Safeguards Operations Specialist - Trust & Safety

Hirewell; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 124,000 - 165,000; Full time

Job summary

Hirewell is recruiting Safeguards Operations Specialists to evaluate enterprise and research institution applicants for special model access, ensuring alignment with safety policies. You will verify corporate identity, assess use cases, and document clear decision rationales in a fast-paced, generalist environment.

The role focuses on B2B due diligence, KYB/KYC, and policy eligibility, with collaboration across Sales, GTM, and Support to minimize friction and ensure responsible innovation.

Qualifications

• B2B due Diligence & KYC/IDV, enterprise compliance, vendor risk, or fraud operations experience.
• Exceptional judgment quickly evaluating non-standard enterprise applications against written criteria.
• Commercial communication skills to collaborate with internal account teams on fast-turnaround enterprise requests.
• Adaptable and detail-oriented in fast-paced environments where runbooks evolve and structured case records are maintained.
• Passion for responsible AI innovation and ensuring safe model routing.

Responsibilities

• Verification & Eligibility Reviews: Conduct due diligence on enterprise and institutional applicants, verifying business identity, organizational backing, metadata, and stated use cases against runbooks.
• Operational Routing & Workflow Support: Process access applications, document clear decision rationales, and maintain structured case records; route complex edge cases to policy leads when needed.
• Managing Diverse Queue Tempos: Adapt to varying queue volumes, from fast-turnaround enterprise exceptions to high-detail reviews (10–20 per day for life sciences).
• Data Tagging & Process Optimization: Tag and label review data to train rule engines and improve workflows.
• Cross-Functional Communication: Collaborate with Sales, GTM, Account Management, and Support to resolve policy criteria and reduce friction.
• Escalations & Misuse Referrals: Identify risk signals and route referrals to enforcement teams.

Skills

B2B due diligence & ops judgment

Exceptional judgment under ambiguity

Commercial communication skills

Adaptable & detail-oriented

Passion for responsible innovation

Job description

Frontier AI models are unlocking extraordinary leaps, from accelerating drug discovery and personalized medicine to hardening critical cyber defenses, running complex scientific simulations, and bringing high-performance AI to energy-efficient edge devices. Because these advanced capabilities can also present high-stakes risks if deployed without oversight, responsible access is essential to keeping innovation moving forward safely.

We are hiring Safeguards Operations Specialists within the Trust & Safety organization. In this role, you will evaluate high-impact organizations, enterprise clients, and research institutions applying for special model access, ensuring applicants are legitimate and their intended use cases align with safety policies.

At its core, this role is anchored in operational judgment: evaluating applications against written criteria, verifying corporate and institutional identity, and writing clear, well-reasoned decision rationales. We welcome generalists with backgrounds in B2B risk, compliance, fraud investigation, Know Your Business (KYB), or identity verification (IDV) who thrive in fast-paced tech environments.

A Note on Role Scope

This position is focused on B2B enterprise due diligence, organizational verification, and policy eligibility reviews. Successful candidates will have experience evaluating corporate entities, institutional applications, or regulatory risk.

What You Will Do

• Verification & Eligibility Reviews: Conduct due diligence on enterprise and institutional applicants, verifying business identity, organizational backing, metadata, and stated use cases against established runbooks.
• Operational Routing & Workflow Support: Process access applications, document clear decision rationales, and maintain structured case records. Route complex edge cases to specialized policy leads when necessary.
• Managing Diverse Queue Tempos: Adapt to varying queue volumes depending on program assignment, ranging from fast-turnaround enterprise exceptions to low-volume, highly nuanced deep dives (averaging around 10 to 20 detailed reviews per day for life sciences applications).
• Data Tagging & Process Optimization: Tag and label review data to help train internal rule engines and automated decisioning tools, continuously improving operational workflows.
• Cross-Functional Communication: Partner with Sales, Go-To-Market (GTM), Account Management, and Customer Support teams (particularly for enterprise exception workflows) to clarify policy criteria and resolve application friction efficiently.
• Escalations & Misuse Referrals: Identify potential risk signals or compromised accounts during onboarding reviews, routing contextual referrals to dedicated enforcement teams.

Program Focus Areas

While most of these workflows require strong generalist operations judgment, candidates may support any of the following access programs:

• Focus: Reviewing applications from pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms, and academic labs seeking access to advanced biological model capabilities.
• Scope: Corporate identity verification and eligibility checks against written criteria (~10 to 20 nuanced reviews per day). No specialized biology background is required; KYB, due diligence, or research-adjacent experience is ideal.
• Focus: Evaluating research labs and academic institutions requesting specialized model access for AI development and alignment research.
• Scope: Identity verification and eligibility checks, with a focus on assessing model distillation, intellectual property, and competitive commercial risks. Fits generalists with fraud, risk, or compliance ops backgrounds.

Enterprise Access & Safeguards

• Focus: Fast-turnaround evaluations for commercial enterprise clients requesting operational exceptions (e.g., custom data-retention configurations) submitted through internal account teams.
• Scope: Verifying customer eligibility against policy frameworks and maintaining active alignment with Sales and Account Managers. Strong GTM comfort and vendor-risk experience are ideal here.

General Business & Identity Verification (KYB/KYC/IDV)

• Focus: Core business and identity vetting across broader operational queues.
• Scope: Evaluating applicant data against established criteria, conducting background checks, and routing cases to appropriate downstream workflows. Prior experience with regulatory screening, sanctions lists, or corporate identity verification is a plus.

Cybersecurity Vetting

• Focus: Reviewing requests involving threat intelligence, security operations, dual-use software, and red-teaming research. (Note: This is the only track where direct technical cybersecurity domain knowledge is required).

Qualifications

• B2B Due Diligence & Ops Judgment: Proven background in B2B KYB/KYC, identity verification (IDV), enterprise compliance, vendor risk, or fraud operations.
• Exceptional Judgment Under Ambiguity: Ability to quickly evaluate non-standard enterprise applications against written criteria and articulate clear, logical decision rationales.
• Commercial Communication Skills: Confidence and diplomacy to collaborate effectively with internal account teams on fast-turnaround enterprise requests.
• Adaptable & Detail-Oriented: Ability to thrive in fast-paced tech environments where runbooks evolve, maintaining structured case records and data tagging.
• Passion for Responsible Innovation: Genuine interest in AI safety, ethical technology deployment, and ensuring advanced models are safely routed.

Where You May Have Built This Experience

We welcome generalist candidates bringing risk, compliance, and operational judgment from a variety of environments:

• Risk, Fraud & Compliance Teams: Tech platforms, financial institutions, or consultancies handling KYB, KYC, IDV, sanctions screening, or enterprise onboarding.
• Data & Tech Ecosystems: B2B SaaS platforms, data-brokering/annotation firms, or API vendors managing client access and policy enforcement.
• Specialized Industry Operations: Program managers, research administrators, or compliance coordinators in Biotech/Pharma, Cybersecurity firms, Clinical Research Organizations (CROs), or University Research Offices.
• Location / Work Type: Hybrid setup in San Francisco, New York, or Washington, D.C. (Primarily remote with occasional on-site presence required at local hub offices).
• Engagement Type: Long-Term Contract with possibility for extension
• Pay Rate: $90 to $120 / hour

Hirewell and its clients are Equal Opportunity Employers. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.