Reporting to the to the Head of Internal Fraud - 1LOD Center of Excellence (COE), the VP, Internal Fraud Governance & Product is a key leadership role owning the strengthening and harmonization of American Express’s internal fraud risk management framework along with the execution and delivery of digital solutions that enhance American Express’s ability to detect, prevent, and manage internal fraud risk across the enterprise.
The VP, Internal Fraud Governance & Product will execute an enterprise-wide internal fraud governance framework ensuring alignment with regulatory expectations, enterprise risk standards, and operational excellence. The role will influence across multiple lines of defense to ensure consistent execution of internal fraud standards, controls, metrics, and oversight.
This role will drive the evolution of complex business needs into scalable, data-driven, user-centric solutions influencing across risk, analytics, technology, and product teams. The incumbent is responsible for the development of key product capabilities, product vision, roadmaps, prioritization, and product delivery.
Responsibilities
Key Responsibilities:
- Build and lead a team of high-performing governance and product development professionals, building expertise in governance standards and digital product solutions
- Provide thought leadership in the development of program strategy and serve as a business enabler
- Promote a culture of integrity, transparency, and continuous improvement
- Execute the evolution of the governance operating model and enhance program maturity
- Define and enforce governance standards, including enterprise-level procedures, controls, and risk metrics
- Drive proactive communication and engagement across stakeholders to promote awareness, alignment, and accountability
- Establish and implement a consistent approach for risk identification, escalation, and decision-making across business units
- Manage integration and coordination among internal fraud stakeholders across first, second, and third lines of defense, collaborating on internal fraud program execution
- Oversee regulatory requests, control testing support, and audit follow-up to ensure timely and effective issue resolution
- Guide control disciplines to identify issues and proactively communicate control failures and/or gaps, trends, and events to senior leadership and Business Units
- Ownership of the design and delivery of digital product solutions that strengthen internal fraud detection, monitoring, and reporting capabilities
- Oversee the product development lifecycle, including backlog grooming, sprint planning, and user acceptance testing (UAT).
- Engage with risk, analytics, and technology teams to define scalable solutions that integrate data, controls, and operational workflows
- Define product roadmap decisions by identifying opportunities based on internal fraud trends, user needs, and operational insights
- Ensure solutions align with enterprise data governance, control standards, and risk management frameworks
- Define acceptance criteria, QA requirements, and success metrics to ensure high-quality product delivery
- Influence across lines of defense to ensure alignment on product objectives, data definitions, and reporting outputs
- Identify and drive process improvements that enhance efficiency, scalability, and user experience
Qualifications
Desired Qualifications & Requirements:
Bachelor’s degree in Business, Risk Management, Compliance, Technology, Data Analytics, or related field required; Master’s preferred.
10+ years of experience in risk governance, compliance, fraud risk management, or audit, digital product management, solution design, business analysis, ideally within financial services or a regulated environment.
- Expert knowledge of enterprise risk management, fraud control frameworks, and governance principles
Demonstrated success in building, designing, or enhancing governance frameworks and processes and managing cross-functional stakeholder relationships, including committee management, reporting, and documentation
- Excellent communication, facilitation, and presentation skills with experience engaging senior executives
- Impeccable organizational, analytical, problem solving, and program management skills with diligence and process rigor
- Experience working with regulatory agencies and managing audit engagements
- Strong knowledge of UI/UX development activities
- History of high performance with demonstrated adaptability to excel in a fast-paced environment, adjust to shifting priorities and manage others through change
- An established background in digital product development lifecycle
- Solid understanding of data structures, data flows, and system integrations
- Calm and decisive under pressure
- Ability to prioritize actions for the benefit of the organization to remain focused on most critical issues
- Initiative and bias for action and for getting things done
- Proven ability in extending and maintaining strong relationships in a complex multi-national corporation
- Strong problem solver with the ability to affect change
- Effective organizational skills (including attention to detail) along with the ability to collaborate and influence in a matrixed environment
Desired Leadership Characteristics
- Calm and decisive under pressure
- Ability to prioritize actions for the benefit of the organization to remain focused on most critical issues
- Initiative and bias for action and for getting things done
- Proven ability in extending and maintaining strong relationships in a complex multi-national corporation
- Strong problem solver with the ability to affect change
- Effective organizational skills (including attention to detail) along with the ability to collaborate and influence in a matrixed environment
Employment eligibility to work with American Express in the U.S is required as the company will not pursue visa sponsorship for these positions