Director - Architecture - Enterprise Architecture

American Express

Director - Architecture - Enterprise Architecture

New York, NY
Full Time
Paid
  • Responsibilities

    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.

    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.

    Joining Amex Tech means discovering and shaping your contribution to something big. Here, you can work alongside talented tech teams and build a unique career with the Powerful Backing of American Express. With a range of opportunities to work with the latest technologies, and a commitment to back the broader engineering community through open source, our mission is to power your success. Because Amex Tech is powered by our technology, our culture, and our colleagues.

    About Enterprise Architecture:

    Enterprise Architecture is a key enabler of the company’s technology strategy. The four pillars of Enterprise Architecture include:

    • Architecture as Code: this pillar owns and operates foundational technologies that are leveraged by engineering teams across the enterprise.

    • Architecture as Design: this pillar includes the solution and technical design for transformation programs and business critical projects which need architectural guidance and support.

    • Governance: this pillar is responsible for defining technical standards, and developing innovative tools that automate controls to ensure compliance.

    • Colleague Enablement: this pillar is focused on colleague development, recognition, training, and enterprise outreach.

    The Enterprise Business Architecture (EBA) team serves as the enterprise’s connective foundation, established within Enterprise Architecture to address fragmentation across business architecture practices and create a single, authoritative view of enterprise business capabilities. We link business strategy to technology execution by shaping and operationalizing the Enterprise Business Architecture Foundation- anchored in the Enterprise Business Capability Model (EBCM), customer journeys and personas, and a modern enterprise meta-model - enabling clearer investment decisions, stronger governance, and faster digital transformation. Operating at the intersection of strategy, design, and delivery, we align business vision, product direction, and technology outcomes into an end-to-end model that drives consistency, reuse, and enterprise-wide decision velocity. In our first year, we are focused on building this foundation while proving value quickly through high-impact use cases such as enabling always-on, capability-driven delivery models, improving developer and platform experiences, and informing complex decisions including M&A, build-versus-buy, and regulatory transformation. Partnering closely with business, product, engineering, and data leaders, we establish shared taxonomies, connect customer journeys to capabilities and platforms, and embed outcome-based planning to unlock speed, trust, and measurable enterprise impact at scale.

    Ideal Candidate Profile:

    • A strategic systems thinker with the ability to see the “enterprise whole” and connect disparate moving parts into a unified blueprint

    • A management consulting-caliber communicator/storyteller, with exceptional executive presence and analytical rigor

    • A collaborator who excels at bringing Product, Engineering, and Business leaders into alignment

    • A builder who can create frameworks, models, and governance structures that scale

    • A change leader energized by complexity, ambiguity, and enterprise transformation

    Role Overview / Key Responsibilities:

    **Enterprise Business Architecture Leadership & Strategic Influence **

    • Serve as a senior thought partner to executives, translating complex business, product, and technology strategies into clear architectural narratives that guide enterprise decisions

    • Shape and socialize the Enterprise Business Capability Model (EBCM) through compelling executive storytelling, ensuring alignment across Product, Engineering, Technology, Operations, and Business units

    • Lead/support the evolution of the EBCM, capability taxonomies, value streams, and cross-enterprise operating frameworks that link strategy to execution

    • Partner with Enterprise Architecture to align Enterprise Business Capabilities with company domain, certified APIs, data models, applications and integration patterns

    **Enterprise Modernization & Complex Use Case Enablement **

    • Lead business architecture for high-impact enterprise use cases including foundational technology/API Strategy alignment, partner onboarding transformation, Ways of Working transformation, multiyear investment planning, M&A process simplification, platform rationalization, cross-platform modernization, etc.

    • Conduct capability-to-technology mapping and journey/process analysis to identify synergies, redundancies, and modernization opportunities.

