Manager, Guardian PMO Financial Crimes

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.

The Global Strategy, Operations & Performance (GSOP) team serves as a Center of Excellence within Global Merchant and Network Services (GMNS) business unit, focusing on enterprise-level strategy, performance management, and operational delivery. We're a fast-moving, high-impact team tackling the company’s most important priorities.

The Risk & Remediation program management office (PMO) is specifically focused on driving GMNS process excellence, Legal Entity Governance, 1LOD Compliance, Data Governance and managing large risk-related initiatives for GMNS.

The GMNS PMO team’s objective is to drive the successful delivery of Project Guardian—a key initiative to enhance the Operational Risk and Control Management strategy within GMNS through strong program management and deep enterprise partnerships.

The successful candidate will support a high-priority, enterprise-wide program, providing global program management across key workstreams and deliverables to advance GMNS toward a more robust risk management model. This role offers exposure to multiple teams across GMNS l and the broader American Express organization.

How will you make an impact in this role?

This role is critical to the successful delivery of Guardian, a high-priority, enterprise-level transformation designed to elevate Operational Risk and Control Management across GMNS. The Manager will provide strategic program leadership and coordination across complex GMNS workstreams, business unit leaders, and enterprise partners, while maintaining close collaboration with Second Line, Third Line, and key enabling functions to ensure the highest standards of governance, control, and compliance.

The successful candidate will be a results-driven transformation leader with a proven ability to operate in fast-paced, high-visibility environments, demonstrate strong executive presence, and influence outcomes across a highly matrixed organization. This role offers significant exposure to senior leaders across GMNS and the broader enterprise, with the opportunity to shape and embed a more mature, sustainable risk management model.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and oversee the end-to-end GMNS cross-functional Guardian workplan, ensuring disciplined execution, effective risk management, and timely delivery of all critical program milestones and outcomes
• Serve as the central program management function for Guardian, acting as a trusted conduit between GMNS executive sponsors, business leads, and workstream owners to ensure alignment, transparency, and cohesive delivery
• Provide strategic PMO oversight and active support to the Financial Crimes workstream, a critical enabler of Guardian’s success, ensuring strong integration with broader risk & control objectives
• Partner closely with CLM Leadership, Control Management, Legal Entity Governance, Network & Acquiring Solutions, Financial Crimes, and Second Line of Defense (2LOD) teams to drive enterprise alignment and execution
• Drive senior-level communication and reporting, including progress updates, milestone tracking, risk and dependency management, and escalation of key issues and decision points to enable timely resolution
• C