Operational Resilience is the ability of an organization to withstand, adapt to, and recover from disruptions such as cyber incidents, technology failures, or external events. It extends beyond traditional business continuity by addressing both internal and external risks that may impact the delivery of products and services, ensuring the organization can continue to serve customers through disruption.
The Operational Resilience program sits within the Business Resilience team in Enterprise Shared Services (ESS) at American Express. The team partners across the enterprise to design and oversee resilience, continuity, and crisis response capabilities that protect colleagues, customers, and Critical/Important Business Services. This includes preparing for and managing disruptions, coordinating global and regional crisis response, monitoring emerging risks, and delivering post-event insights to senior leadership.
As a Director of Operational Resilience, you will lead a team responsible for designing, implementing, and continuously strengthening the enterprise Operational Resilience program in alignment with evolving regulatory expectations.
You will also oversee crisis monitoring and reporting, and support coordinated response efforts for material operational disruptions impacting Critical/Important Business Services.
Lead the development and implementation of the Operational Resilience framework, including:
- Establish and continuously evolve end-to-end program requirements across Critical/Important Business Services, including dependency mapping, impact tolerance methodology, and scenario design
- Develop and maintain standards, procedures, and training to drive consistent enterprise-wide adoption
- Define and maintain Critical/Important Business Services, including end-to-end dependency mapping across processes, technology, third parties, locations, and critical data, along with associated impact tolerances
- Lead scenario testing for Critical/Important Business Services in partnership with service owners and interconnected programs (e.g., Information Security, Technology, Operational Risk, Third-Party Risk Management)
- Deliver clear, actionable resilience reporting to senior management, governance forums, and the Board to support decision-making and regulatory readiness
Drive enterprise alignment and execution
- Partner with international legal entity teams to ensure consistent interpretation and implementation of the framework
- Define business requirements to support the development of resilience capabilities, tools, and data infrastructure
Maintain regulatory alignment and external perspective
- Monitor evolving global regulatory expectations (e.g., SR 20-24, DORA, UK FCA) and ensure ongoing program alignment
- Benchmark AXP’s Operational Resilience program against industry peers to drive continuous improvement
Lead program governance, controls, and regulatory engagement
- Design and implement program controls to ensure effectiveness, sustainability, and audit readiness
- Lead engagement with regulators and support audit examinations related to Operational Resilience
Build and lead a high-performing team
- Coach, develop, and inspire a team to deliver high-quality outcomes and advance program maturity
- Drive measurable improvements in operational resilience maturity, including enhanced regulatory readiness, reduced residual risk across Critical/Important Business Services, and improved outcomes from regulatory and audit engagements.
Experience and Background:
- 5+ years’ experience in Risk Management with at least 3 years in Operational Resilience First Line of Defense, program implementation space is preferred.
- Strong understanding of resilience, business continuity and crisis preparedness concepts.
- Strong problem-solving skills; ability to see the big picture with attention given to critical details
- Demonstrated ability to successfully manage multiple priorities under pressure, including regulatory exams and audits
- Familiarity with Operational Resilience regulatory requirements (e.g., SR 20-24, DORA, UK FCA regulations)
- Bachelor’s degree required
Leadership Skills:
- Proven people leader who can build, inspire, develop, and coach a high performing team
- Excellent relationship, collaboration, and presentation skills with ability to interact and influence leaders across all levels and teams in a matrixed organization
- Self-confident with a strong sense of integrity and the ability and willingness to challenge and be challenged
- Ability to communicate key risks to colleagues, business partners, and senior leaders
Preferred Qualifications:
- MBA or advanced degree preferred
- Certifications in Business Continuity, Resilience will be a 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.