Senior Manager - Risk Management

Global Merchant & Network Services (GMNS) powers the American Express global payments network, enabling more than $1.9 trillion in annual spend across 170+ markets. The GMNS Product Team is responsible for driving products, capabilities, and partnerships that enable merchants, acquirers, ISVs, and payment facilitators to connect to the American Express Network with speed, scale, and reliability. This newly created Senior Manager role within GMNS Product & Business Operations is an exciting opportunity to lead critical control, oversight, and operational risk management activities across GMNS Product. The individual will serve as the central program manager for end-to-end planning and execution of regulatory examinations, internal/regulatory audits, and cross-functional risk reviews. They will coordinate responses across business units, Control Management, Compliance, Legal, Technology, and other stakeholders to ensure audit deliverables are accurate, complete, and delivered on schedule. They will drive transparency, accountability, and executive reporting while proactively identifying risks, resolving issues, and strengthening operating discipline. This individual will be a strong operator with a control mindset, able to manage multiple priorities, navigate ambiguity, build trusted partnerships across levels, and influence outcomes in a complex global stakeholder environment. The role requires close collaboration with local and central Product teams, 1st line and 2nd line of defense teams in Risk, Compliance, Control Management, and senior leaders across global markets. The role will report to Director, GMNS Product Business Operations, based in New York, and will focus on the following: Lead the end-to-end project management of regulatory examinations, internal/external audits, and enterprise risk reviews across GMNS Product. Develop project plans, milestones, dependencies, decision forums, and executive reporting to support successful audit execution. Coordinate cross-functional stakeholders, including Risk, Compliance, Legal, Technology, Operations, Finance, and business teams, to deliver timely, high-quality responses to audit requests. Manage audit deliverables, remediation plans, and commitments, ensuring milestones are met and supporting evidence is complete, accurate, and delivered on schedule. Facilitate working sessions and executive steering committees, providing clear status updates, risk assessments, decision points, and escalation recommendations. Identify project risks, interdependencies, and resource constraints, proactively driving mitigation strategies and issue resolution. Partner with senior leaders to prioritize competing deliverables, align stakeholders, and ensure enterprise objectives are achieved. Develop and continuously improve PMO standards, reporting routines, and best practices to enhance audit readiness and execution. Analyze audit trends, recurring findings, and process gaps to recommend sustainable improvements and strengthen the control environment. Build trusted relationships across Product, Risk, Compliance, and senior stakeholder groups, influencing alignment, followership, and accountability without direct authority. Support control and risk capability-building across GMNS Product by defining and delivering skills training and change programs. Champion new processes related to management policies by owning review and approval routines, communicating best practices, and maintaining required documentation. 6+ years of experience in Program Management, Project Management, Risk Management, Regulatory Affairs, Audit, Compliance, or Control Management. Relevant experience in operational risk, controls, audit, compliance, process assurance, payments operations, or a related financial services environment. Ability to thrive in ambiguity while driving structure, accountability, and execution Exceptional project management, organization, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to manage multiple concurrent initiatives. Excellent executive communication and presentation skills, including experience preparing materials for senior leadership. Proven ability to influence, negotiate, and drive results in a complex cross-functional environment. Enterprise mindset with the ability to balance regulatory expectations and business objectives. Strategic thinker with a continuous improvement mindset focused on enhancing operational effectiveness and ways of working. Demonstrated ownership, accountability, and attention to detail, with a proactive approach to resolving issues, strengthening controls, and improving ways of working. Positive, resilient, and collaborative working style, with a can-do attitude and a sense of humor will be greatly appreciated. Experience with project management methodologies and tools (e.g., Agile, Waterfall, Jira, Smartsheet, Microsoft Project) is preferred. Knowledge of regulatory examinations, internal audit processes, control frameworks, and issue management will be an added plus. Employment eligibility to work with American Express in the United States is required as the company will not pursue visa sponsorship for these positions.