    • Guide leaders through operating model changes required for scalable, future-ready platforms and agentic system enablement

    • Maintain authoritative architectural artifacts including capability maps, value streams, process models, and investment frameworks

    **Executive Engagement & Communication **

    • Represent Business Architecture in senior forums, investment councils, roadmap discussions, and enterprise transformation steering groups

    • Craft clear, persuasive narratives that communicate enterprise architecture insights, modernization opportunities, and capability-driven decisions to C-level and senior leadership

    • Serve as a visible organizational leader driving adoption, clarity, and shared understanding of how the enterprise creates value and scales transformation

    **Cross-Functional Alignment & Enterprise Transformation **

    • Drive alignment across senior stakeholders to shape integrated architectures that reduce redundancy, enable reuse, and accelerate modernization

    • Partner with enterprise leaders to define domain boundaries, capability ownership, and operating models that support persistent teams and continuous delivery

    • Influence strategic investment planning by embedding capability architecture into prioritization, portfolio decisions, and technology roadmaps

    **Organizational Leadership & Team Development **

    • Lead and mentor a high-performing team of business architects and analysts, setting vision, elevating craft, and strengthening enterprise-wide capability rigor.

    • Establish standards, best practices, and repeatable frameworks that enable consistent adoption of Business Architecture across the organization

    **Innovation, Emerging Technology & GenAI Integration **

    • Identify and promote opportunities to leverage Generative AI, automation, and advanced analytics to modernize processes and improve operational performance.

    • Partner with Technology and Operations to embed AI-driven optimizations into operating models and process architectures

    • Champion innovation in capability design, process transformation, and enterprise operating frameworks

    **Measurement, Value Realization & Regulatory Alignment **

    • Define measurement frameworks to track transformation success, operational efficiency, capability reuse, and enterprise value

    • Ensure all architecture and transformation work aligns with regulatory, risk, and compliance requirements

    • Use KPIs, OKRs, scorecards, and architectural fitness metrics to guide leadership decisions and demonstrate return on investment

    Required Qualifications:

    • 10+ years experience in Business Architecture, Strategy, Management Consulting (McKinsey/BCG/Bain/Accenture/Deloitte), Enterprise Technology Strategy, or equivalent transformation roles

    • MBA or Master’s degree in Business, Strategy, Information Systems, or related field

    • Deep expertise in capability modeling, value streams, business process architecture, domain modeling, and strategy execution frameworks

    • Significant experience translating complex business requirements into coherent enterprise models used for decision-making and investment planning

    • Strong understanding of enterprise platforms, API ecosystems, integration architectures, and operating model transformation.

    • Demonstrated ability to influence senior executives and facilitate alignment across large, matrixed organizations

    • Experience shaping cross-functional frameworks across Product, Engineering, Operations, and Business units

    • Exceptional executive storytelling capability, with a proven ability to translate complex strategies into clear, compelling narratives for senior leadership

    • Hands-on experience developing board-level and executive-committee materials, including strategic storylines, transformation updates, and enterprise decision frameworks

    Preferred Qualifications:

    • Prior American Express experience or experience in a global financial services / payments enterprise

    • Experience with Enterprise Architecture frameworks (TOGAF/BizBOK - conceptual familiarity is highly desirable, certification will be a strong plus)

    • Familiarity with API productization, domain-driven design, merchant and/or B2B partner integration needs, and capability-driven governance models a strong plus

    • Background in large-scale modernization, persistent capacity models, platform rationalization, or M&A integration a strong plus

    Salary Range: $144,250.00 to $256,250.00 annually + bonus + equity (if applicable) + benefits

    The above represents the expected salary range for this job requisition. Ultimately, in determining your pay, we’ll consider your location, experience, and other job-related factors.

    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
    • 6% Company Match on retirement savings plan
    • Free financial coaching and financial well-being support
    • Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and disability benefits
    • Flexible working model with hybrid, onsite or virtual arrangements depending on role and business need
    • 20+ weeks paid parental leave for all parents, regardless of gender, offered for pregnancy, adoption or surrogacy
    • 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

    For a full list of Team Amex benefits, visit our Colleague Benefits Site .

    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. American Express will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with arrest or conviction records, in accordance with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including, but not limited to, the California Fair Chance Act, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance. For positions covered by federal and/or state banking regulations, American Express will comply with such regulations as it relates to the consideration of applicants with criminal convictions.

    We back our colleagues with the support they need to thrive, professionally and personally. That's why we have Amex Flex, our enterprise working model that provides greater flexibility to colleagues while ensuring we preserve the important aspects of our unique in-person culture. Depending on role and business needs, colleagues will either work onsite, in a hybrid model (combination of in-office and virtual days) or fully virtually.

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

  • Industry
    Financial Services