged benefits to save money on healthcare, dependent care, and other expenses.
• Life & disability insurance: Essential benefits and automatic coverage with basic life insurance, plus short-term and long-term disability coverage.
• 401k match: Dollar-for-dollar match up to 1% of pay, with a max of $1,200 per year.
• Equity: Our equity program includes grants at hire, refresher grants after two years of tenure, and grants alongside promotions.
• Financial management: Handshake partners to provide free professional financial planning services.
• Learning & development: Employees are provided with an annual stipend to use towards professional development, career development workshops, manager trainings, and 1-on-1 coaching through external partnerships
• Community leader support: Employee Resource Group leaders are compensated with a quarterly bonus for the high-impact work the role requires
• Parental leave: Leaves of 16 weeks for birth-giving parents and 10 weeks for non-birth-giving parents; the policy applies to adoptions as well. Handshake also partners to provide one-on-one coaching on preparing for leave and coming back from leave
• Flexible time off: No accrued time off or waiting period to take vacation. Two paid flexible holiday days off to observe holidays that closely align with religious, cultural, and personal needs
• Sabbatical: Paid six-week sabbatical to recharge and reset beginning at six years of continuous, full-time employment, and every four years thereafter
• Volunteer time off: Two days off for social and civil activism, volunteer work, and/or any related activities, including attending and participating in protests

Comfort operating with ambiguity, using judgment to figure out the right approach rather than relying on a fixed playbookA quantitative academic background (e.g. computer science, math, data science, or similar) or equivalent experienceStrong SQL skills, with the ability to independently pull and analyze dataStrong written communication skills — this role writes much of the direct communication sent to affected usersComfort with AI-assisted tooling (e.g. Claude Code) for data and workflow tasks1+ years of experience in a highly analytical, ops-focused role (new-grad candidates with a relevant quantitative internship are welcome)Experience in fraud, trust & safety, or risk operationsFamiliarity with identity verification tools (e.g. Persona)Experience managing or working with a BPO or other outsourced vendor team