Manager - Compliance - Testing Center of… at American… · Phoenix

Manager - Compliance - Testing Center of Excellence

Location: Phoenix, AZ, United States

Global Financial Crimes Compliance (GFCC) is an organization within Global Risk & Compliance (GRC) and is responsible for leading the enterprise-wide Anti-Money Laundering, Sanctions, and Anti-Corruption compliance functions. This team has global responsibility for identifying, investigating, and reporting suspicious activity, including money laundering and terrorist financing, and provides broad analytical and operational support for the company’s enterprise-wide GFCC control framework.

The newly created second line GFCC Enablement organization will lead and synchronize the execution of GFCC strategic and transformational program development initiatives, including technology, data, and tools. The Manager, Testing Center of Excellence will report to the Director, Testing Center of Excellence and manage Functional User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and Post-Implementation Validation (PIV) of GFCC capabilities. The Manager will lead a team of testers responsible for validating business readiness and end-to-end (E2E) user journeys across GFCC processes, ensuring testing is coordinated, consistent, transparent, and aligned with strategic business initiatives and delivery timelines. In addition, the Manager will partner closely with business process owners, Product leaders, Technology teams, and other contributing enablement functions to define critical test scenarios, assess release readiness, and escalate quality risks through appropriate leadership and governance forums.

Key Responsibilities:

• Functional UAT and PIV Leadership: Lead a team of testers responsible for planning and executing Functional UAT and PIV for GFCC capabilities. Establish and maintain testing standards, procedures, traceability artifacts, entry and exit criteria, and approval workflows to ensure testing is comprehensive, repeatable, well-governed, and aligned with business, regulatory, control, and enterprise policy expectations.
• Business Readiness and E2E Validation: Drive business readiness and validation of end-to-end (E2E) user journeys across GFCC processes. Partner closely with business process owners, Product leaders, and Technology teams to define critical test scenarios, validate expected business outcomes, and ensure capabilities are fit for intended use prior to release and following implementation.
• Defect, Test Reporting, and Release Governance: Provide oversight of defect identification, triage, prioritization, remediation, and closure, including transparent reporting of test progress, results, residual risks, and readiness. Escalate material quality risks and release concerns to senior leadership and appropriate governance forums to support informed go/no-go decisions.
• People Leadership and Quality Excellence: Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team of testers, setting clear performance expectations and fostering consistent testing practices, strong risk awareness, continuous improvement, and appropriate credible challenge. Provide thought leadership on testing and quality practices across the GFCC ecosystem.
• Demand and Resource Management: Oversee testing demand management, resource planning, capacity allocation, and prioritization across GFCC testing initiatives. Balance competing priorities and delivery timelines to align quality execution with strategic business initiatives, while identifying dependencies, constraints, and risks early and coordinating resolution across stakeholder groups.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Experience within Financial Crimes Compliance, Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Sanctions, Anti-Corruption, or broader risk and compliance domains.
• Prior experience in testing, quality assurance, business readiness, transformation, project management, product, or technology delivery activities in operational and/or risk management environments.
• Demonstrated people leadership experience, with a history of building, coaching, and developing colleagues and effectively leading through change in a fast-paced environment with shifting priorities.
• Experience with agile methodologies, product lifecycle management, and associated program and project management governance tools (e.g., 3iB, JIRA, BRDs, PRDs, User Stories).
• Demonstrated experience managing testing demand, resource capacity, prioritization, and delivery across multiple concurrent initiatives, with the ability to identify dependencies and quality risks and drive timely resolution.
• Demonstrated self-starter with the ability to identify opportunities and drive results with a high degree of independence.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with an ability to interact and obtain buy-in from senior leaders across multiple lines of defense including technology and product counterparts.
• Ability to maintain a positive attitude in the face of challenges.
• 3+ years of relevant work experience.

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

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 our 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.