Director-Enterprise Payments Product Operations

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.

About the Role

As part of the Global Merchant & Network Services group (GMNS), the Network & Acquirer Solutions (NAS) team is at the core of American Express, uniquely positioned to support every business unit and customer across the Enterprise. The American Express Network enables over $1.6 trillion in annual spend, serving our Issuers and Acquirers in more than 170 markets worldwide. We are driving a strategic, multi-year Enterprise Payments program to bring all payments together into a center of excellence to drive operational excellence for payment execution, enable innovative payment products, services, and capabilities to be built effectively and efficiently, support our BU strategies more closely, and deliver on our customers’ evolving payment needs.

This newly created role of Director, Product Operations is an exciting opportunity to establish and lead the risk, control, and compliance oversight program within the Enterprise Payments Center of Excellence (COE). The incumbent will play a key leadership role in shaping the team and operational foundation of a newly formed function that supports the enterprise-wide modernization of payment execution and governance.

The Director-Product Operations will focus on driving excellence in RCSA (Risk and Control Self-Assessment), Network Rules compliance, Regulatory compliance, and the creation and maintenance of an audit-ready product documentation repository. This role is ideal for a forward-thinking leader with a passion for operational rigor, strong governance practices, and proactive compliance management.

As this team is in the process of being formed, the successful candidate must be comfortable working in a dynamic environment where priorities and responsibilities may evolve:

• The governance team is responsible for a broad range of product operations and risk oversight initiatives, including Operational Risk Events, issue management, audits and exams, new product approval processes, operational resiliency, and other governance-related functions.

• Flexibility, adaptability, and a willingness to take on new tasks as the organization grows will be key to success

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of RCSA processes, ensuring effective identification, assessment, and mitigation of operational risks.

• Oversee Network Rules and regulatory compliance, ensuring all activities align with applicable payment scheme rules (e.g., Nacha, SEPA, The Clearing House, and other network standards).

• Develop, implement, and maintain a comprehensive governance framework for payment operations that ensures full compliance with regulatory and payments scheme rules requirements.

• Create and manage an audit-ready repository of product documentation, policies, and procedures to support regulatory, risk, and compliance readiness across the organization.

• Partner with cross-functional teams to strengthen enterprise compliance across all three lines of defense and support a culture of risk awareness and accountability.

• Monitor changes in regulatory and scheme requirements, assess impacts to Amex operations, and lead readiness initiatives to ensure timely and compliant adoption.

• Collaborate with Product, Risk, Compliance, Legal, and Audit teams to ensure cohesive governan