Manager - Audit

American Express•New York, NY

About The Position

The Internal Audit Group at American Express is a global function with over 400 team members across nine countries, dedicated to protecting and enhancing organizational value through independent, objective, and risk-based assurance and advisory services. The group influences how the company manages risk and is committed to significant staff growth. Audit teams align with key risk areas and business units to provide comprehensive coverage. A Professional Practices group manages audit operations, quality, standards, regulatory relations, reporting, training, and professional development. This manager role specifically supports the Internal Audit Group’s assurance coverage for Global Merchant and Network Services (GMNS). The position involves supporting audit engagements, leading planning and execution, evaluating control design and effectiveness, and delivering actionable insights to strengthen payments governance and risk management. This includes areas such as fund flows, settlement, third-party oversight, fraud, compliance, and operational resiliency within the merchant, network, and payment lifecycle.

Requirements

5+ years of audit experience
Prior experience working at a Big Four / G-SIB
Demonstrates strong written and verbal communication skills to deliver deliverables with quality, and actionable value-add feedback to management on issues, opportunity areas, and deficiency solutions.
Effectively leads a team in a fast-paced environment to drive business results, utilizing related project management skills, employing creative thinking, and the ability to work on competing priorities.
Applies critical thinking to break-down complex problems into components, and solve using data analysis, process, risk control knowledge, and experience to drive risk-based conclusions and decisions.
Applies control theory and professional auditing practices throughout the audit lifecycle.
Understands regulations, regulatory risks, accounting, and financial industry best practices relevant to the business, including emerging technology and data considerations, and incorporates into the audit approach to enhance outcomes.
Employment eligibility to work with American Express in the U.S. is required as the company will not pursue visa sponsorship for these positions.

Nice To Haves

Experience in Internal Audit, Payments, Payment Operations, Product Risk, Operational Risk, Enterprise Risk, Compliance, or a related control function within the financial services industry.
Understanding of payments risk management frameworks, including governance, operational processes, risk assessments, issue management, and reporting across the payments ecosystem.
Knowledge of payment industry regulations, network rules, and risk management practices, with the ability to assess the design and effectiveness of payment processes, controls, and governance.
Understanding of risks associated with payment products, transaction processing, merchant services, third-party relationships, fraud, and technology across complex payment environments.
Understanding of payment products, payment networks, emerging payment technologies, or payment operating models, including associated operational, financial, and technology risks.
Experience with data analytic tools, data visualization, key risk indicators (KRIs), key performance indicators (KPIs), information systems / technology, and scorecards / dashboards, etc.
Interest in working with data, interpreting results, analytic best practices and experience with data analytics tools and data visualization.

Responsibilities

Serve as Auditor in Charge (AIC) on audits, managing the audit engagement end-to-end, planning audit projects, defining objectives and scope, and coordinating with control groups, external auditors, stakeholders, and regulators to ensure effective execution.
Conduct L1 reviews and serve as the primary audit client contact.
Analyze and review audit results and documentation to evaluate effectiveness and efficiency, synthesizing audit findings.
Lead audit client meetings and walkthroughs.
Develop test steps, audit findings, and the audit report in accordance with IAG policies and procedures.
Guide team on how to validate and execute corrective actions / Management Action Plans (MAPs) to ensure they are impactful, sustainable, and improve the control environment of the business unit.
Support business monitoring activities with audit leadership, tracking key metrics to identify control issues and trends.
Stay up to date with evolving industry trends, external news, and regulatory changes, and analyze their impact on the business.
Delegate tasks to team members, guide auditors in assessing risks, evaluating control design, and executing audit tests, and review and provide feedback on work papers.
Effectively coach, teach, mentor, and develop less experienced colleagues and co-sourced resources in geographically diverse locations across all aspects of their role, the audit and analytic lifecycle, audit methodology, and best practices.
Conduct post-audit feedback discussions with audit team members to provide actionable feedback, support development, and recognize accomplishments.
Guide the team to proactively and routinely communicate task status, roadblocks, and challenges, suggesting potential solutions.