Trust & Safety Director

Depop; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health + Mental Wellbeing

401(k) Retirement Savings

Life Insurance

Paid parental leave

Annual leave and holidays

Job summary

Depop seeks a strategic Director of Trust & Safety to lead global safety operations, embedding user-centric approaches and a product-led safety strategy. You will build and scale the safety org, partner with Product, Legal, and Engineering, and drive measurable improvements in safety outcomes across a fast-paced, high-growth marketplace.

The role requires senior leadership experience, excellent stakeholder management, and the ability to navigate ambiguity while aligning teams to Depop’s mission

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading teams in Trust & Safety Operations.
• Bachelor's or Master's degree required.
• Ability to translate regulatory and policy requirements into operational processes.
• Excellent written and verbal communication and stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

• Own the strategic vision and operationalization of Depop’s Global Trust & Safety org.
• Lead cross-functional collaboration with Product, Legal, and Engineering to scale safety initiatives.
• Develop staffing, processes, and tooling to improve safety outcomes.
• Drive alignment of safety initiatives with company strategy and risk management.

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication

Education

Bachelor's/Master's degree

Job description

Company Description

Depop is a peer-to-peer circular fashion marketplace where anyone can buy, sell and discover secondhand fashion. Our mission is simple: to make fashion circular by making secondhand as exciting and rewarding as buying new. Founded in 2011, Depop’s diverse community has helped move resale into the mainstream, where buying secondhand is no longer an alternative, but how people of different ages now engage with fashion. Today, more than 56 million registered users come to Depop to find great value, express their own personal style and give clothes a longer life. We believe that everything you want already exists, and our role is to help people discover it. Powered by a team of over 500 people, our company is headquartered in London, with offices in New York. In 2021, Depop became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Etsy - the global marketplace for unique and creative goods - and continues to operate as a standalone company. For more information, visit www.depop.com We aim to create an inclusive environment where everyone is welcome, no matter who they are or where they’re from. Just as our platform connects people globally, we believe our workplace should reflect the diversity of the communities we serve. We thrive on the power of different perspectives and experiences, knowing they drive innovation and bring us closer to our users. We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer, providing employment opportunities without regard to age, ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy or maternity, marriage and civil partnership, or any other protected status. We’re continuously evolving our recruitment processes to ensure fairness and are open to accommodating any needs you might have. AI Disclosure: We use AI tools (Google Gemini) to help our team source and review applications for roles with a high volume of applications. These tools assist our recruiters in identifying great talent but do not replace human decision-making. At Depop, every hiring decision is made by a human. If, due to a disability, you need adjustments to complete the application, please let us know by sending an email with your name, the role to which you would like to apply, and the type of support you need to complete the application to [e-mail].

Trust and Safety at Depop

Keeping our community safe on Depop requires both industry-leading policies and operational processes that allow us to protect our users. The Trust and Safety team at Depop support our community through both direct support interactions as well as building scalable solutions to keep our users safe. To support our company-wide efforts to protect users every day we need a strategic and experienced leader who is eager to learn, and is excited to build systems to support millions of people. This critical role is tasked with. The Director of Trust and Safety will continue to develop a high performing team who lead change throughout the organisation. We value people who can think strategically using macro-level insights, while still caring for micro-level cases affecting our community. We’re targeting an intellectually curious and creative individual who is comfortable operating in ambiguity - a strategic thinker with strong analytical and creative problem-solving skills. This is the right role for someone with the drive to take ownership of complex tasks and projects, react effectively to dynamic challenges in a fast-paced, high intensity environment, and independently prioritize their activity to deliver the results that our globally expanding business needs. Acts as the senior cross-functional leader ensuring strategic alignment across Product, Legal, Community Support, and Policy. Enable constructive dissent, foster diverse perspectives, and drive decisive outcomes at the Management Team level.

