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:

• Bachelo