Policy Vertical Lead, Social and Escalation Operations, YouTube

Google; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 114,000 - 163,000; Full time

Job summary

Google's YouTube Social, Community and Escalation Operations team seeks a Policy Vertical Lead to guide 24/7 social operations and escalation strategy for policy enforcement and brand protection in the Los Angeles area. You will shape workflows, incident response, and external communications while partnering with cross-functional leaders across legal, security, and governance.

You'll drive knowledge management, training, and operational excellence, translating policy changes into actionable

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 5 years of experience in trust and safety, community operations, social/user support escalations, or a related front-line operations role at a consumer or developer platform.

Responsibilities

• Build deep expertise in YouTube guidelines, business generation, and responsibility policies, focusing on enforcement launches and workflows.
• Design, manage, and optimize 24/7 social support and escalation workflows, including knowledge management, communication materials, and design documents.
• Identify knowledge gaps and build training resources; lead high-priority incident response for critical policy escalations, guiding managers and cross-functional resolutions.
• Drive cross-functional alignment for trust and safety, security, legal, and governance during fast-moving crises; synthesize escalation patterns for executives.
• Ensure global regulatory compliance and operational readiness for mandates (e.g., GDPR) across policy and business generation products.

Skills

Trust & safety

Crisis management

Brand risk

Policy escalation

Cross-functional comms

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience

Job description

This role may also be located in our Playa Vista, CA campus.

Applicants in the County of Los Angeles: Qualified applications with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.

Note: By applying to this position you will have an opportunity to share your preferred working location from the following:

San Bruno, CA, USA; New York, NY, USA; Los Angeles, CA, USA

Minimum qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 5 years of experience in trust and safety, community operations, social/user support escalations, or a related front-line operations role at a consumer or developer platform.

Preferred qualifications

• Proven experience in crisis management, brand communications, and serving as a working incident manager.
• Deep understanding of YouTube’s products, policies, creator communities, and brand risk trends.
• Ability to streamline inefficient workflows and translate broad requirements into actionable plans.
• Exceptional communication skills to translate complex topics and influence cross-functional partners.
• Strong pattern-detection using social analytics tools to troubleshoot policies and measure impact.
• Strong bias toward action, prioritizing critically and deciding comfortably within ambiguous landscapes.

About The Job

YouTube’s Social, Community and Escalation Operations team works 24/7 at the forefront of online engagement, managing both public conversations and sensitive user interactions. We are the brand's voice on social and community channels, actively shaping public discourse, fostering community growth, and scaling support. Simultaneously, we protect brand reputation and user safety through direct outreach and expert escalation management for sensitive and security-related issues.

As the Policy Vertical Lead for Social and Escalation Operations, you'll be on the front lines of how YouTube shapes and protects our brand reputation 24/7. In this role, you will lead YouTube’s social operations and escalation management strategy for the policy vertical, covering trust and safety, business generation, and other responsibility enforcement efforts. With your written communication skills, and a bias toward action, you will ensure rapid problem-solving for policy escalations. You will be directly responsible for building and maintaining operational excellence (e.g., workflow design, knowledge management, communication materials, training efforts), and advocating social, community, and escalation insights. You are expected to be the authority on how users will react to new policies and work with cross-functional teams to improve external communications, user journeys, and escalation experiences. As a strategic cross-functional partner, you will play a critical role in preempting and resolving urgent escalations, while shaping our 24x7 global crisis response strategy.

At YouTube, we believe that everyone deserves to have a voice, and that the world is a better place when we listen, share, and build community through our stories. We work together to give everyone the power to share their story, explore what they love, and connect with one another in the process. Working at the intersection of technology and boundless creativity, we move at the speed of culture with a shared goal to show people the world. We explore new ideas, solve real problems, and have fun — and we do it all together.

Individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

US: $114000 - $163000 (USD) + 15% bonus target + equity + benefits

Responsibilities

Learn more about benefits at Google .

• Build deep expertise in YouTube’s guidelines, business generation, and responsibility policies, focusing on enforcement launches and workflows.
• Design, manage, and optimize 24/7 social support and escalation workflows, including knowledge management, communication materials, and design documents.
• Identify operational knowledge gaps and build adaptable training resources to strengthen the team's trust and safety acumen. Lead high-priority incident response for critical policy escalations, guiding managers, advising on external communication, and driving cross-functional resolutions.
• Drive cross-functional alignment for trust and safety, security, legal, and governance leaders during fast-moving crises. Analyze trends to present to executives, synthesizing escalation patterns, social feedback, and bugs into policy insight reports.
• Ensure global regulatory compliance and operational readiness for key mandates (e.g., GDPR) across policy and business generation products.

Google is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. See also Google's EEO Policy and EEO is the Law. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing our Accommodations for Applicants form .