Director- Cybersecurity (Cloud Security Strategy & Governance)

Company: American Express
Location: Phoenix
Posted on: February 26, 2026

Job Description:

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, youll 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? American Express is on an exciting cloud transformation journey driven today by a successful, high-energy, delivery-focused team that enables our vision of “security-as-code” and integrations across a diverse set of teams and tools to ensure public cloud security equivalency with on-premises security capabilities, methods, and processes for all cloud service models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and workloads. The Director – Cloud Security Strategy and Governance will collaboratively lead the Strategic Program Management, Governance, and Operations functions of the technology risk and cyber security controls and capabilities required to secure the American Express cloud journey, including both our private/public cloud. The Director will partner with Cloud Engineering, Cloud Operations, other Technology partners, and all TRIS domains to help drive secure adoption, governance, compliance, and operations using a standardized risk-based model. The Director will set the agenda by collaborating and driving cross-TRIS matrixed capabilities to ensure appropriate risk informed delivery, directly supporting the enterprise cloud strategy. The successful candidate will be accountable for the oversight and delivery of the Cloud Security Strategy and Governance program and the enablement of all up-stream/down-stream processes and methods. This position demands a well-organized action-oriented, team player with the ability to prioritize daily work vs strategic roadmap items; work on multiple initiatives simultaneously; establish and maintain an outward looking view on new and evolving technologies; and an ability to mature and operate business critical, end-to-end processes and solutions – while ensuring a great colleague user experience. You will work closely with other Information Security departments, architecture and the Enterprise Cloud team, as well as external cloud providers on requirements, design, integration and delivery of these solutions. Responsibilities Include: • Build and lead Program Management functions to drive delivery of centralized cloud security reporting, governance, and finance functions • Develop, coach and mentor a highly motivated team, while coordinating closely with other Information Security and Engineering leaders and business partners. • Partner in external and internal audits, ensuring overall adherence to policies and standards, driving the highest level of compliance through response, remediation and escalation as necessary • Establish and refine cloud security budget and finance forecasting for public cloud consumption of security tools • Assess, measure and report against cloud controls, and drive risk reduction guidance across and in partnership with all TRIS domains • Partner with TRIS, Engineering and business stakeholders to help define and prioritize cloud security initiatives • Provide security expertise to the Cloud Program, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Cloud Application Architecture subprograms. • Collaborate with enterprise architects and SMEs to deliver comprehensive security solutions that align to Amex cloud strategy • Capture requirements; build functional specifications, timelines, adoption plans and other artifacts to support security implementation. • Partner with Architecture teams to build cloud-optimized security patterns and contribute to Enterprise Architecture governance. • Partner with and support the Engineering team to drive and execute results in a timely manner. Minimum Qualifications: • 8 years of experience in Information Security Roles and/or 15 years leading platform development • Masters Degree in computer science or computer engineering, or related field • Experience with Cloud Control Matrix and CIS benchmarks for gap assessment • Platform engineering experience, including cloud modernization • Broad understanding of all IS disciplines including, Governance, Cyber Threat, Identity and Access, Infrastructure, Endpoint, Vulnerability, Data Protection, Operations, Application, Incident Response. • Understanding of Information Security technology and platform delivery with experience in planning and execution of security projects. • Understanding of Cloud Fundamentals, including containers, software-defined networks, high availability design, multi-cloud, and serverless compute. • Demonstrated experience in Agile environments, application design, software development, and testing. • Experience with adoption and implementation of GenAI Preferred Qualifications: • Information Security Certification required, CISM or similar. 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

Keywords: American Express, Phoenix , Director- Cybersecurity (Cloud Security Strategy & Governance), IT / Software / Systems , Phoenix, Arizona