Staff Architect

You Lead the Way. We’ve Got Your Back.

With the right backing, people and businesses have the power to progress in incredible ways. When you join Team Amex, you become part of a global and diverse community of colleagues with an unwavering commitment to back our customers, communities and each other. Here, you’ll learn and grow as we help you create a career journey that’s unique and meaningful to you with benefits, programs, and flexibility that support you personally and professionally.

At American Express, you’ll be recognized for your contributions, leadership, and impact—every colleague has the opportunity to share in the company’s success. Together, we’ll win as a team, striving to uphold our company values and powerful backing promise to provide the world’s best customer experience every day. And we’ll do it with the utmost integrity, and in an environment where everyone is seen, heard and feels like they belong.

Join Team Amex and let's lead the way together.

About Enterprise Architecture:

Enterprise Architecture as an organization aims to set the bar for technology at American Express. The four pillars of Enterprise Architecture are Architecture as Code (common frameworks/services leveraged by engineering teams across the enterprise), Architecture as Design (Major Engagements with high priority, business critical projects which need architectural guidance and support), Governance (Standards, Automated scan and score, Feedback loop and case-by-case architectural reviews) and Colleague Enablement (Mission focused Colleague development and recognition as well as enterprise outreach).

The Role:

• This Staff Architect position in Enterprise Architecture will be focused on Data Architecture.
• This role will provide clarity on Data Lifecycle Management and Governance Architecture with prioritized risk mitigation, enable consistent data governance certification at scale, drive domain-by-domain data architecture, and create API-Centric data traceability, CIA and lineage by design, within FFIEC compliance.
• This role provides exciting opportunities in exploring GenAI in the lifecycle of the data.

We are looking for a strategic, experienced individual for the role of Director, Staff Architect, responsible for partnering across business units, enterprise technology teams, and product/platform teams to define and execute the system certification strategy, driving the consistency, usability, and governance of our data assets across the enterprise.

The Director will be responsible for:

• Developing a strategy and roadmap to execute system certification and associated change management activities (e.g., system certification registration, data management requirements, technology enhancements/remediation, etc.).
• Leading the Data Architecture to identify and assess candidate certified systems (i.e., Systems of Origin (SOO), Systems of Record (SOR), and Authorized Data Sources (ADS)) for critical data elements based on definitions, guiding principles, standards of care.
• Leading the communication of requirements to product/platform teams and driving the implementation of EDG policy and data management standards across certified systems.
• Leading the system certification process to register certified systems and monitor compliance in alignment with EDG policy and data management standards.
• Influencing and collaborating with technology teams to incorporate architecture principles and design patterns to increase consistency and interoperability of data across the enterprise.
• Influencing and collaborating with product/platform teams to drive architecture and design consistency during platform modernization and data migration initiatives.

A successful candidate will have:

• 8+ years of proven experience in Data Architecture, Master Data Management, authoritative data sourcing strategies, or major data transformation initiatives focusing on advancing curated, high quality enterprise data sets.
• Knowledge of Enterprise Architecture frameworks, Agile methodology for data management, big data and cloud data platforms.
• Solid understanding of Data Management and Data Governance concepts with the ability to be an advocate for architecture that supports Amex’s governance/management of data.
• Ability to work and communicate with both business and technical teams at various levels.
• Proven track record of driving results in a fast-paced environment often with significant ambiguity.
• Excellent communication skills with a demonstrated ability to engage, influence, and encourage partners and stakeholders to drive collaboration and alignment.
• High degree of organization, individual initiative and personal accountability and resiliency.
• 8+ years of experience of technology platform implementation in a technical and analytical role
• 6+ years of Data Architecture experience in a large complex data ecosystem, domain expertise with complex high-tech environments.
• 6+ years of building both traditional and cloud native architectures and big data platforms in support of digital transformation.
• 6+ years of experience in Industry 4.0 initiatives and/or other aspects of corporate data management; e.g. Data Governance, Data Security, AI/ML, Data DevOps.
• 6+ years of experience in designing solutions for multiple large data warehouses with a good understanding of cluster and parallel architecture as well as high-scale or distributed RDBMS and/or knowledge on NoSQL platforms (e.g. PostgreSQL, Redshift, BigQuery, Snowflake, DynamoDB, Neo4J, MongoDB, Cassandra, HBase, etc).
• Hands-on experience with industry leading data management tools that support the data lifecycle, and capable of setting and driving long term data architecture roadmaps in alignment with corporate strategic objectives.
• Collibra
• Archi
• ER/Studio
• Erwin Data Modeler
• Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler
• PowerDesigner
• SQL DBM
• Xplenty
• Experience and knowledge with data security and privacy concerns
• Experience supporting and working with cross-functional teams in a dynamic environment
• Strong analytical skills and algorithmic problem-solving skills.

We back our colleagues and their loved ones with benefits and programs that support their holistic well-being. That means we prioritize their physical, financial, and mental health through each stage of life. Benefits include:

• 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

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.

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