Director, Trust, Safety & Policy Compliance

The Trevor Project

2d • $110,000 - $140,000 • Remote

About The Position

The Trevor Project is the leading suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ young people. Trevor offers 24/7 crisis services, connecting highly trained counselors with LGBTQ+ young people whenever they need support. To drive prevention efforts, The Trevor Project also operates robust research, advocacy, education, and peer support programs. We’ve been saving lives every day for over 25 years.

Every day, and in every role, our staff contribute to our critical mission of ending suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning young people by embodying our values: Heart, Integrity, Community, Belonging, and Progress.

This role will serve as the premier Trust & Safety (T&S) operational architect and director for TrevorSpace, an online safe-space social network for LGBTQ+ young people. Taking ownership of daily platform execution, policy implementation and quality assurance, risk management, and process development.

This role will design, scale, and govern the platform's digital safety infrastructure, establishing world-class enforcement standards that safeguard vulnerable online communities. Operating with exceptional autonomy and precision, this role manages the end-to-end incident response lifecycle, ensures zero operational threads are dropped, and serves as a vital strategic partner overseeing global digital compliance, vendor ecosystems, and frontline operational health. This is a high-impact leadership role requiring a sophisticated blend of strategic foresight, technical curiosity, hands-on leadership, and an unwavering commitment to operational rigor in an always-on, 24/7 environment.

Content Exposure: In this role, you will routinely see and handle situations involving violence, harm, suicide, self-injury, child sexual exploitation, bullying, harassment, hate speech, violent/graphic content, sexual solicitation, cybersecurity threats, account integrity issues, and issues pertaining to the protection of minors. This role requires regular coordination with various law enforcement and reporting agencies.

Operational Demands: This is a 24/7/365 operational environment. As the ultimate escalation authority for TrevorSpace, you will serve as the primary on-call point of contact. You will regularly be contacted and required to take action during nights, weekends, and holidays to manage live crises. Candidates must have the scheduling flexibility and personal resilience required to manage urgent situations outside of standard business hours. The standard hours for this position are 9:00AM ET to 6:00PM ET (including an hour for lunch) from Monday to Friday.

Requirements

• 10-15 years in Trust & Safety, operations management, or community moderation platforms
• Deep understanding of global platform compliance, digital safety standards, and robust SOP development.
• Understanding shifts in public policy and internet regulation as it applies to the LGBTQ+ community
• Proven track record of managing managers, overseeing complex team structures, and leading large-scale, 24/7/365 operations.
• Highly autonomous self-starter who naturally operates one step ahead, anticipates cross-functional upstream/downstream impacts, and thrives with minimal management oversight.
• Deep, nuanced understanding of the unique socio-technological safety challenges, digital vulnerabilities, and online behavioral patterns associated with LGBTQ+ youth globally.
• Experience in change management, including guiding teams through policy shifts, platform feature updates, and organizational growth with exceptional clarity and composure
• Demonstrated experience in high-level operational advisory capacity
• Exceptional speed in delivering reports and presentations
• Experience leading, developing, coaching, and managing the performance of direct reports
• Proficiency in spoken and written English
• Authorization to work for any employer in the United States is required.

Nice To Haves

• Deep operational familiarity with digital safety frameworks and youth-centric regulations
• Proven track record of evaluating, integrating, and optimizing automated content moderation systems to scale platform safety
• Prior experience partnering directly with IT teams to champion Safety by Design principles

