Lead Threat Researcher, Influence Operations

At TikTok, we create together and grow together. That's how we drive impact - for ourselves, our company, and the communities we serve.
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The Global Security Organization provides industry-leading cybersecurity and business protection services to TikTok globally. Our organization employs four principles that guide our strategic and tactical operations. Firstly, we Champion Transparency & Trust by leading the charge in organizational transparency, prioritizing customer trust, and placing user needs first. Secondly, we aim to maintain Best in Class Global Security by proactively identifying and reducing risks while enabling innovative product development. We constantly work towards a sustainable world-class security capability. Thirdly, we strive to be a Business Catalyst & Enabler by embodying the DNA of technical innovation and ensuring our Global Security operations are fast and agile. Finally, we Drive Empowered & Risk-Informed Decision Making by providing our leaders with the necessary information to make agile decisions based on risk. In order to enhance collaboration and cross-functional partnerships, our organization follows a hybrid work schedule that requires employees to work in the office for 3 days a week, as directed by their manager. We regularly review our hybrid work model, and the specific requirements may change at any time.

We are seeking an experienced Lead Threat Researcher to join the Threat Management Incident Response and Investigations Team within GSO. You will use your investigative and adversarial mindset to help us identify, detect, and mitigate Influence Operation (IO) networks operating on TikTok. You will data mine threat actor abuse tactics, develop predictive models, conduct comprehensive proactive and reactive investigations using analytical skills, subject-matter expertise, and regional experience. The Lead Threat Threat Researcher will have the responsibility to perform social network analysis at scale to discover, identify, and mitigate the most harmful threats targeting the platform. You will closely collaborate with engineers and behavioral scientists to resolve complex threats that reach across topic or feature areas and will require network analysis and the creation of detection pipelines. You will develop actionable recommendations, and continually iterate solutions to scale your impact. The work of the Lead Threat Researcher will have the opportunity to identify and mitigate the most harmful threats targeting the platform and our users. In order to enhance collaboration and cross-functional partnerships, among other things, at this time.

Responsibilities
- Identify deceptive behavior of threat actors, collect and analyze signals through data analysis, and work with engineers to improve detection models and develop data driven mitigation strategies.
- Use all available internal and external data sources to produce actionable intelligence on high-harm threat actors, their networks, and threat organizations in the topic area of Influence Operations.
- Build and execute team roadmap.
- Apply structured analytic techniques, data science, and intelligence tradecraft to perform social network analysis of large attribute, ideational, and relational data sets to identify threat actor networks, critical nodes, and kill-chains.
- Work cross-functionally with product managers, program managers, security, operations, policy, and communications teams to address gaps in current threat response processes such as detection and mitigation.
- Collaborate with a team of global experts that respond to known threat actors and proactively build and tailor queries to discover and identify potential threats.

Qualifications

- Experience conducting social network analysis for social media organizations, law enforcement, and/or intelligence community agencies.
- Experience should include discovering and correlating high-harm threat actors, networks, and organizations across global markets by performing quantitative and qualitative analysis of large data sets including attribute, ideational, and relational data.
- Intermediate understanding of descriptive statistics
- Proficient in SQL or other relational database language and beginner in another object oriented programming language.
- Able to create meaningful data visualizations
- 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.

Preferred Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science
- 5 years of experience in Threat Research
- Experience researching or analyzing global Influence Operations (IO) in order to identify, detect, and develop mitigation strategies against IO networks.
- Rapidly shift priorities based on evolving challenges to the platform
- Identify anomalous behavior and determine ways for further exploring new research leads
- Communicate coherently and crisply to incident response teams and senior leadership
- Communicate complex concepts to broader stakeholders without shared expertise
- Critical thinking skills with the ability to apply theorems or analytical techniques to discover insights that are not readily apparent

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.

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/cdpT2

Job Information

[For Pay Transparency] Compensation Description (annually)

The base salary range for this position in the selected city is $147200 - $269800 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.

Our company benefits are designed to convey company culture and values, to create an efficient and inspiring work environment, and to support our employees to give their best in both work and life. We offer the following benefits to eligible employees:

We cover 100% premium coverage for employee medical insurance, approximately 75% premium coverage for dependents and offer a Health Savings Account(HSA) with a company match. As well as Dental, Vision, Short/Long term Disability, Basic Life, Voluntary Life and AD&D insurance plans. In addition to Flexible Spending Account(FSA) Options like Health Care, Limited Purpose and Dependent Care.

Our time off and leave plans are: 10 paid holidays per year plus 17 days of Paid Personal Time Off (PPTO) (prorated upon hire and increased by tenure) and 10 paid sick days per year as well as 12 weeks of paid Parental leave and 8 weeks of paid Supplemental Disability.

We also provide generous benefits like mental and emotional health benefits through our EAP and Lyra. A 401K company match, gym and cellphone service reimbursements. The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.