Escalation Team Lead, Customer Support

The USDS JV Trust & Safety Customer Support team is dedicated to providing best-in-class support, maintaining platform safety, and driving operational excellence across the Tik Tok US ecosystem.

Within our organization, the Escalation & Incident Management team functions as the specialized strike force and emergency response hub. We handle the highest-stakes, most ambiguous, and high-risk cases that bypass standard frontline SOPs—including high-value VIP/advertiser account takeovers (ATO), complex corporate ownership disputes, severe safety/security threats, and legal/regulatory escalations. Our mission is to protect our high-value ecosystem, mitigate platform risk, and turn complex crises into structured, scalable solutions.

We are seeking an investigative, highly resourceful, and strategic Escalation Team Lead to build, lead, and empower a high-caliber team of Escalation Specialists. Unlike traditional customer support leads, this role requires a candidate who thrives in ambiguity, possesses a strong security and investigative mindset, and can make critical judgment calls when available data signals do not tell the whole story.

In this role, you will lead high-severity incident responses, manage executive-visible escalations, and navigate complex organizational matrixes to connect with Product, Engineering, Legal, and Security teams in real time. You will not only drive complex investigations to resolution but also act as a process builder—ensuring every resolved crisis yields stronger SOPs, clearer escalation paths, and upstream product/security enhancements.

• - Lead and coach the team through complex, ambiguous investigations involving Account Takeovers (ATO), identity/ownership disputes, fraud, abuse, and corporate business transfers.
• - Balance white-glove support for high-value business clients/advertisers with rigorous security standards, exercising sound prioritization and risk judgment across varying levels of business impact.
• - Serve as the primary operational lead during high-severity safety, legal, or security incidents; communicate clearly with executive leadership, Legal, and Risk teams regarding confirmed facts, risk impact, blockers, and resolution status.
• - Maintain and oversee an effective around-the-clock on-call coverage model to ensure immediate escalation triage for critical off-hours business or security emergencies.

• - Proactively build strong, trusted working relationships across a massive global enterprise—including Legal, Compliance, Product, Security Engineering, Fraud, and Executive Support—to rapidly mobilize the right owners during crises.
• - Maintain high awareness of regulatory and reporting implications; ensure strict evidence preservation, factual reporting, and legal/litigation documentation standards when handling highly critical cases.

• - Transform unresolved, ambiguous incidents into scalable operational frameworks; drive the post-incident creation of new SOPs, escalation matrices, tooling requirements, and automation.
• - Look beyond individual case closure to diagnose systemic vulnerabilities, identifying why an incident occurred and driving upstream changes with Product and Security teams to prevent recurrence.

• - Lead, coach, and elevate a team of specialized investigators; mentor team members to independently own complex domains, toolings, and partner relationships rather than focusing solely on traditional CS metrics.

• - 5+ years of progressive experience in Account Security/Integrity,…