Responsibilities

• Lead, develop, coach, structure, and manage a team of direct reports, ensuring team accountability, strategic alignment, and results.
• Direct a comprehensive 24/7/365 operational layer (including direct and indirect reports), serving as the ultimate authority for best-in-class trust & safety operations, team scheduling, workload allocation, high-stakes escalations, and live incident escalations.
• Cultivate a highly collaborative, transparent, and accountable team environment by establishing clear performance ownership, encouraging cross-functional psychological safety, and driving a shared commitment to platform integrity.
• Proactively identify the professional developmental needs of the team, building clear pathways for promotion and engineering sustainable, scalable solutions to support frontline staff.
• Act as the ultimate on-call point of contact to provide decisive escalation support to the management tier. This role will be contacted on nights and weekends.
• Design, scale, and advocate for workforce wellness and psychological resilience frameworks to protect the frontline reviewers and operators handling sensitive or high-harm content.
• Ensure absolute platform adherence to all trust and safety policies, global compliance, evolving regulations, legal requirements, company policies, union policies, and youth safety guidelines.
• Design, write, revise, and execute robust standard operating procedures (SOPs), playbooks, and ongoing training modules (monthly, quarterly, and annual) to continuously elevate operational quality.
• Dynamically devise and implement agile solutions as emerging platform vulnerabilities are identified.
• Ensure operational workflows support audit readiness and the generation of structured data for mandatory regulatory disclosures.
• Deploy and govern a world-class Quality Assurance (QA) framework tailored to a high-velocity digital moderation ecosystem.
• Establish rigorous auditing workflows, decision-accuracy benchmarks, and systematic calibration protocols across both human review teams and automated filters to eliminate policy drift.
• Partner with the Director of Positive Youth Development & Engagement to advance community-centric safety policies and convert QA insights into actionable feedback loops.
• Partner with the Director of Positive Youth Development & Engagement to write and enhance platform policies swiftly and as needed.
• Act as the primary point person bridging Crisis Intervention, TrevorSpace Moderation, Policy, Legal, Communications, Marketing, and Technology teams to ensure unified platform governance.
• Work hand-in-hand with the Legal team to navigate compliance and rapidly pivot operations when new regulatory needs arise.
• Work closely with the Communications team during platform crises to ensure clear communication with relevant stakeholders.
• Evaluate operations through a technical lens, identifying opportunities to infuse automation, scale workflows, and sustainably reduce community exposure to harm (as well as staff exposure to vicarious trauma).
• Partner closely with the team's Business Analyst to optimize the user experience, maximize platform efficiency, and integrate modern moderation tools.
• Partner with the internal team and external product partners to design and implement automated tooling, machine learning models, and content-filtering technologies to optimize efficient and effective policy implementation and quality assurance.
• Oversee the full vendor contract lifecycle and safety tooling ecosystem, ensuring no critical operational dependencies break.
• Work closely with IT to manage contract renewals, negotiation, and alignment.
• Translate high-level organizational vision into flawless operational execution.
• Own the creation of high-stakes presentations, briefs, and data deliverables with exceptionally fast turnaround times, confidently presenting metrics to internal leadership, cross-functional partners, and external donors.
• Maintain an unyielding standard of organizational discipline where all internal requests are triaged effectively and due dates are never missed.
• Partner with the Business Analyst to help drive new platform enhancements, which will include the writing of business cases, strategy development, platform feature enhancements, and overall user experience.
• Ensure community members are responded to in a timely manner for requests, appeals, etc.
• Partner with the legal team and the Director, Positive Youth Development & Engagement to ensure your team is prepared and compliant in the ways they are allowed to communicate with users.
• Demonstrate fair, ethical, and equitable business practices.
• Handle sensitive and confidential matters/ data with the utmost discretion and integrity.
• Learn eagerly, share knowledge appropriately, and improve continuously.
• Travel to team retreats, conferences, etc.
• Demonstrate successful planning and problem-solving skills, including multitasking and working well within tight timelines.
• Work, communicate, and collaborate effectively with others.
• Demonstrate attention to detail and accuracy in all work.
• Demonstrate a commitment to fostering and maintaining an environment of belonging.
• Other relevant duties and responsibilities as assigned.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health coverage, including plans that support various gender affirmation care needs
• Mental health resources, with access to virtual care and a variety of in and out of network options for support
• 403(b) retirement plan with a 3% employer match, vesting over three years
• Generous paid time off and company holidays to rest and recharge
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) offering confidential emotional support, work-life solutions, financial and legal guidance, and online resources
• Remote work flexibility from anywhere in the continental U.S., Alaska, or Hawaii- with provided technology, a home office setup reimbursement, and a monthly internet reimbursement

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed