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.

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).