Head of Policy Development - Trust and Safety

Head of Policy Development - Trust and Safety Responsibilities

• Policy Development:
  Lead the global team through the entire policy lifecycle, defining overarching principles, frameworks, and taxonomies for core T&S issues (e.g., Child Safety, Hate Speech, Misinformation), and overseeing the creation of clear, actionable policies, guidelines, and educational materials.
• Stakeholder Management:
  Build strong partnerships and act as the central policy contact, collaborating closely with internal teams (Product, Engineering, Operations, Legal, Comms, etc.) to ensure policies are effective, feasible, and aligned with objectives, while effectively communicating rationale to all stakeholders, including leadership.
• Crisis Management:
  Serve as the global escalation point for complex, high-profile, or emergency content safety issues, providing expert guidance and facilitating rapid, principled decision-making under pressure, balancing safety, expression, legal risk, and public perception.
• Proactive Adaptation:
  Support transparency initiatives, engage with external experts and organizations, and stay abreast of global trends, emerging harms, platform risks, and relevant regulatory landscapes to proactively adapt policies.
• Team Leadership:
  Foster a high-performing, collaborative, and inclusive team culture, manage cross-team relations effectively, and continuously seek opportunities to optimize policy development, iteration, and implementation processes for greater efficiency and quality.

• 5+ years leading high-performing, global teams and a proven track record developing/implementing global policy frameworks at scale.
• Deep understanding of the Trust & Safety ecosystem, major policy challenges (e.g., child safety, misinformation, hate speech), and experience navigating complex global legal, regulatory, and cultural nuances.
• Demonstrated ability to build consensus and collaborate effectively with diverse cross-functional partners (ie: Legal, Product, Engineering, Operations, Communications); experience working directly with product and engineering teams to translate policy requirements into technical solutions.
• Exceptional analytical, problem-solving, with the ability to articulate complex policy concepts persuasively to diverse audiences and leverage data for decision-making.
• Proven ability to manage high-stakes escalations, make sound, principled judgments and balance competing priorities (ie: safety, expression, risk).

• Demonstrated ability to influence executive leadership and shape global strategy through compelling policy recommendations.
• Ability to thrive in a highly complex and matrix global organization.

Content that this role interacts with includes images, video, and text related to everyday life, but it can also include bullying, hate speech, child safety, depictions of harm to self and others, and harm to animals. Hence, it is possible that this role will be exposed to harmful content on a daily basis.

Tik Tok recognises that keeping our platform safe for the Tik Tok communities is no ordinary job which can be both rewarding and psychologically demanding and emotionally taxing for some. This is why we are sharing the potential hazards, risks and implications in this unique line of work from the start, so our candidates are well informed before joining.

Tik Tok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. At Tik Tok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. Tik Tok's global headquarters are in Los Angeles and Singapore, with offices in New York City, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.

Inspiring creativity is at the core of Tik Tok'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…