Data Science Manager, Risk Detection - USDS

Why Join Us
Creation is the core of TikTok's purpose. Our platform is built to help imaginations thrive. This is doubly true of the teams that make TikTok possible.
Together, we inspire creativity and bring joy - a mission we all believe in and aim towards achieving every day.
To us, every challenge, no matter how difficult, is an opportunity; to learn, to innovate, and to grow as one team. Status quo? Never. Courage? Always.
At TikTok, we create together and grow together. That's how we drive impact - for ourselves, our company, and the communities we serve.
Join us.

Team Intro
We are seeking an experienced Senior Data Science Manager to join the Risk and Response - Detection and Automation Team within US Trust & Safety. TikTok T&S helps ensure that our global community is safe and empowered to create and enjoy content across all of our applications.
As a Data Science Manager on the Risk and Response - Detection and Automation Team, you will lead the Investigations and Insights pillar to drive outcomes for our Detection Engineering Program. In this role, you are responsible for the strategic oversight, leadership, and technical direction of a data science and data analyst team that supports T&S detection engineering deliverables and processes.
Detection Engineering focuses on the creation and maintenance of proactive logic to identify high harm content at scale to prevent harm to users and to the company. This role will work internally with the Automation Engineering pillar within the larger Detection and Automation team, and cross functionally with other T&S teams and Security teams to collaborate on discovery, investigation, and remediation of high harm behavior and content. Examples of use-cases you will help to develop and oversee include finding high harm leakage in areas of youth safety, exploitation and abuse, and violent behaviors, just to name a few. Detections can take the form of SQL jobs, lightweight topic classification models, and even large language model solutions.

Our Automation and Detection team performs a critical function that supports our efforts to address objectionable or disturbing content. Content that this Data Scientist 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 abuse; sexual assault; torture; bestiality; self-harm; suicide; and murder.

It is possible that this role will be exposed to harmful content on a daily basis.

In order to enhance collaboration and cross-functional partnerships, among other things, at this time, our organization follows a hybrid work schedule that requires employees to work in the office 3 days a week, or as directed by their manager/department. We regularly review our hybrid work model, and the specific requirements may change at any time.

Responsibilities
- Lead a team of data scientists and data analysts to discover, investigate, and mitigate high harm leakage on the TikTok platform.
- Act as a force multiplier across the business by optimizing processes and gaining alignment across stakeholders. Lead a team of force multipliers that raise the productivity and efficiency of analysts doing manual investigations and remediations.
- Improve consistency and efficiency throughout US Trust & Safety's Detection Engineering program by architecting and shipping high precision use-cases via SQL and different modeling strategies in Python.
- Ideate, drive, and deliver on a technical roadmap for risk detection at TikTok.
- Work directly with stakeholders to inform, refine, and validate concepts. We ideate a majority of the work we develop, which means capturing need and maturing it from MVP to production.
- Recruit and hire top technical talent while ensuring a diverse candidate pool. Consistently raise the bar on talent across the team.
- Work with cross functional teams globally to ensure alignment, collect feedback on detections, and deploy solutions to get cross functional adoption.
- Raise the effectiveness of tooling and detection solutions through metrics collection, data driven insights, by developing metrics driven objectives.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree or industry equivalent work experience in Data Science, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Mathematics
- At least 5 years of industry experience as a data scientist and at least 4 years in a technical leadership role (Manager or Tech Lead)
- Proficiency in SQL
- Understanding of current industry data analytical capabilities and shortcomings
- Strong technical documentation and reporting skills
- Ability to handle confidential information with discretion
- You're skilled at articulating technical concepts to a broad range of technical and non-technical stakeholders, including through approachable documentation.

Preferred Qualifications
- Proficiency in Python, Go, or other object oriented language
- Working knowledge of cloud platforms (i.e. OCI, GCP, AWS, etc)
- Experience working in a Trust and Safety team
- Knowledge of social media processes and products, as well as current gaps that can be exploited by threat actors
- You stay up to date on online deceptive and manipulative behavior. You have a working knowledge of the signals of specific threat actors, their cross-platform tactics, and how they evolve or change over time
- Your ability to work in a high tempo environment, adapt, respond to day-to-day challenges of the role
- Your resilience and commitment to self-care to manage the emotional demands of the role

Wellbeing Statement
Trust & Safety recognizes that keeping our platform safe for TikTok communities is no ordinary job. It can be rewarding, psychologically demanding, and emotionally taxing. 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 proceeding.

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.

D&I Statement
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.

Accommodation Statement
TikTok 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://shorturl.at/ktJP6

Data Security Statement
This role requires the ability to work with and support systems designed to protect sensitive data and information. As such, this role will be subject to strict national security-related screening.