---
title: 'Policy & Escalations Specialist at Substack'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/policy-escalations-specialist-substack-new-york-kav7kg1p46wd'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-06'
---

# Policy & Escalations Specialist at Substack

- **Company:** Substack
- **Location:** New York, NY
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-09-03
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-06
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/substack/04ff0980-7775-4fcc-bb09-649c338f2eca

## Job description

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.

Substack's Standards & Enforcement team writes and enforces the rules that shape what happens on the platform. We're looking for a Policy Specialist who can turn messy, real-world abuse patterns into clear, defensible, and enforceable policy, and who reaches for data and AI tooling to do it faster and better than a purely qualitative approach would allow.

This is a mix of policy, escalations and content review roles. You'll spend half of your time researching, drafting, and stress-testing policy. But you'll be expected to ground that work in evidence: how often does this behavior actually occur, who does it affect, what happens when we enforce, and what breaks when we don't. The content review part of this role ensures that you are always in tune with the evolving harm patterns in the platform and the escalations management part of the role ensures that the policy lines are consistently applied in high profile escalations.

## WHAT YOU'LL DO

- Write and update our platform rules, plus the internal guidance our tools and reviewers use day to day; what counts, where the line is, what to do in the tricky cases.
- Investigate new kinds of abuse as they show up (spam, scams, groups working together to game the platform, harassment, sensitive content) and recommend how our rules should respond.
- Pull your own numbers to size up a problem and check whether our response is working, how common it is, how much we're acting on, how often people appeal and win.
- Use AI tools to speed up policy and enforcement work; sorting review queues, summarizing long cases, spotting patterns across reports, and be willing to challenge those tools when they get it wrong.
- Spend at least 50% of the time in queue review to get a hands-on understanding of current policies and the opportunities to improve them.
- Develop the escalations management process and work with Legal, Product, Engineering, Support, and Comms on escalations that cross team lines.
- Manage escalations involving illegal content categories with appropriate urgency, discretion, and reporting discipline.
- Project manage the action items from different escalations and develop collateral for effective escalation management (ex. escalation playbook: intake criteria, SLAs, severity tiers, and handoff paths).
- Handle the hardest cases, the ones that set a precedent, and write down your reasoning clearly enough that it holds up months later.

## WHAT YOU NEED

- 2–4 years working on content rules, Trust & Safety, or something close to it (law, regulatory work, investigative research). Experience actually writing policy is a plus.
- Comfort with data. You can write SQL, work in a spreadsheet, and tell whether a number really supports the point someone is making. You don't need to be a data scientist. You do need to refuse to make a claim you can't back up.
- Real experience with AI tools and curiosity to explore new solutions. You've used them for more than drafting text, you know where they tend to fail, and correct them when the output is wrong.
- Strong, clear writing. The test is whether a reviewer can use what you wrote without asking you what you meant.
- Good judgment when the answer isn't obvious, and the steadiness to make a call you can defend.
- Willingness to look at upsetting content as part of core work. We provide support for this.
- This will be a Sunday to Thursday shift role.

## NICE TO HAVE

- Familiarity with online safety regulation in the EU and UK. Experience turning regulatory requirements into operational guidelines.
- Project management experience is a plus.
- Experience with illegal content escalation workflows (NCMEC reporting, geoblocking decisions, LE request handling).

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.

Please see our Privacy Notice for details regarding Substack's collection and use of personal information relating to the application and recruitment process by clicking here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UjmY1acxnd27iIde83PxR7XdecR29aIyfkkmEOwAMGY/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.a0wuzmt3mjmm.

## About Substack

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Substack provides a platform for independent writers, podcasters, and creators to publish, build audiences, and earn revenue directly through paid subscriptions.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series C)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA (with a new office in New York City)
- **Founded**: 2017
- **Founders**: Chris Best (CEO), Jairaj Sethi (CTO), Hamish McKenzie (CWO)

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Media, Publishing, Creator Economy, SaaS
- Target customers: Individual writers, podcasters, video creators, independent publishers, media companies, experts, and educators (B2C and B2B)
- Mission or purpose statement: "To build a new economic engine for culture — empowering writers, creators, and publishers to own their work, own their audience, and earn directly from their ideas."

