VP, Financial Crimes Investigations Capabilities

The Global Risk & Compliance Organization (“GRC”) independently oversees the company’s risk-taking and risk management activities, including the comprehensive identification, management, and mitigation of risks within the Company’s risk appetite. GRC ensures the company operates in a safe, sound and fully compliant manner within all applicable regulatory expectations. We create and maintain the overall risk management framework while ensuring legal and regulatory compliance. Our culture in Global Risk & Compliance is all about thinking outside the box, challenging the status quo and striving to be best-in-class.

We are passionate about our commitment to drive the company’s goals of growth and progress by creating a culture of awareness and proactivity around regulatory matters, and by engaging closely with business units across the enterprise to ensure we deliver maximum value to our shareholders and our customers efficiently and effectively.

We are seeking a highly experienced Vice President to join our Enterprise Risk Management and Risk Oversight (ERM&RO) function within GRC and lead our Global Financial Crimes Compliance (“GFCC”) Investigations Capabilities team. This role will focus on supporting and enhancing systems, technology, and capabilities that enable effective financial crime investigations. This position will be integral in ensuring our financial crime compliance infrastructure remains robust, scalable, and aligned with regulatory expectations across all jurisdictions in which we operate. The successful candidate will work closely with key stakeholders in GRC, Technology, Global Servicing, and Business Unit teams to provide subject-matter expertise and oversight related to the systems supporting Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF), Sanctions, Anti-Bribery & Corruption (ABC), and fraud programs.

Employment eligibility to work with American Express in the U.S is required as the company will not pursue visa sponsorship for these positions

• Define and own the product strategy for Financial Crimes Investigation solutions, aligned with enterprise risk appetite and regulatory frameworks.
• Act as a subject matter expert on financial crimes investigations systems and capabilities.
• Provide oversight and compliance input into the design, development, testing, and implementation of system enhancements and new capabilities.
• Support strategic initiatives to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and scalability of financial crimes systems and data analytics.
• Partner with the Technology organization to ensure appropriate governance and control frameworks are in place for systems used in financial crimes compliance.
• Monitor industry and regulatory developments related to financial crime technology and assess impact on internal systems and controls.
• Participate in internal governance forums and working groups related to financial crime system change and operations.
• Assist in regulatory exams and internal audits related to financial crime systems and capabilities.
• Support global consistency in system governance, processes, and documentation across regions and business units.
• Lead a global team of product managers, analysts, and domain experts.
• Partner with engineering, data science, compliance, and operations to deliver scalable, resilient, and user-centric solutions.
• Collaborate with business units, compliance officers, and technology leaders to understand needs and deliver value.

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, information systems or related fields. An advanced degree (M.S. or Ph.D.) in computer science, engineering, information systems, management technology, or an MBA is preferred
• Experience leading implementation and ongoing support of industry-leading platforms
• 15+ years of Product Management (or equivalent) experience. Must have experience in large platform implementation from ideation to rollout
• Strong background in the Product discipline - Business case creation, roadmaps, prioritization etc. Ability to translate business requirements into technical platform capabilities, roadmaps, solution architectures, and data domains
• Deep understanding of AML/CTF, sanctions, KYC/CDD, and fraud typologies
• Strong knowledge of regulatory frameworks (e.g., FinCEN, FCA, MAS, HKMA)
• Proven track record of leading complex product portfolios in a global, regulated environment
• Experience in following areas: definition and design of business, functional and technical requirements; system selection and implementation support; Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC); Quality Assurance and testing (QA); program/project management and implementation planning (PMO)
• Good understanding of key risk frameworks such as Risk and Control Self-Assessment (RCSA), risk tolerance and appetite management, control monitoring and testing, risk and performance metrics, issue management, regulatory change management, automated workflows, reporting etc.
• Experience in risk domains such as Global Financial Crimes Compliance, Operational Risk, Consumer Compliance, IT/IS risk, Privacy Risk, Third Party Risk, Conduct Risk, etc
• Experience with system and application architecture, data integration, and analytics. Strong foundation in establishing data models (taxonomies and ontologies) for risk management
• Experience working with regulators like OCC, CFPB and FRB
• Strong communication skills, both verbal and written, at all levels of the organization, effectively leveraging storytelling to drive understanding & alignment
• Demonstrated ability to think critically and challenge the status quo
• Experience as people leader with ability to lead global teams
• Proven success working in a matrix environment
• CAMS, CFCS, or equivalent certification is a plus