Standards & Enforcement Specialist (formerly Trust & Safety)

Substack’s mission is to build a new economic engine for culture. From the beginning, we have been clear in our belief in the free press and free speech—values we consider inseparable and fundamental to a trustworthy media system. To achieve our mission, Substack must uphold free expression while maintaining a vibrant platform with clear rules that allow for the open exchange of ideas.

Our Standards & Enforcement team (formerly Trust & Safety) ensures this balance by prioritizing free expression, enforcing standards, addressing violations, and protecting the platform’s integrity. We are hiring a Standards & Enforcement Specialist to expand the team and further our vision for community moderation.

As a Standards & Enforcement Specialist, you’ll play a key role in enforcing Substack’s content guidelines. You will handle high volumes of moderation tasks, reviewing flagged and reported content, responding to user requests, and resolving tickets efficiently. You will play a role in managing the SLAs and monitoring the key operational metrics for the team. You will also contribute to shaping our policies, improving detection systems, and enhancing automation tools that streamline enforcement. Success in this role requires strong attention to detail, sound judgment, and the ability to manage dynamic queues in a fast-paced work environment.

This is a full time role with a Monday - Friday schedule. Candidates are ideally located in SF and able to work in-person at least two days per week. We are also open to exceptional remote candidates based in the US or Canada.

Responsibilities

• Enforce Substack’s content guidelines by moderating flagged content and responding to tickets related to spam, copyright issues, content violations, data subject access requests, appeals, and account recovery.
• Efficiently manage moderation queues, maintaining accuracy while handling a large number of tickets daily.
• Monitor the key operational metrics and ensure that the team is hitting the SLAs.
• Suggest improvements to our policies, procedures, tooling, and strategy to make the team more effective.
• Collaborate with Engineering, Product, and Partnerships to investigate complex, and at times urgent, issues facing users and the platform.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in Trust & Safety, content moderation, threat disruption, or a similar role within a fast-paced environment.
• Able to effectively handle a high volume of content. Can find efficiencies and make quick work of queues and tickets. Comfort in handling sensitive, potentially offensive, shocking, or extreme content.
• Aligned with Substack’s principles. Strong commitment to free speech and alignment with Substack’s moderation philosophy. (We highly recommend reading this post and this post by our founders and our content guidelines).
• Proficient with tools like Zendesk, moderation software, and custom internal enforcement systems.
• Independent and proactive, with the ability to make sound decisions under pressure, solve ambiguous problems, and drive work forward.
• Collaborative team player with strong written and verbal communication skills. Comfortable engaging with stakeholders and advocating for resources.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Strong data experience with an ability to define and track operational metrics, SLAs, and KPIs to ensure operational excellence.
• Managing the review operations of a content moderation team.

Substack’s compensation package includes a market competitive salary, equity for all full time roles, and exceptional benefits. Our cash compensation salary range for this role is $75,000 - $85,000. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above.

Substack is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or transgender status), age, national origin, veteran or disability status. We’re seeking people passionate about enabling independent expression and building a better business model for creators. If you want to see what media, communities, and content can become when unmoored from advertising models, and you have the skills and experience to contribute, we’d love to meet you.

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