## Products & Services
- **Publishing Platform**: A full-featured CMS and writing tool designed for longform content, with support for posts, newsletters, scheduling, and media embedding.
- **Substack App**: A mobile and web app that connects readers with creators, featuring discovery tools like recommendations, Notes, trending topics, and leaderboards.
- **Native Podcasting**: Built-in recording studio and live video capabilities, with automatic distribution to Substack, Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, including premium episode options.
- **Payments & Subscription Management**: Handles all billing, subscriber management, and revenue tools (welcome sequences, win-back campaigns, analytics). Creators keep 90% of revenue minus credit card fees.
- **Community Tools**: Subscriber chats, comment threads, and moderation features to turn publications into communities.
- **Substack Defender**: Legal support program providing publishers access to legal fees, advice, and pre-publication review for defamation, trademark, and copyright issues.
- **Network Discovery**: Built-in growth engine where more than half of new subscribers come from within Substack’s network, including recommendations and collaborations.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (last raised $100M in Series C in July 2025)
- **Key Metric**: Over 5 million paid subscriptions across the network; more than 30% of paid subscriptions come from within Substack’s network; tens of millions of posts discovered daily in the app.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Andreessen Horowitz, BOND, The Chernin Group (TCG); part of Y Combinator’s winter 2018 batch.
- **Growth Signals**: Raised $100M Series C in July 2025; team has grown to over 100 people across the US, Canada, and UK; opened a new New York City office; top writers earn millions annually.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Creator-first economic model**: Writers keep 90% of revenue, own their audience and content, and can leave anytime with no platform fees or contracts.
- **Built-in network effects**: More than half of new subscribers come from within the platform’s discovery tools, reducing the need for creators to build audiences from scratch.
- **All-in-one platform**: Combines publishing, payments, growth tools, analytics, podcasting, video, and community management — no technical expertise required.
- **Legal support**: Substack Defender provides unique legal protection that reduces risk for independent publishers.
- **Brand trust and ecosystem**: A recognized leader in the creator economy with a strong network of high-profile writers and millions of paying subscribers.

## Strategic Focus
- Expanding the platform beyond newsletters into a full "media app" for all creator formats (writing, podcasting, video, live content).
- Growing the network effect through recommendations, Notes, and app-driven discovery to reduce customer acquisition costs for creators.
- Scaling the enterprise offering for media companies and full newsrooms.
- Deepening community features to increase subscriber engagement and retention.
- Building out the New York City office to expand talent and presence on the East Coast.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Small but growing team (100+ people) with a strong mission-driven focus on empowering creators and independent culture. Every employee participates in customer support to build empathy with users.
- **Remote/Hybrid Policy**: Hybrid model; employees can work from San Francisco HQ, the new New York office, or remotely across the US, Canada, and UK.
- **Benefits**: 100% premium coverage for employees and dependents (health care), fully funded HRA plans, generous parental leave, monthly internet/phone stipend, flexible vacation, 12 paid holidays, and a winter office shutdown between Christmas Eve and New Year’s.
- **Engineering Culture**: Pragmatic approach to problem-solving, shipping high-quality products; team works on a platform that directly impacts millions of creators and subscribers.
- **Perks**: Home office customization allowance, internet stipends, and a strong emphasis on work-life balance with flexible time off.

## Sources
1. [substack.com/about](https://substack.com/about)
2. [substack.com/jobs](https://substack.com/jobs)
3. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/substack](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/substack)
4. [builtin.com/company/substack](https://builtin.com/company/substack)
5. [linkedin.com/company/substack](https://www.linkedin.com/company/substack)

## Other roles at Substack

- [Standards & Enforcement Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/standards-enforcement-specialist-substack-ghqd32c5jkkc)
- [Head of News & Politics Partnerships](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-news-politics-partnerships-substack-washington-jpd9ssxkvzpt) — Washington, DC
- [Full Stack Software Engineer - Growth](https://feeny.ai/job/full-stack-software-engineer-growth-substack-san-francisco-6gx3t3csqqmg) — San Francisco, CA
- [Head of Business, Tech & Finance Partnerships](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-business-tech-finance-partnerships-substack-san-francisco-nztw2raxcs74) — San Francisco, CA
- [Full Stack Software Engineer - Community](https://feeny.ai/job/full-stack-software-engineer-community-substack-san-francisco-3egnsnq51z9p) — San Francisco, CA
- [Head of Strategic FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis)](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-strategic-fp-a-financial-planning-analysis-substack-san-francisco-cdknwj64tt76) — San Francisco, CA
- [Director, Strategic Business Operations (BizOps)](https://feeny.ai/job/director-strategic-business-operations-bizops-substack-san-francisco-m3mjcgteaswc) — San Francisco, CA
- [Implementation Lead, Brand Partnerships](https://feeny.ai/job/implementation-lead-brand-partnerships-substack-new-york-fhbgsk1f5h84) — New York, NY
- [Sales Manager, Brand Partnerships](https://feeny.ai/job/sales-manager-brand-partnerships-substack-new-york-nkw874qh9wxz) — New York, NY
- [Creative Strategist, Brand Partnerships](https://feeny.ai/job/creative-strategist-brand-partnerships-substack-new-york-d6rxxkqw6gjp) — New York, NY