Partner (Vendor) Manager Lead - USDS

Responsibilities
About the Team
We are TikTok’s USDS Customer Support team, dedicated to delivering industry-leading support for our users and creators while safeguarding the U.S. user experience. We help inspire creativity and bring joy by operationalizing safety policies with rigor, proactively protecting our community through technology, and ensuring our support ecosystem remains trusted, compliant, and aligned with evolving U.S. regulatory expectations.

As a Partner Manager Lead, you will serve as the strategic engine behind our third-party ecosystem. You aren't just managing a vendor; you are steering a critical component of US Customer support strategy. You will be expected to navigate ambiguity, influence executive leadership, and drive long-term operational roadmaps that go beyond day-to-day metrics.

Key Responsibilities
- Strategic Roadmapping: Design and execute multi-year operational strategies that align partner performance with core USDS business objectives (Latency, Quality, Utilization, and Resilience).
- Executive Influence: Act as the primary Subject Matter Expert (SME) for assigned sites, translating complex operational data into "executive-ready" insights and remediation strategies for leadership.
- Partner Governance & Accountability: Own the end-to-end BPO relationship. You will drive high-stakes Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) and hold partners accountable not just to SLAs, but to a culture of continuous innovation and "operational rigor."
- Cross-Functional Leadership: Orchestrate collaboration between QA, Training, and Product teams to ensure BPO readiness for high-impact product launches and evolving SOPs.
- Risk & Mitigation: Proactively identify systemic risks within the vendor ecosystem. You will lead deep-dive root cause analyses (RCA) for critical incidents, implementing preventative frameworks that scale across the organization.
- Financial Stewardship: Oversee the integrity of vendor invoicing and fiscal governance, ensuring total accuracy and compliance with internal financial controls.
- Operational Excellence: Mentor team members and vendor leads, fostering a high-performance culture focused on "wellness-first" moderation and technical precision.

Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications:
- Experience: 5+ years of experience in Vendor Management, Program Management, or Operations Leadership (or 5+ years with a relevant Master’s degree).
- Leadership: Proven track record of managing large-scale, complex operations and influencing stakeholders without direct authority.
- Analytical Rigor: Expert-level ability to use data to tell a story, identify trends, and drive action in a fast-paced environment.
- Communication: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to navigate a complex, global matrix organization.
- Mobility: Ability to travel 40%–60% to partner sites to drive on-the-ground operational alignment and culture-building.

Preferred Qualifications:
- Domain Expertise: Direct experience in Trust & Safety, Content Moderation, or US Data Security frameworks.
- Industry Background: Experience in the Digital/Social Media or Tech sector at a global scale.
- Operational Mastery: COPC or Six Sigma certification is a plus, along with a background in Contact Center Operations Management.

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. ​
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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. ​
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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.​
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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.​
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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​


Job Information
【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Annually)
The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $132000 - $248400 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.​