Trust & Safety leader

Steven Macchia

10+ years in Trust & Safety and online communities. I built a Trust & Safety function from zero and grew it into a program covering policy, moderation operations, child safety, privacy and AI-assisted enforcement.

I also build practical tools for product and safety teams working to keep people safe online, and I share them free.

Open to roles
Director, Head of and Senior Trust & Safety rolesRemote, or hybrid in Raleigh–Durham
Built a T&S function from zeroand grew it into a program covering policy, operations, child safety, privacy and AI-assisted enforcement
Millions of uploads a dayenforcement guidance, escalation workflows and a user reputation system for a gaming platform at that scale
NCMEC and law enforcementset up the partnership and run CSAM escalations with NCMEC and law enforcement
GDPR, CCPA and the DSAprivacy and compliance for high-volume UGC platforms, with the vendor budget for AI moderation

T&S Workbench

A free, open set of Trust & Safety tools I built

Tools for finding risks before launch, rehearsing incidents, measuring what matters, choosing vendors and writing clearer policy. The knowledge behind them is published as open content. Private by default: work is saved only in your browser, and AI runs only when you ask.

58 abuse risks · 104 safeguards · 33 legal obligations · 43 crisis scenarios · 36 metrics · 48 DSA duties

Nine tools, one assessment

A guided assessment that fills in one picture of a Trust & Safety program: a score, each part graded, three radars and what to do first. Shown with the demo company.

Try itHow it works

Experience

Trust & Safety and online communities since 2016

  1. Head of Global Compliance and Trust & Safety

    Medal

    Lead compliance and Trust & Safety for high-volume UGC platforms: AI-assisted moderation, privacy (GDPR, CCPA, DSA), youth safety, and CSAM escalations with NCMEC and law enforcement. Manage the vendor budget across multiple AI moderation and transcription vendors.

  2. Program Manager, Trust & Safety, then Safety Manager

    Medal

    Built out the Trust & Safety program for a gaming platform handling millions of uploads a day: enforcement guidance, escalation workflows for child safety and severe harm, and the company's partnership with NCMEC. Led the build of a user reputation system and the move to AI-assisted moderation.

  3. Program Manager, Community Operations

    Medal

    Built Medal's first Trust & Safety team, alongside its community, social and support functions. Wrote the Community Standards and enforcement playbooks from scratch.

  4. Trust & Safety Team Lead

    Cognizant

    Managed three team managers, each leading about 30 moderation and community operations staff, and sent urgent policy guidance across a site of more than 300 moderators. Promoted to Supervisor in 2018.

What I work on

  • Policy and enforcement
  • Moderation operations
  • AI-assisted moderation
  • Child and youth safety
  • NCMEC and law enforcement
  • Privacy: GDPR, CCPA, DSA
  • Vendor governance
  • Escalations and crisis response

Education

B.A., Humanitarian InterventionThe New School, New York · 2017