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. From delivering differentiated products to providing world-class customer service, we operate with a strong risk mindset, ensuring we continue to uphold our brand promise of trust, security, and service.

Role Purpose:

The Manager - Colleague Benefits Operations is responsible for leading and managing the end-to-end administration of colleague insurance, health, and retirement benefit programs in an APAC centric operating environment. The role requires expertise in people leadership, operational governance, and compliance with Indian and other APAC markets statutory and regulatory frameworks, while ensuring a consistent, accurate, and colleague-centric benefits experience.

Key Responsibilities:

Benefits Operations:

- Oversee administration of colleague benefits for India markets including group medical, group term life, company car, group personal accident, gratuity, superannuation, and provident fund (EPF)

- Oversee administration of colleague benefits for other APAC markets including Flex insurance, Social security, retirement plans, loans, etc

- Ensure accurate processing of enrollments, exits, dependents, claims coordination, and life event changes

- Manage colleague benefit servicing requests with defined SLA's and quality standards

- Partner with Payroll to ensure accurate deductions, contributions, and statutory filings

Expert People Leadership:

- Provide strong people leadership to a team of benefits operations professionals, setting clear expectations and driving high performance

- Coach, mentor, and develop team members, building deep functional capability and succession readiness

- Lead through change, including process transformation, automation, and policy updates

- Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and colleague empathy

Vendor & Stakeholder Management:

- Act as the primary operational owner for relationships with insurers, TPAs, PF trusts, gratuity trusts, and superannuation fund managers

- Manage vendor performance against contractual SLAs and resolve escalations effectively

- Partner closely with HR Business Partners, Payroll, Finance, Legal, and Compliance teams

- Support annual renewals, policy negotiations, and benefit plan transitions

Process Excellence & Governance:

- Drive operational excellence through standardization, simplification, and automation of benefits processes

- Maintain robust SOPs, process controls, and documentation aligned to audit and compliance requirements

- Lead continuous improvement initiatives to reduce errors, turnaround time, and colleague escalations

- Ensure data integrity, confidentiality, and adherence to information security standards

Dashboard Reporting & Metrics:

- Design, maintain, and own operational dashboards covering volumes, turnaround time, accuracy, backlog, SLA adherence, and colleague escalations

- Establish and track key performance indicators (KPIs) and key risk indicators (KRIs) for benefits operations

- Analyze trends and provide actionable insights to senior leadership

- Ensure data integrity and consistency across reporting systems and vendors

Risk Management & Operational Resilience:

- Identify, assess, and manage operational risks across benefits processes

- Define and maintain risk and control frameworks aligned with enterprise risk standards

- Conduct regular risk assessments, control testing, and scenario analysis

- Ensure business continuity and operational resilience for critical benefits processes

Operational Risk Events & Issue Management:

- Own the end-to-end management of operational risk events, including identification, documentation, impact assessment, and remediation

- Lead root cause analysis (RCA) and implement preventive and corrective actions

- Track and report risk events, near misses, and control failures to governance forums

- Ensure timely closure and sustainable resolution of audit findings and risk actions

Compliance, Risk & APAC Regulatory Framework:

- Ensure compliance with market labor and benefits regulations,

- Support statutory audits, internal audits, and regulatory inspections

- Identify and mitigate operational, compliance, and vendor risks

- Ensure accurate statutory reporting and timely submissions

Key Skills & Competencies:

- Expert people leadership and team management capabilities

- Deep knowledge of APAC colleague benefits and statutory frameworks

- Strong operational, analytical, and problem-solving skills

- Proven experience managing vendors and third-party administrators

- Ability to influence and collaborate with senior stakeholders

- High attention to detail with a strong control mindset

- Colleague-centric service orientation

Qualifications & Experience:

- Masters degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Finance, or related field

- 8-12 years of experience in colleague benefits operations or HR shared services, with significant India exposure

- Demonstrated experience leading teams in a complex, high-volume environment

- Hands-on experience with insurers, TPA's, pension trusts is highly desirable

- Experience supporting audits and regulatory compliance in APAC is required

Compliance Language:

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

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.