TikTok

Head of Youth Safety & Well-being Policy - Trust and Safety

TikTok$159K — $384K *
Consumer Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5+ years in Trust & Safety or related fields focusing on child/adolescent safety.
  • Proven leadership and management skills in global settings.
  • Expert knowledge of online youth harm issues like CSAM and harmful content.
  • Familiarity with international child protection laws and child rights frameworks.
  • Strong ability to communicate complex issues to a broad audience.
  • Experience collaborating across multiple functions like product and legal teams.
  • Technical proficiency in systems relevant to child safety enforcement.

Responsibilities

  • Develop and manage a global policy strategy for Youth Safety & Well-being.
  • Create clear and enforceable policy positions aligned with international child protection standards.
  • Ensure product features support youth safety initiatives effectively.
  • Act as a public spokesperson on youth safety, engaging in external discussions.
  • Collaborate with enforcement and operations to enhance moderation systems.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance from day one.
  • 401(k) plan with company matching contributions.
  • Generous paid parental leave policy.
  • Short-term and long-term disability coverage available.
  • Life insurance and wellbeing benefits included.
  • 10 paid holidays, 10 sick days, and 17 personal days annually.
Full Job Description
Responsibilities

The Trust & Safety team at TikTok ensures our global community is safe and empowered to create and enjoy content across all our applications. The Youth Safety & Well-being Policy team is at the center of this mission, developing approaches that protect and support youth - from policies prohibiting exploitation to supporting product experiences that shape how young people engage with our platform. We are hiring a Head of Youth Safety & Well-being Policy to lead this team. You will own the policy strategy for the full spectrum of youth topics, serve as a senior internal voice on youth safety, and help shape how policy, product, and operations work together to keep young people safe at scale. This role is highly strategic and hands-on, requiring the ability to manage both immediate priorities and long-term frameworks. Responsibilities: - Own the global policy strategy for Youth Safety & Well-being - including CSAM, age-inappropriate content, and psychological and developmental harm. - Support the development of policy positions with the highest nexus to youth harms, ensuring TikTok's standards are clear, enforceable, and consistent with international child protection frameworks and legal obligations. - Support on youth-specific approaches to feature and product policy - including account defaults, recommendations, parental controls, and interaction features - ensuring product design reinforces safety policy intent. - Represent TikTok as a senior public-facing voice on youth safety policy - speaking at industry conferences, with media, and participating in external forums with child protection organizations, academic researchers, and civil society groups. - Partner with Policy Enforcement, Operations, and Product to develop and improve human and AI-driven moderation systems.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualification(s): - 5+ years of experience in Trust & Safety, Child Protection Policy, Public Policy, Law, Prevention Science, Social Work, or a related field with a meaningful focus on child or adolescent safety. - Demonstrated ability to lead and manage teams, set strategic direction, and deliver high-quality outputs in a fast-paced, global environment. - Deep understanding of the harm landscape affecting youth online, including CSAM, harmful content, and the developmental risks specific to this age-group. - Familiarity with international child protection laws, child rights frameworks (e.g. UNCRC), and mandatory reporting obligations to bodies such as NCMEC. - Exceptional ability to synthesize complex child safety topics for senior executives, external stakeholders, and broad audiences. - Strong cross-functional collaboration skills, with experience working alongside product, technical, legal, and operational teams. - High technical aptitude and ability to navigate complex tools, systems, and emerging technologies as they apply to child safety detection and enforcement. Preferred Qualification(s): - Experience engaging with external stakeholders, including policymakers, regulators, academics, or civil society organizations.

Job Information

[For Pay Transparency]Compensation Description (Annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $159000 - $384000 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.

For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates:

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:

1. Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;

2. Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and

3. Exercising sound judgment.

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 TikTok

TikTok is a social media app that allows users to create and share short videos. The app was launched in 2016 by Chinese tech company ByteDance. TikTok has become one of the most popular social media apps in the world, with over 1 billion active users. The app has been downloaded over 2 billion times worldwide. TikTok has faced controversy over its data privacy practices and its potential ties to the Chinese government. In 2020, the app faced a potential ban in the United States, but a deal was reached with Oracle and Walmart to create a new company called TikTok Global.
Learn more about TikTok
Size
1,750 employees
Industry
Founded
2012

Similar Jobs

More Jobs at TikTok

More Consumer Technology Jobs

Find similar Head of Youth Safety & Well-being Policy - Trust and Safety jobs: