Trust & Safety Manager, Critical Response

We're transforming the grocery industry At Instacart, we invite the world to share love through food because we believe everyone should have access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together. Where others see a simple need for grocery delivery, we see exciting complexity and endless opportunity to serve the varied needs of our community. We work to deliver an essential service that customers rely on to get their groceries and household goods, while also offering safe and flexible earnings opportunities to Instacart Personal Shoppers. Instacart has become a lifeline for millions of people, and we’re building the team to help push our shopping cart forward. If you’re ready to do the best work of your life, come join our table. Instacart is a Flex First team There’s no one-size fits all approach to how we do our best work. Our employees have the flexibility to choose where they do their best work—whether it’s from home, an office, or your favorite coffee shop—while staying connected and building community through regular in-person events. Learn more about our flexible approach to where we work. Overview Instacart’s Critical Response Team (CRT) is instrumental in managing some of the most sensitive and urgent situations on our platform. As the Critical Response Manager, you will lead a team of specialists and associates responsible for various workflows covering interpersonal misconduct, injuries, risk intelligence monitoring, and real-time public safety events that have potential impact on the platform. This is a high-visibility leadership role for someone who’s passionate about platform safety, thrives in complex and fast-moving environments, can build strong team culture under pressure, and brings both operational rigor and long-term strategic vision to their work. You will have the opportunity to work on safety problems that genuinely matter - your team’s decisions directly protect shoppers, customers, and retail partners. You will also lead a company’s investment in AI-augmented safety operations to shape how those tools evolve. About the role Define and execute the long-term roadmap for the Critical Response team, including tooling upgrades, program gap remediation and AI integrations. Lead continued development of current workflows and safety programs to improve case process accuracy and reduce operational redundancy. Partner with Customer Experience, Trust Safety leadership, Legal and Product teams to build more effective escalation and safety frameworks for the company to reduce risks. Ensure institutional knowledge is documented and scalable across all workflows. Audit and streamline existing workflows to reduce administrative burden and expand capacity for strategic, proactive work. Implement a clear framework for team’s operation capacity while balancing reactive case-handling and dedicated project deliveries Be able to use and interpret data to surface operational insights that drive process improvements and better safety outcomes. Mentoring the team. Build a high-trust, high-engagement team culture. Establish clear career paths and growth opportunities for all members in the team. Ensuring all team members have clear ownership, development opportunities, and a sense of purpose. Owns team performance across urgent and routine Salesforce cases and safety alert systems. Ensure operational coverage; proactively manage scheduling, escalations, and coverage gaps. Serves as one of the primary escalation points for critical incidents This role is ideal for someone who thrives in an ever-changing landscape, enjoys turning complexity into clarity, and is excited about driving strategic improvements at scale. About You Minimum Qualifications 5+ years of experience in Trust Safety, crisis response, or a related operations function. 5+ years of background in policy development or risk analytics 3+ years of directly engaging with regulatory compliance and law enforcement workflows. 3+ year ... (truncated, view full listing at source)