Director-Compliance Risk Assessment

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.

How will you make an impact in this role?

Global Compliance and Ethics (GCE), is responsible for establishing and maintaining a robust compliance program that ensures American Express is adhering to laws, regulations, and internal policies while fostering a culture of integrity and effective second line independent Compliance oversight.

The Director, Compliance Risk Assessment Program, is a key member of the 2nd Line of Defense (2LOD) Compliance Risk Management team responsible for designing, governing, and overseeing the enterprise-wide Compliance Risk Assessment (CRA) framework. This role supports the consistency, integrity, and strategic execution of the CRA program by providing oversight, guidance, and credible challenges to compliance officers who perform the assessments.

This position is not responsible for executing business-level CRAs but ensures the methodologies, tools, and procedures are effectively implemented and aligned to regulatory expectations and internal risk governance standards.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the design, enhancement, and maintenance of the enterprise CRA methodology, including inherent risk, control effectiveness, residual risk, and risk aggregation criteria.
• Provide governance and oversight of the CRA lifecycle across all lines of business and legal entities.
• Coordinate and facilitate annual CRA planning cycles, timelines, and reporting deliverables.
• Establish and manage controls to ensure consistent application of CRA methodology across business units.
• Partner with Compliance Officers, Risk SMEs, Operational Risk, Audit, and other stakeholders to review results, identify risk themes, and challenge risk rationales.
• Develop executive reporting and dashboards for Compliance, Risk Committees, and senior leadership.
• Monitor regulatory developments and industry best practices to inform updates to the CRA methodology.
• Provide training, communication, and guidance to ensure awareness and understanding of CRA expectations.
• Support regulatory exams, internal audit reviews, and issue remediation activities related to CRA.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, law, business, or a related field.
• 10+ years of experience in Compliance, Risk Management, Internal Audit, or a related field within financial services.
• Strong understanding of regulatory compliance frameworks, enterprise risk management, and control evaluation.
• Experience designing or overseeing risk assessments in a complex, matrixed organization.
• Demonstrated ability to provide effective challenge and influence without direct authority.
• Excellent understanding of compliance risk management frameworks and the three lines of defense model.
• Professional experience in handling Risk Assessments and clear understanding of inherent risk, residual risk and control effectiveness principles.
• Strong leadership and interpersonal skills with the ability to influence and collaborate with people at all levels of the organization.
• Exceptional problem-solving, analytical, and decision-making skills, with the ability to balance business objectives with regulatory requirements.
• Excellent project management and organizational skill, with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment while maintaining attention to detail.
• Ability to both work independently and collaboratively with team-members and to navigate a complex organization.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills for preparing and delivering reports, presentations, and policy documents.
• Experience in delivering high quality work products, reflecting attention to detail.
• Must be a self-starter flexible, innovative, and adaptive
• Advanced analytics, PowerPoint and excel skills with an ability to learn new tools quickly.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree or relevant certifications (e.g., CAMS, CRCM) are a plus.

Salary Range: $130,000.00 to $205,000.00 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 these positions.