Safety OnCall Team Lead, Trust & Safety

Responsibilities
About the team
The Account, Interaction & Search Safety Team is a lean, agile team dedicated to safeguarding user interactions across Account, Search, Comments and Messages. Our mission is to adapt quickly and respond effectively to the evolving demands of platform safety. By streamlining workflows and establishing efficient operational processes, we prioritize rapid problem-solving to support moderation efforts and provide seamless cross-team collaboration to address safety concerns proactively.

We serve as the primary team for evaluating safety metrics and assessing the performance of both human moderation and machine-driven systems, ensuring that our safety standards remain robust and impactful. Working closely with frontline teams, we bring policies to life by providing ongoing guidance and operational support that aligns with our strategic business objectives. Through strong partnerships with Product, Data Science, Policy, Algorithm, ADSO-Search Operations, and front-line teams, we leverage diverse expertise to tackle safety challenges unique to user interactions.

With a commitment to data-driven improvement, we have developed a comprehensive metrics system to evaluate operational effectiveness, including moderation efficiency, quality metrics, and machine performance. By regularly monitoring and enhancing our processes, we work to exceed safety targets, close performance gaps, and continuously elevate the quality of platform interactions.

Our team also leads to building scalable, adaptable safety processes that meet both current and future needs. Through continuous process development, we ensure sustainable efficiencies and maintain operational excellence, evolving with the demands of a safe and thriving community.

About the role
The Safety OnCall Operations Team Lead is responsible for leading a team of Oncall Specialists to deliver high-quality, timely, and effective content safety support across multiple business lines. This role combines people management, operational oversight, and escalation management to ensure seamless service delivery, continuous process improvement, and adherence to global safety standards.

The Team Lead partners with Product, Process, Quality, and Training teams to enhance workflows, eliminate recurring issues, and drive team performance while maintaining a positive, productive, and high-performing work environment.

Responsibilities
1. People Management & Team Development
- Lead and manage a team of Oncall Specialists, ensuring clarity of roles and responsibilities.
- Implement policies and processes that foster a productive, positive work environment, build morale, and recognize achievements.
- Collaborate with Quality and Training Program Managers to onboard and train new hires through intensive coaching and mentoring.
- Provide regular feedback, performance coaching, and support to team members to achieve customer service metrics.
- Identify individual performance gaps and implement targeted coaching to elevate team output.
2. Operational Management & Escalation Handling
- Monitor auto-routing systems to ensure correct documentation of points-of-contact for escalations.
- Manage escalated user, creator, and seller inquiries via the on-call ticket system, ensuring prompt and effective resolution.
- Coordinate with cross-functional teams to resolve issues and ensure close-loop follow-ups for all escalations.
- Promptly escalate critical or high-risk cases to appropriate authorities.
- Establish and maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs) and escalation guidelines for the team.
3. Oncall Process Improvement & Knowledge Management
- Identify recurring issues and work with Product and Process Solution teams to prevent repeat complaints.
- Track and analyze escalation trends to identify root causes and recommend process enhancements.
- Improve technology self-help tools by identifying the most common FAQs and enabling internal customers to self-serve.
- Partner with Quality Specialist teams to continuously improve escalation-handling processes and operational excellence.
4. Scheduling & 24x7 Operations
- Collaborate with the Planning team to build effective schedules ensuring full 24/7 coverage.
- Monitor team productivity and performance, ensuring coverage aligns with varied contact arrival patterns and internal SLAs.
- Ensure execution of improvement plans to meet or exceed operational and customer service metrics (e.g., CSAT, SLA).
5. Reporting & Stakeholder Collaboration
- Collab with R&I team to track key performance indicators and provide regular updates to leadership on team performance and escalations.
- Partner with cross-functional teams to share insights, escalate systemic issues, and support strategic operational initiatives.
- Maintain transparency and accountability in reporting and escalation management processes.

Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications
- BA/BS degree or equivalent practical experience
- 3+ years experience as People-manager for individual contributors, in a Service Support or Content Moderation organization
- Proven leadership with the ability to thrive in ambiguity and in a matrix environment
- Good written and verbal communication skills in English & target market language
- Experience building, managing and influencing relationships with internal stakeholders, using data to generate insights and solving complex problems
- Experience creating the escalation process or handling escalation cases

Preferred Qualifications
- People-oriented, self-motivated and able to thrive in ambiguity and in a matrix environment
- High problem solving and priority skills with data-driven insights
- Proactive and continuous improvement attitude
- Excellent skills for communicating and relating with both internal and external stakeholders
- Experience driving process and tooling optimization and implementations for customer service or support team

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 TikTok
TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. TikTok's global headquarters are in Los Angeles and Singapore, and we also have offices in New York City, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.​


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.​