Audit Director, Enterprise Project Governance

About the Internal Audit Group at American Express 

Our Internal Audit Group is a worldwide function with 400+ team members and offices across nine countries within American Express. Our mission is to protect and enhance organizational value by providing independent, objective, risk-based assurance, advisory services and to influence the way the company manages risk.

We are committed to growing our audit staff significantly as we continue to expand and enhance the Internal Audit Group. Our assurance and risk professionals have diverse backgrounds including internal controls, consumer compliance, technology, operational risk, financial accounting, data analytics, and banking operations. Our audit teams align to key risk areas and business units to ensure IAG can provide comprehensive and risk-based audit coverage. In addition, IAG has a Professional Practices group responsible for managing audit operations, quality, and standards; regulatory relations; reporting; training and professional development; and key internal capabilities and technologies.

About the Role

Our Internal Audit Group is seeking an eager Director – Project Governance, Audit Team Lead to help advance and grow our audit coverage across global projects of varying complexities and a developing Project Governance and Change Management Enterprise framework.  In this role, the ideal candidate will lead a lean team of audit managers and staff auditors with a focus on first and second line of defense processes including business unit project execution.  This is a hybrid role based in the U.S. with the direct report team in New York and Arizona. This role will work immediately alongside colleagues that provide coverage over Third-Party Risk and Operational Resilience/Business Disruption Risk. 

Key Responsibilities

• Oversee audit professionals across multiple simultaneous audit projects of all sizes and complexity across multiple business areas within and outside of local region, in unfamiliar areas, and for different audit leaders, ensuring audits are completed timely and with high quality; conduct L2 reviews

• Specialize in one or more specific lines of business, own portfolio with accountability, ownership and horizontal risk view of entire portfolio

• Collaborate with Audit Leaders to develop the annual Audit Plan, leveraging knowledge of the portfolio, banking, and industry trends to establish a risk-based Audit Plan with adequate coverage

• Support and/or lead regulatory activities and attend regulatory meetings as appropriate

• Lead delivery and execution of the annual Audit Plan for assigned audit portfolio using an integrated auditing approach that considers financial, operational, compliance, and technology risks

• Review management’s corrective action plans to address business-identified issues, audit findings and regulatory remediations

• Lead Chief Audit Executive (CAE) audit report reviews and share insights / observations 

• Develop relationships with Senior Business Leaders across all business units, proactively identify changes in business environment, emerging risks, and control priorities that may impact Audit Plans, conduct effective business monitoring and guides team to adjust the audit approach accordingly; demonstrate effective challenge by providing deep subject matter knowledge industry related knowledge to support business partnership efforts

• Collaborate with Senior Managers / Managers to conduct post-audit feedback discussions with audit team members to provide actionable feedback, support development, and recognize accomplishments 

• Support Audit Leader with special projects across multiple business units and geographic regions, ensuring alignment with organizational objectives and risk frameworks, helps prepare for regulatory responses and attend meetings as needed

• Serve as a People Leader, providing mentorship, coaching, and career development support for direct reports 

• Recruit, supervise, coach, mentor, and develop audit staff to build high-performing teams, fostering continuous learning and professional growth 

• Develop the training plan to upskill colleagues to ensure audit teams have the skills necessary to effectively deliver the Audit Plan

• Champion continuous improvement by monitoring industry trends, regulatory developments, and best practices in auditing and banking, and incorporate these insights into audit methodologies and team ways of working

Minimum Qualifications

• 8+ years of audit experience 

• Prior experience working at a Big Four / G-SIB

• Has strong written and verbal communication skills that deliver high quality, actionable and value-added feedback to management on potential issues and potential solutions to close gaps 

• Effectively oversees multiple audits, projects and portfolio, setting direction, and developing team capabilities

• Guides the team in applying critical thinking to evaluate potential risks and how to translate these considerations into evidence and risk-based insights 

• Guides team in applying control theory and professional auditing practices across the full audit lifecycle, including design and evaluation of control frameworks

• Stays abreast and cascades in-depth knowledge of current trends, new developments, regulations, technologies, and best practices in the auditing profession, banking industry, and area of specialization to teams, peers, and leaders​

Preferred Qualifications

• One or more credentials including but not limited to Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)

• 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

• Experience with auditing project governance, system development, transformation or other change initiatives and an understanding of industry standards and regulatory expectations. 

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