Core Responsibilities

Own the strategic vision and operationalization of Depop’s Global Trust & Safety org. Champion Depop’s commitment to user safety by embedding user-centric perspectives. A product-led approach into the strategy and decision-making that shapes trust and safety at scale. Help transform Depop’s Moderation operations and maximise impact of our workforce in partnership with internal cross-functional teams to build next generation services. Drive alignment on staffing, infrastructure, tooling investments. Anticipate company-wide vulnerabilities in safety, proactively shape enterprise-level solutions, and guide the organization through ambiguity and change with resilience and vision. Take ownership of developing and driving plans from inception to delivery. Develop an understanding of safety issues and the architecture and integration points of Depop’s community safety support processes, products, and policies. Keep up-to-date on industry trends and emerging issues in the Trust & Safety space. Be a thought leader in the Trust and Safety domain, partnering with cross functional stakeholders to champion our mission of ensuring that Depop is a safe, trusted space for our community. Communicate feedback, challenges, roadblocks, insights effectively and concisely to appropriate audiences and stakeholders. Develop a strong bench of senior leaders, set the tone for equitable people practices, and create an environment that nurtures future leaders. Proactively advocate for teams by resolving systemic cross-organizational challenges. Ability to remain calm and effective under pressure and coach teams to effectively navigate and communicate in a fast paced and ambiguous environment.

Required Qualifications

Significant experience leading teams in Trust & Safety Operations in domains such as content moderation, compliance, risk or authentication. Bachelor's/Master's degree. Track record of operationalizing company vision and strategy into departmental plans and measurable outcomes. Critical thinker with the ability to interpret regulatory and policy requirements, and translate them into operational processes. Proven ability to navigate ambiguity by proactively shaping solutions beyond immediate asks, pressure-testing strategic assumptions, and guiding teams through complex problem-solving at scale. Effective written and verbal communication and excellent stakeholder management skills. Experience working/building relationships with cross‑functional teams - especially Product & Engineering, delivering impact through communication, influencing teams towards achieving goals. Inspiring, empathetic and inclusive leader with respect for diversity of thought. Strong business acumen, strategic and analytical capabilities with operational rigour and proactive can-do mentality. Comfortable operating in a fast changing environment, striking the right balance between speed and accuracy. Written and verbal proficiency in English (required) and another European language (preferred).

Preferred Qualifications

Experience working in the technology sector or other fast-pace environment, preferably in a two-sided marketplace. Technology/UGC platforms industry domain expertise. Experience with process design, implementation, and improvement. Experience in product-led environment.

Additional Information

Health + Mental Wellbeing Choice of two medical plans covered by United Healthcare - HDHP/HSA or PPO + FSA, Dental & Vision. Online Health Benefit Resources Access to additional programs - Headspace Meditation, Legal Shield, and our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) where you have access to a confidential support network of expert advice 24/7. Disability and Critical Illness Insurance (UNUM). 401(k) Retirement Savings. Work/Life Balance: 16 days annual leave* + public holidays *increases with tenure. Impact hours: At Depop, we offer all full-time employees up to the equivalent of 2 days additional paid leave per year to volunteer. We allocate this time in hours to help you engage with your community with ease and flexibility. Family Life: For birth and non-birth parents: 12 weeks of paid parental leave for full-time regular employees. Shared parental leave, and paid emergency parent/carer leave. Learn + Grow: Twice yearly development chats and yearly performance reviews. Learning budget Upskilling our employees with company wide training workshops, materials and resources. Your Future: Life Insurance (financial compensation of 2x your salary). 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan. Depop Extras: Special milestones are celebrated with gifts and rewards! Depop is a peer-to-peer circular fashion marketplace where anyone can buy, sell and discover secondhand fashion. Our mission is simple: to make fashion circular by making secondhand as exciting and rewarding as buying new. Founded in 2011, Depop’s diverse community has helped move resale into the mainstream, where buying secondhand is no longer an alternative, but how people of different ages now engage with fashion. Today, more than 56 million registered users come to Depop to find great value, express their own personal style and give clothes a longer life. We believe that everything you want already exists, and our role is to help people discover it. Powered by a team of over 500 people, our company is headquartered in London, with offices in New York. In 2021, Depop became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Etsy - the global marketplace for unique and creative goods - and continues to operate as a standalone company. For more information, visit www.depop.com Want to learn more about life at Depop? We share life at Depop updates on our LinkedIn page, and you can also keep an eye on all our job opportunities on our careers page.