Director - Control Management

At American Express, our culture is built on a 175-year history of innovation, shared values and leadership behaviors, and an unwavering commitment to back our customers, communities, and colleagues. As part of Team Amex, you’ll experience this powerful backing with comprehensive support for your holistic well-being and many opportunities to learn new skills, develop as a leader, and grow your career.

Here, your voice and ideas matter, your work makes an impact, and together, you will help us define the future of American Express.

Global Merchant & Network Services (GMNS) brings together American Express' merchant-and network related businesses to enable a sharp focus on using the power of our network to provide unique value to all our mutual customers. The organization manages the relationships with the millions of merchants around the world that accepts American Express and runs the company’s payment network and manages bank partnerships globally.

The objective of the GMNS Control Management Risk ID, Assessment, Testing team is to identify, assess, mitigate, and report on Operational Risk within BU processes for GMNS to ensure adherence to regulatory standards, Amex policy and enhance the BU's resilience through managing a clear methodology of inherent and residual risk.

GMNS is looking for a Director of Risk ID, Assessment, Testing to lead a diverse team of high-performing professionals focused on ensuring control management is embedded in the day-to-day operations of our organization. It will involve extensive collaboration with multiple partners across numerous business units, functional areas, and geographies.

The Director, GMNS Risk ID, Assessment, Testing will

• Provide additional identification of risks throughout business processes and systems (along with business process owners)
• Proactively identify areas of high-risk for intervention (e.g., automated alerts generated for high-risk areas signal need for intervention and focus), including conducting independent quality assurance and vertical process testing
• Drive the implementation and integration of Smart Monitoring (SM) across GMNS aligned with the ORM framework and in partnership with Global Risk & Compliance and process owners.
• Lead end-to-end SM use-case development, including data discovery, analytical test design, User Acceptance Testing, implementation, and post-implementation monitoring.
• Establish SM program governance and oversight, including program metrics, performance reporting, execution tracking, and senior management insights.
• Advance data-driven, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and analytical testing capabilities to proactively identify control weaknesses, emerging risks, and areas requiring intervention like financial crimes, pricing etc.
• Partner with the GMNS Data Office to advance AEMP 70/79 priorities, including identification and governance of Critical Data Elements and strengthening data-quality controls.
• Advance AI enablement for GMNS Control management
• Be a key leader for sharing insights, better practices, themes, etc. across the enterprise

Required Qualifications

• 6+ Years experience in operational risk management (e.g., within Risk and/or Internal Audit function) Understanding of critical operational risk management lifecycle activities
• Excellent project management, communication, and interpersonal skills, with an ability to interact and obtain buy-in from senior BU/tech counterparts
• Expertise in process governance, with a track record of establishing and overseeing robust decision-making processes that align with policies, regulatory frameworks, and/or operational standards
• Experience within financial services industry
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with an ability to analyze data, identify trends, and evaluate risk scenarios effectively
• Demonstrated hist ory and ability to manage large teams, spread over geographies and with varying backgrounds

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Finance, Business, Risk Mgmt., or related field; advanced degrees (e.g., MBA, MSc) or certifications are advantageous
• Experience in at least one of the following:
• Providing identification of operational risks throughout business processes and systems
• Facilitating risk assessment performance in addition to further assessments and testing programs to ensure regulatory and internal standards are met
• Enhancing risk assessments and associated methodologies
• Leading independent control monitoring, including identification of control improvements
• Identifying areas of risk for intervention, including conducting independent quality assurance and process testing
• Compiling thematic risk reporting to provide actionable insights on risk levels, emerging trends and root causes