Threat Detection Specialist, Trust and Safety - USDS

Washington D.C.RegularOperationsJob ID: A259511B

Responsibilities

This role will sit within the USDS Policy Implementation team and support USDS. You will need to cultivate a deep understanding of the platform and how it can be abused by actors to exploit vulnerable populations while championing freedom of expression for our users and ensuring policies protect users of all experiences and backgrounds. As a Trend Detection Specialist on the USDS Policy Implementation team, you will proactively identify emerging threats and hidden abuse patterns on our platform for the US market. While the Rapid Response team handles active incidents, your focus is on discovering new vulnerabilities and abuse tactics before they escalate. You will need a deep understanding of platform abuse to protect vulnerable populations, balancing user safety with freedom of expression. Acting as the liaison between Policy and Product, you will partner directly with Engineering to turn your findings into automated, scalable detection systems. Additionally, you will collaborate with the global High-Risk Events and Elections and Trend Detection teams to combat risks specifically targeting the US market. Responsibilities - Lead comprehensive risk assessments and spearhead proactive trend detection initiatives for high-risk, USDS-led, or supported events. - Partner closely with USDS Product teams to co-design and refine automated detection models (classifiers, computer vision, and NLP) that target the U.S. market. - Build and deploy automated workflows using LLMs to move narrative discovery from manual "spot-checking" to scalable, proactive detection. - Use your findings from the field to provide high-quality signal and training data to Product, ensuring our automated systems stay ahead of adversarial pivots. - Support active US escalations by proactively identifying secondary trends, coded language, and evolving narratives that have not yet been caught by current detection systems. - Generate actionable, data-driven intelligence aligned with quarterly business priorities and cross-functional stakeholder Requests for Information (RFIs). - Identify emerging slang, memes, and cultural shifts in the U.S. market to predict how high-harm actors might bypass existing safety filters. - Map new patterns in high-harm violations, focusing on "finding what we don't know" to broaden our safety coverage for the US market. - Pull and synthesize data that validates the existence of emerging risks, providing the technical evidence needed to trigger new Product features or policy updates. - Act as a technical subject matter expert for the Policy team, explaining how detection models and tools work and where the gaps lie.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications - 3 years in Trust & Safety, Intelligence, or Content Policy with a focus on high-harm issues (e.g., Violent Extremism, Disinformation, or Youth Safety). - Technical Acumen: Demonstrated ability to use LLMs or other AI/ML tools to build automated solutions for data classification or trend identification. - Product Savvy: Experience working with Product/Engineering teams to build, test, or iterate on automated detection systems or safety tools. - Investigative Mindset: A proven "detective" instinct—you enjoy finding the needle in the haystack and connecting disparate data points into a cohesive narrative. Preferred Qualifications - Data Proficiency: Strong skills in SQL and data access tools to independently validate trends and measure the scale of emerging risks. - Start-up Mentality: Experience forming new functions or working in highly ambiguous, fast-paced environments where you must build your own roadmap. - Technical Skills: Experience with Python or other scripting languages to further automate data collection and analysis.

Job Information

【For Pay Transparency】 Compensation Description (Annually) - Washington, DC

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $ 99200 - $ 178600 annually.

Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location. Base pay is one part of the Total Package that is provided to compensate and recognize employees for their work, and this role may be eligible for additional discretionary bonuses/incentives, and restricted stock units.

Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Employees have day one access to medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) savings plan with company match, paid parental leave, short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, wellbeing benefits, among others. Employees also receive 10 paid holidays per year, 10 paid sick days per year and 17 days of Paid Personal Time (prorated upon hire with increasing accruals by tenure).

The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.

Trust & Safety

Content that this role interacts with includes images, video, and text related to every-day life, but it can also include (but is not limited to) 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.

TikTok recognises that keeping our platform safe for the TikTok 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.

We are committed to the wellbeing of all our employees and promise to provide comprehensive and evidence-based programs, to promote and support physical and mental wellbeing throughout each employee's journey with us. We believe that wellbeing is a relationship and that everyone has a part to play, so we work in collaboration and consultation with our employees and across our functions in order to ensure a truly person-centred, innovative and integrated approach.

About USDS

TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is dedicated to the safety and security of millions of Americans who create, discover, and connect with what they love on the apps we operate. The Joint Venture has been established in compliance with the Executive Order signed by President Trump on September 25, 2025. Our foundation is a comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity program we operate under defined safeguards to protect national security and secure U.S. user data, apps and the algorithm. We safeguard the U.S. content ecosystem, holding decision-making authority for trust and safety policies and moderation. USDS Joint Venture helps ensure Americans can continue to express their creativity, discover new hobbies and interests, and build thriving communities and businesses on a global scale.

On-site presence across teams allows the company to operate with greater speed, alignment, and agility — especially in areas like real-time decision-making, team development, and integrated execution. As such, the company is shifting from a hybrid work model to a fully in-person schedule up to 5 days a week.

Why Join Us

Inspiring creativity is at the core of TikTok'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 opportunity to learn and innovate as one team. We're resilient and embrace challenges as they come. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.

Diversity & Inclusion

TikTok is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.

USDS Reasonable Accommodation

USDS is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at https://tinyurl.com/USDS-RA