Director - GMNS Data Office

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.

Team Description

The Global Merchant & Network Services (GMNS) organization is responsible for managing relationships with millions of Merchants and Partners around the world that facilitate American Express acceptance and enabling the day-to-day operations of our company’s payment network. The people, processes, and technology that support this vital function are evolving to improve the merchant experience and economics. Within GMNS, the Global Strategy, Operations & Performance (GSOP) team’s mission is to deliver a best-in-class premium merchant member experience that will get merchant to not only accept American Express but openly welcome and recommend us to their customers.

The GMNS Data Office works on high-risk, high-impact projects that ensure GMNS compliance with the Enterprise Data Management Operating Policy (AEMP70) and Enterprise Data Risk Management Policy (AEMP79) and other Policies. Our team is dedicated to helping American Express leverage the true value of data through application of Data Management and Governance principles.

Role Description

As GMNS Data Office Director you will lead Tier 1 Key Report AEMP70 Data Governance as prioritized by the Enterprise. You will also be responsible for GMNS external Data Sharing support, and GMNS Project Guardian Data Workstream support. AEMP70 compliance requires identifying critical data, maintaining data definitions, classifying data, supporting data sourcing / usage requests, evaluating Data Risk Controls, and confirming Data Incidents are remediated. You will partner across various business units, technology teams, and product/platform teams to define and implement the data governance strategy, monitor and manage data risks, resolve data/platform issues, and drive consistency, usability, and governance of specific product data across the organization.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Advance data governance principles, policies, and programs for stewardship, advocacy, and custodianship of data.
• Manage data risks for the business unit in alignment with the Enterprise Data Risk Management Policy.
• Ensure compliance with defined roles and responsibilities under the Data Risk Management framework.
• Establish and test controls to manage data risk within approved appetite limits.
• Lead data incident planning, remediation coordination, and status reporting.
• Ensure complete and accurate system-level lineage documentation across business units.
• Collaborate with data owners and users to implement effective, repeatable data management processes.
• Partner with Third-Party Risk Management to validate adherence to enterprise data risk requirements.
• Align key data policies (e.g., quality, definition, sharing, usage) with supporting processes in collaboration with cross-functional teams.
• Develop and deliver scorecards and program updates for Data Office stakeholders.
• Lead GMNS external data sharing support, ensuring alignment with enterprise data governance and compliance standards.
• Direct the GMNS Project Guardian Data Workstream, driving execution and issue resolution across cross-functional teams.
• Serve as a strategic liaison across GMNS and enterprise partners to ensure data sharing, compliance, and project efforts are coordinated and effective.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in business, analytics, information systems, computer science, engineering, or any other data-related field.
• 8+ years of direct work experience in large scale/enterprise data projects. Experience in data Analytics, Data governance and/or data management programs required.
• Consistent record of understanding business challenges and strategies and connecting those to data and capabilities
• Strong working knowledge of current and upcoming data governance, data management and data product techniques and trends, with a point of view on the evolving concepts and standard methodologies
• Senior level program management experience, with partners across a diverse, global set of business units
• Demonstrable experience of driving meaningful improvements in business value through data management and strategy
• Ability to work with white space to design and complete solutions to solve sophisticated challenges.
• High-caliber communication skills, both in terms of preparing and delivering a strategic vision and updates to large groups and senior leaders
• Ability to put enterprise thinking first, connect the role’s agenda to enterprise priorities and balance the needs of customers, partners, colleagues & shareholders
• Demonstrated learning agility, ability to make decisions quickly and with the highest level of integrity
• Eagerness to test, learn, fail and improve is crucial
• Must have a positive, collaborative leadership style with colleagues and customer first attitude

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working in data-related functions in the Banking industry strongly preferred.
• Master's Degree preferred
• Certification as a Data Management Professional (CDMP) or other similar data management certification, experience working within the Collibra Data Intelligence Platform or other similar Data Governance tools welcomed.

Salary Range: $144,250.00 to $256,250.00 annually + bonus + equity (if applicable) + benefits

The above represents the expected salary range for this job requisition. Ultimately, in determining your pay, we’ll consider your location, experience, and other job-related factors.

We back you with benefits that support your holistic well-being so you can be and deliver your best. This means caring for you and your loved ones' physical, financial, and mental health, as well as providing the flexibility you need to thrive personally and professionally:

• Competitive base salaries
• Bonus incentives
• 6% Company Match on retirement savings plan
• Free financial coaching and financial well-being support
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and disability benefits
• Flexible working model with hybrid, onsite or virtual arrangements depending on role and business need
• 20+ weeks paid parental leave for all parents, regardless of gender, offered for pregnancy, adoption or surrogacy
• Free access to global on-site wellness centers staffed with nurses and doctors (depending on location)
• Free and confidential counseling support through our Healthy Minds program
• Career development and training opportunities

For a full list of Team Amex benefits, visit our Colleague Benefits Site.

American Express is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, disability status, age, or any other status protected by law. American Express will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with arrest or conviction records, in accordance with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including, but not limited to, the California Fair Chance Act, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance. For positions covered by federal and/or state banking regulations, American Express will comply with such regulations as it relates to the consideration of applicants with criminal convictions.

We back our colleagues with the support they need to thrive, professionally and personally. That's why we have Amex Flex, our enterprise working model that provides greater flexibility to colleagues while ensuring we preserve the important aspects of our unique in-person culture. Depending on role and business needs, colleagues will either work onsite, in a hybrid model (combination of in-office and virtual days) or fully virtually.

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Employment eligibility to work with American Express in the U.S. is required as the company will not pursue visa sponsorship for this position