Job Description

At American Express, our culture is built on a 175-year history of innovation, shared 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 Colleague Services (CS) and Colleague Product Management (CPM) organization, part of the Colleague Experience Group (CEG) - also known as Human Resources - plays a pivotal role in delivering best-in-class services, capabilities, products, and tools that power an exceptional colleague experience at American Express.
This organization designs, builds, and continuously evolves the products and services that enable both the CEG and the wider enterprise to operate effectively and efficiently. Within CPM, the Systems Management team oversees the end-to-end ecosystem of CEG products, capabilities, processes, platforms, and applications - including partnerships with third parties - while ensuring strong adherence to colleague-related risk, compliance, and governance standards.
The Colleague Business Architecture team provides strategic insight into how CEG's business processes are enabled and optimized through technology. The successful candidate will be a key contributor to a high-performing business architecture function, driving alignment between strategic intent and operational execution to deliver on the CEG strategy.
This role requires a strong ability to interpret both strategic and tactical objectives, translate them into actionable business capabilities, and ensure cohesive alignment across the enterprise ecosystem. A relentless focus on operational excellence, scalability, simplification and risk is essential.
Partnering closely with Technology and Product teams, you will lead the creation and continuous refinement of business architecture artefacts, define and embed cross-functional ways of working, and shape solutions to complex, enterprise-scale challenges spanning domains such as Colleague Servicing, Recruitment, and Payroll.
The Manager will operate as part of a globally dispersed team, in a hybrid role reporting into the Director, Colleague Business Architecture.
Key Responsibilities

• Be the Business Architect expert on CEG's business processes, system flows, and colleague journey maps, ensuring deep understanding of how technology enables CEG operations and colleague experiences.
• Establish and embed business architecture practices that identify opportunities for improvement, drive simplification, and enhance the effectiveness of CEG's end-to-end processes and capabilities.
• Develop and maintain dynamic, sustainable documentation that accurately reflects the current state of systems, tools, and processes supporting the CEG business.
• Define and implement standards, guidelines, and governance frameworks across all products to strengthen CEG's risk posture and ensure compliance with enterprise policies.
• Evolve and mature CEG's application governance model to enhance visibility, health, and integration across the application ecosystem.
• Develop and influence cross-functional platform strategies, aligning technology roadmaps with capability growth objectives and enterprise priorities.
• Operationalize process and technology changes, providing guidance on effective implementation and adoption across the CEG organization.
• Collaborate on product ideation and innovation, leveraging colleague insights and emerging technology opportunities to design impactful and efficient solutions.
• Contribute to the design of complex, enterprise-wide solutions, ensuring alignment with strategic goals and long-term business architecture direction.

Maintain and enhance risk management practices, including Process Risk Self-Assessments (PRSAs), Risk and Control Self-Assessments (RCSAs), and coordination of self-testing activities to ensure ongoing compliance and control effectiveness.
Minimum Qualifications:

• Proven experience in Business Architecture, with a track record of shaping and delivering enterprise-wide capability and process improvements.
• Hands-on practitioner expertise in applying recognized enterprise and business architecture frameworks (e.g., TOGAF, BIZBOK, or equivalent).
• Familiarity with HR platforms or enterprise systems is a plus.
• Proficient in developing and maintaining core architecture artefacts, including capability models, value streams, process maps, and roadmaps.
• Demonstrated success aligning business and technology strategies to drive efficiency, agility, and scalability across complex organizations.
• Experienced in establishing governance structures and decision-making frameworks that promote consistency, accountability, and effective control.
• Strong understanding of risk management principles, with practical experience in implementing risk reduction strategies and control enhancements.
• Exceptional collaboration and communication skills, capable of influencing, engaging, and creating followership across both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Proven ability to provide thought leadership and program oversight across large-scale, complex digital and business transformation initiatives.
Non-considerations for sponsorship:
Employment eligibility to work with American Express in the UK is required as the company will not pursue visa sponsorship for these positions.
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

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

Skills Required