Senior Manager

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.

How will you make an impact in this role?

The Global Network Services (GNS) team sits within the Global Merchant and Network Services (GMNS) organization and is responsible for managing AXP's card issuing and merchant acquiring partnerships with over 100 strategic partners to grow our business worldwide.

This newly created, high impact role is part of the 1st Line of Defence (LOD) in the GNS APAC Executive Office and reports to the Director Assistant GNS APAC, working closely with Regional GM's and the SVP GNS APAC. The successful candidate will be responsible for the operational execution of governance programs across the business establishing and maintaining a strong compliance and control framework by collaborating across 1st and 2nd LOD teams to ensure strict adherence to our SOPs, coordinate regulatory submissions and remediation plans while acting as a consultative resource for GNS APAC business teams and process owners.

This is an excellent opportunity for a detail-oriented and collaborative professional to contribute to a fast-evolving business and ensure GNS APAC maintains strong levels of compliance and operational excellence across our business.

Key Responsibilities:

Partner Oversight & Risk Management

• Manage a comprehensive inventory of third-party relationships, categorized by risk assessment and role, partnering closely with internal partner teams (2LOD, Due Diligence Operations, PBS Business Operations etc.) to ensure adequate controls and ratings are in place.
• Assist BD teams in executing the Partner Due Diligence Process by tracking progress, conducting screening, managing DD questionnaire, as and when needed.
• Risk Identification and Assessment - Drive business ownership of the Risk & Control Self-Assessment (RCSA) in line with Enterprise Policy including risk identification & assessments, documentation of controls, timely testing and remediation and proactive identification of process improvement opportunities across the business.
• Issues & Events Remediation - Support and consolidate Operational Risk Events (ORE) reporting, oversee all issues and events that impact the region and work with Control Management and Risk Advisory teams to support the timely closure of OREs.

Regulatory Compliance & Governance

• Implement regulatory and internal control changes into actionable oversight frameworks
• Lead regulatory submissions in close collaboration with Regional General Managers and Business Development Leaders (BD) and act as a liaison between GNS BD teams, GNS central teams, control teams, Legal and Compliance in preparing these submissions.
• Own and coordinate new Regulatory Change Management (RCMs) for GNS APAC, including impact assessments, stakeholder engagement, implementation, planning and progress tracking.

Strategic Enablement & Cross Functional Leadership

• Serve as a centre of excellence/subject matter expert on the regulatory & control agenda items across GNS APAC, offering consultative support to colleagues on control-related programs and initiatives in consultation with other control team across the Enterprise.
• Serve as the primary contact and build and maintain strong relationships across a range of stakeholder teams in 1st and 2nd LOD including Business Development, Executive Offices, Control Management, Compliance, GCO, Financial Crimes teams and partner teams to build out and operationalise robust processes. Drive collaboration across GNS on regulatory, risk and controls activities.
• Track and consolidate status and progress on key risk and controls projects for GNS APAC including partner Due Diligence, RFIs, ORE's, SOP updates and findings and remediation plans resulting from external and internal audits and reviews.
• Translate complex processes and information into simple and articulate messages for multiple audiences including preparing materials for internal communications and updates to the GNS APAC leadership and BD teams.

Minimum Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in control related, audit, risk management, compliance or partner governance roles, preferably in Financial Services.
• Self-starter with the ability to understand complex business operations quickly and experience designing and following well-controlled, auditable processes
• Experience managing internal and/or external audit and working in, or closely with 1st LOD.
• Strong relationship management skills across stakeholders of all levels with proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives with ability to influence and drive change
• Solution-driven problem solver with strong business sense acumen and business operations to enable business growth.
• Flexibility to quickly adapt to a dynamic and changing environment and re-focus according to business wide strategic priorities. Track record of dealing with multiple competing priorities and working well under pressure to balance competing priorities successfully.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills confident presenting to all levels including senior management.
• Preferable experience and understanding of card schemes and