American Express - Director - Regulatory Compliance & Operational Excellence

Director - Regulatory Compliance & Operational Excellence

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At American Express, you'll be recognized for your contributions, leadership, and impact-every colleague has the opportunity to share in the company's success. Together, we'll win as a team, striving to uphold our company values and powerful backing promise to provide the world's best customer experience every day. And we'll do it with the utmost integrity, and in an environment where everyone is seen, heard and feels like they belong.

Join Team Amex and let's lead the way together.

Operational Excellence Job Description:

- International Operational Excellence (OE) is responsible for supporting our international issuing and acquiring businesses across 27+ countries and ensuring they have a robust first line of defence. International OE plays an active role in enabling the businesses to meet their growth objectives whilst demonstrating an effective control framework. Our organization helps our international businesses manage risk, respond to new regulation, and develop new products whilst creating and nurturing effective partnerships across multiple key stakeholders across the organization.

- This will mean being a trusted advisor supporting the business on assessing, mitigating, and accepting risk; ensuring a strong control focus is integrated into day-to-day operations, that local Legal Entities operational risk processes are appropriately managed, in ensuring issues and risks are managed fast and effectively with root causes identified and addressed, and in supporting business initiatives to enable strong business growth in the region.

- This role requires strong operations and risk management skills, as well excellent relationship management abilities with the skill to impact and influence at all levels, with extensive collaboration with multiple partners across numerous business units and functional groups across the Three Lines of Defence.

Introduction:

Reporting into the VP Issuing Operational Excellence in India, this exciting new position will lead the Issuing Operational Excellence team. The role will be responsible for actively supporting the issuing business to deliver on its business objectives, and for ensuring it is executing effectively against local and central control and compliance expectations. This role will also have responsibility for the implementation of the AEBC Legal Entity Controls Framework and for the oversight of the effectiveness of the India branch entity control framework.

Job Responsibilities:

- Actively supporting the business in delivering change, ensuring that governance processes are crisp, efficient, and effective.

- Ensuring that AEBC India has an effective framework for Process Management that ensures processes well are designed, meet applicable requirements, are supported through robust controls, integrated testing, and there are appropriate investment in capabilities.

- Timely & effective resolution of risks and issues, supported by effective prevention framework to identify & eliminate their root causes.

- Ensuring risks related to Third Parties, Partners & Legal Entities are managed in line with regulatory & AXP expectations.

- Ensuring that AEBC India Operational Excellence is a trusted partner to AEBC India business in supporting them meeting their expectations, and in doing so, operates efficiently, leveraging centers of excellence where applicable, but also ensuring strong business focus and presence.

- Issue Management - Supporting business processes to effectively manage and resolve issues. Drive early detection of risks and issues, supporting the business to fix them rapidly, in line with risk appetite. Support the business activities to prevent customer-impacting issues via effective processes and controls design and execution.

- Governance framework: Ensure that the Governance Framework adopted is effective and streamlined, aligned with AXP Governance Standards, effectively supports business processes, change management, and meets external regulatory requirements.

- Enabling business growth and Change Management - Manage the end-to-end risk assessment process for all new products, platforms, and capabilities, supporting and enabling business growth. The incumbent will be responsible for ensuring that the Change Management program is compliant with the Enterprise AEMP 54 management policy and Operational Excellence Governing standards. This position will be responsible for conducting training and awareness sessions to ensure that teams are consistently educated on the policy requirements.

- Third Party Risk - Support sound execution of the TLMP program. Provide guidance to the business to manage vendor risks by ensuring appropriate risk assessments and the closure of issues in line with the TLMP framework. Effectively engage and leverage central team for relevant subject matter expertise and program management to ensure streamlined efforts and efficiencies are gained in management of vendor risk.

- Audit Engagement - Support the business in managing audits. Provide and recommend pre-audit submissions of self-identified findings, monitor all audit MAPs to ensure they are closed in a timely manner, participate in all audit meetings, and provide operational risk input into audit findings.

- Process Risk Self-Assessment - Support process owners in creating and documenting their process in addition to the risks and controls in their process using the PRSA methodology. Facilitate the annual Risk Assessment Questionnaire refresh process. Ensure robust coverage of processes through the PRSA program and execute all PRSA framework requirements.

- Effectively engage and liaise with the Central Ops Excellence (CoE) teams to support and streamline key Business Process and Business Self Testing programs.

- Training and Awareness: Drive Operational Excellence, control and compliance principles and standards, delivering tailored training as required.

Recommended Skills/Qualifications:

- Minimum 15 years' experience in Operational Excellence, Compliance, Operational Risk, or a related discipline, ideally in more than one of these disciplines.

- Ability to demonstrate experience of operating at both first and second line will be a strong advantage.

- Deep knowledge of the AEBC India issuing and acquiring business, processes and systems and business partners

- Experience working in the India market in Financial Services, ideally both within Amex and in other organizations.

- Experienced people leader with the ability to lead and motivate a team of colleagues.

- Ability to thrive in a fast paced and fluid business environment.

- Demonstrates excellent interpersonal skills including collaborating and influence abilities with proven ability to operate successfully across the matrix, at all band levels. Strong communicator, with experience of engaging with senior management.

- Demonstrated ability to partner with stakeholders to drive effective issue identification and resolution.

- Demonstrated experience of dealing with risk and control programs.

- Proven ability to develop and enhance local market control and compliance frameworks.

- Experience in business process improvement, control design and development of control and process testing.

- Proven program management skills and strong change management experience. Understanding of Agile methodology highly desirable

- Outstanding verbal and written communication skills, alongside excellent analytical skills, and rigor

- Demonstrated dedication to using best practices, external and internal, to improve speed and effectiveness of execution.

Academic Background:

- CA/MBA or Postgraduate with preferably a master's degree or equivalent

- Compliance Language

- We back our colleagues and their loved ones with benefits and programs that support their holistic well-being. That means we prioritize their physical, financial, and mental health through each stage of life. Benefits include:

- 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

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.

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