Reddit

Director of Safety ML

Reddit$276K — $387K *
US-AnywhereRemote in United States
Consumer Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 10+ years of experience in Machine Learning or AI, particularly in Trust & Safety
  • 5+ years leading multi-disciplinary ML teams of 25+ members in high-growth environments
  • Proven track record of deploying ML systems at scale, with a focus on transformer models and LLM fine-tuning
  • Expertise in NLP, content detection systems, and supervision techniques
  • Strong cross-functional leadership skills with a capacity to influence executives

Responsibilities

  • Set the vision for ML applications in Trust & Safety
  • Lead and develop a high-performing Safety ML team
  • Develop cutting-edge Safety ML systems to enhance protection and quality
  • Collaborate with various teams to identify safety risks and ML opportunities
  • Drive experimentation, evaluation, and lifecycle management of ML models
  • Promote ethical AI practices in all Safety ML solutions
  • Track performance metrics and ensure compliance with Reddit’s safety policies

Benefits

  • Comprehensive Healthcare Benefits and Income Replacement Programs
  • 401k with Employer Match
  • Flexible benefit programs catering to diverse lifestyles
  • Family Planning Support
  • Mental Health & Coaching Benefits
  • Flexible Vacation & Paid Volunteer Time Off
  • Generous Paid Parental Leave
Full Job Description
Were looking for a Director of Machine Learning to lead Reddits efforts in building industry-leading ML systems that keep our platform safe and foster healthy online communities. This leader will drive the strategy, development, and deployment of machine learning models that detect and prevent harmful content and behavior at scale. In this role, you will own the roadmap for Safety and moderation ML, lead a team of applied scientists and engineers, and partner cross-functionally across Product, Engineering, Safety operations, Trust & Community, and AI/ML Platform to innovate on real-time detection, automation, and user protection systems. You will leverage modern ML - including fine-tuned LLMs - to ensure Reddit remains a safe, welcoming, and positive environment for our global user base. Responsibilities • Set the vision and strategy for applying ML to Trust & Safety, ensuring scalable, proactive protection against evolving abuse patterns. • Lead and grow a high-performing Safety ML organization, including applied research, model development, productionization, and continuous improvement. • Develop and deploy cutting-edge Safety ML systems (including fine-tuned LLMs and transformer models) that outperform state-of-the-art solutions in quality, latency, and efficiency. • Partner with Trust & Safety, Product, Moderation, and AI/ML Platform teams to identify safety risks, emerging harm vectors, and ML opportunities that improve detection, enforcement, and user experience. • Drive successful experimentation, evaluation, and model lifecycle management, ensuring high precision, recall, explainability, and policy alignment. • Champion ethical and responsible AI practices in all Safety ML solutions. • Track performance through metrics, research-based iteration, and alignment with Reddits safety policies and regulatory standards. • Represent Safety ML leadership internally and externally - including conferences, publications, industry groups, and cross-company collaboration initiatives. Required Qualifications • 10+ years of experience in Machine Learning, AI, or applied research, with a strong background in Trust & Safety, abuse prevention, detection, or content integrity. • 5+ years of experience leading multi-disciplinary ML teams of 25+ team members (applied science, engineering, analytics) in a high-growth or high-impact environment. Must have experience managing people leaders (managers with direct reports) • Proven track record of shipping ML systems at scale in production, ideally including transformer-based models and LLM fine-tuning. • Depth in NLP, content understanding, detection systems, supervised and weak-supervision techniques. • Strong cross-functional leadership skills, with ability to influence executives and foster alignment across Safety, Product, and Engineering. • Thought leadership in responsible AI, safety ML research, or safety measurement frameworks. • Entrepreneurial mindset - experience founding or scaling a product or ML org. Nice to Have • Experience building or operating real-time abuse detection and automated moderation systems in a complex user-generated content ecosystem. • Prior work in consumer-facing tech, social platforms, or large-scale community-driven products. Benefits: • Comprehensive Healthcare Benefits and Income Replacement Programs • 401k with Employer Match • Global Benefit programs that fit your lifestyle, from workspace to professional development to caregiving support • Family Planning Support • Gender-Affirming Care • Mental Health & Coaching Benefits • Flexible Vacation & Paid Volunteer Time Off • Generous Paid Parental Leave #LI-SP1 Pay Transparency: This job posting may span more than one career level. In addition to base salary, this job is eligible to receive equity in the form of restricted stock units, and depending on the position offered, it may also be eligible to receive a commission. Additionally, Reddit offers a wide range of benefits to U.S.-based employees, including medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k) program with employer match, generous time off for vacation, and parental leave. To learn more, please visit https://www.redditinc.com/careers/. To provide greater transparency to candidates, we share base salary ranges for all US-based job postings regardless of state. We set standard base pay ranges for all roles based on function, level, and country location, benchmarked against similar stage growth companies. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including, skills, depth of work experience and relevant licenses/credentials, and may vary from the amounts listed below. The base salary range for this position is: $276,700-$387,400 USD In select roles and locations, the interviews will be recorded, transcribed and summarized by artificial intelligence (AI). You will have the opportunity to opt out of recording, transcription and summarization prior to any scheduled interviews. During the interview, we will collect the following categories of personal information: Identifiers, Professional and Employment-Related Information, Sensory Information (audio/video recording), and any other categories of personal information you choose to share with us. We will use this information to evaluate your application for employment or an independent contractor role, as applicable. We will not sell your personal information or disclose it to any third party for their marketing purposes. We will delete any recording of your interview promptly after making a hiring decision. For more information about how we will handle your personal information, including our retention of it, please refer to our Candidate Privacy Policy for Potential Employees and Contractors.

About Reddit

Reddit is an American social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website. Registered members submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images, and videos, which are then voted up or down by other members. Posts are organized by subject into user-created boards called "communities" or "subreddits", which cover topics such as news, politics, religion, science, movies, video games, music, books, sports, fitness, cooking, pets, and image-sharing. Submissions with more upvotes appear towards the top of their subreddit and, if they receive enough upvotes, ultimately on the site's front page. Although there are strict rules prohibiting harassment, it still occurs, and Reddit administrators moderate the communities and close or restrict them on occasion. Moderation is also conducted by community-specific moderators, who are not considered Reddit employees. As of September 2021, Reddit ranks as the 19th-most-visited website in the world and 7th most-visited website in the U.S., according to Alexa Internet. About 42–49.3% of its user base comes from the United States, followed by the United Kingdom at 7.9–8.2% and Canada at 5.2–7.8%. Twenty-two percent of U.S. adults aged 18 to 29 years, and 14 percent of U.S. adults aged 30 to 49 years, regularly use Reddit. Reddit was founded by University of Virginia roommates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, with Aaron Swartz, in 2005. Condé Nast Publications acquired the site in October 2006. In 2011, Reddit became an independent subsidiary of Condé Nast's parent company, Advance Publications. In October 2014, Reddit raised $50 million in a funding round led by Sam Altman and including investors Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel, Ron Conway, Snoop Dogg, and Jared Leto. Their investment valued the company at $500 million then. In July 2017, Reddit raised $200 million for a $1.8 billion valuation, with Advance Publications remaining the majority stakeholder. In February 2019, a $300 million funding round led by Tencent brought the company's valuation to $3 billion. In August 2021, a $700 million funding round led by Fidelity Investments raised that valuation to over $10 billion.
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2005

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