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.

 

Director, Digital Product Operations  - GMNS Products

About GMNS Products (formerly, Network & Acquirer Solutions)

GMNS Products (formerly, NAS) is leading the effort to modernize our acquiring ecosystem and strengthen regulatory and controls across GMNS. This unique role offers the opportunity to establish and run the Project Management Office (PMO) that will centrally manage incoming control & compliance mandates across GMNS and convert a fragmented request landscape into an organized, prioritized, and sustainable operating model.

Role summary

Reporting to the VP of Multicurrency & Payments Products, the Director will build and lead a PMO function specifically responsible for intake, prioritization, and ongoing governance of mandates (control, compliance, regulatory, and other high-priority asks) across GMNS. The role requires immediate, practical problem solving — triaging a list of active requests today — and then designing a repeatable prioritization and delivery engine that senior stakeholders trust.

This is a high-visibility, Director role that demands strong program discipline, technical fluency to understand requirements, exceptional PowerPoint/storytelling for decisions, and the independence to design and deploy solutions quickly.

Key responsibilities

Stand up the Mandates PMO: design intake, categorization, scoring, prioritization, and delegation processes tailored to control & compliance workstreams.

Triage the current backlog: lead an immediate assessment of outstanding requests — grouping by scope, risk, regulatory impact, effort, and owner — and propose a prioritized, time-phased plan relative to budget constraints.

Create decision-ready materials: craft executive-level presentations for key stakeholders that clearly surface options, tradeoffs, and recommended sequencing to secure approvals.

Implement governance & cadence: define SLAs, RACI, escalation paths, milestone reporting, and a single source of truth for request status and KPIs.

Operationalize prioritization: introduce a pragmatic scoring model and intake toolkit (templates, tooling recommendations, workflow rules) to keep new demand regulated.

Partner across functions: work closely with Compliance, Control Management, Legal, Product, Technology, Delivery, and Business Owners to align requirements, dependencies, and delivery timelines.

Embed continuous improvement: measure throughput, cycle times, and stakeholder satisfaction; iterate on processes and tools to increase predictability and reduce rework.

Evangelize & influence: win alignment and sponsorship from senior leaders; act as the PMO’s advocate in town halls, leadership forums, and cross-LOB meetings.

Required experience & skills

Proven PMO or program leadership building intake/prioritization processes in complex, matrixed organizations.

Comfortable managing control & compliance mandates and engaging with Risk, Legal, and Regulatory stakeholders.

Strong technical acumen — able to interpret technical requirements and dependencies and translate into delivery impact.

Exceptional PowerPoint and executive storytelling skills; able to create concise decision materials.

Highly detail-oriented, rigorous, and process-driven with a bias for pragmatic solutions.

Strong influencer — able to win senior stakeholder approvals without direct authority.

Track record of operating independently and producing results quickly in ambiguous environments.

Preferred

Experience in payments, merchant acquiring, or financial services regulatory programs.

Familiarity with portfolio management tooling and workflow platforms (e.g., JIRA Portfolio, ServiceNow, or equivalent intake tools).

Previous success reducing backlog or stabilizing high-volume intake pipelines.

Behavioral traits & culture fit

Independent-minded and creative — designs bold, practical solutions.

Decisive under uncertainty; provides well-formed recommendations and options.

Collaborative, but willing to challenge the status quo to improve outcomes.

High emotional intelligence and credibility with senior leaders.

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 Support for financial-well-being and retirement Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and disability benefits (depending on location) Flexible working model with hybrid, onsite or virtual arrangements depending on role and business need Generous paid parental leave policies (depending on your location) 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

Offer of employment with American Express is conditioned upon the successful completion of a background verification check, subject to applicable laws and regulations.