Job Details

Description

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. As part of Team Amex, you'll experience this 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.

The American Express Corporate Affairs & Communications (CA&C) team is a strategic function that works to enhance and protect the continued strength of the American Express brand through public relations, social media and content, colleague communications and corporate sustainability (CS).

The Corporate Sustainability (CS) team is hiring a Director, Sustainability and Community Impact Systems, Operations and Controls to report to the Vice President of Community Impact. This role will be responsible for leading and enhancing systems and operations across the community impact and grantmaking and sustainability functions of the Corporate Sustainability team. This is an exciting role working closely with a global program team, business units and enterprise functions.

The director will have responsibility for day-to-day operations within the American Express Foundation and Corporate Sustainability team, which oversees platforms for Amex colleagues, non-profit partners and communities across the world. The Director will oversee a team responsible for departmental budgeting activities, financial and impact reporting, risk and compliance linked to grantmaking and sustainability processes as a subject matter expert, audit readiness, and vendor management, working closely with VP’s heading the Community Impact and Global Sustainability functions. The candidate will report to the VP, Community Impact, and interact closely with the Head of Corporate Sustainability & Foundation President, VP of Global Sustainability, Community Impact program officer and internal and international business units within American Express including finance, procurement, operational risk, compliance, payments, legal and executive office teams.

The ideal candidate must be a dynamic, solutions-oriented, highly organized, creative and flexible individual, with strong attention to detail and who is comfortable working with ambiguity and complexity. The ideal candidate will have a track record of building strong relationships, leading and operating in a dynamic environment, being resourceful, and precise.

How will you make an impact in this role?

Operations, systems support and relationship building

• Serve as Amex Foundation and corporate philanthropy operational backbone and systems knowledge holder, to ensure all relevant staff can access training on workflow, systems and best practices across grantmaking, including international market and CSR governance leads in global markets (i.e. India).

• Proactively engages with internal stakeholders including Corporate Affairs and Communications Finance Director, Third-party lifecycle and vendor management (TLM), Communications, Legal, Tax and Compliance teams.

• Be a subject matter expert who can field queries with your team from business and market corporate sustainability colleagues and provide guidance or adapt systems in response, to ensure compliance across markets.

• Be the key relationship holder, with your team, for vendors that support Foundation systems, platforms and processes, including Smart Simple, Benevity (shared with the Director of Colleague Engagement) and taxation contractors.

• Oversee third party vendor management and onboarding for Corporate Sustainability in collaboration with TLM, compliance and regulatory and risk management functions to ensure effective and timely performance, vendor training completion, execution, and upgrades.

Sustainability and Impact Operations, Finance support and Controls Enhancement

• Lead day-to-day operations for Corporate Sustainability team including: team project budgets, long-range budget planning including for the Amex Foundation, oversight of the company’s charitable contributions policy, compliance, and operations.

• Oversee risk, compliance, systems, controls and compliance management for the team.

• Oversee vendor management including payment requests, and processing across the team.

• Work with VP, Community Impact to set strategy for Foundation governance, administration and operations.

• Oversee the development of a framework for collection, cleansing, and integrity of impact data and measurement, including responses to internal and external stakeholders.

• Support implementation and future refreshes of the company’s charitable contributions policy.

• Work closely with Communications colleagues to translate the policy into internal communications for enterprise awareness and education.

• Prepare annual Foundation financial reports and papers for Board of Trustees and ensure legal requirements for Foundation entity are met.

• Manage at least 2 direct reports at Associate and/or Manager level.

Innovation

• Be at the forefront of trends, industry insights, and innovative approaches to philanthropic, community impact and sustainability systems, compliance, and governance trends.

• To advise and inspire the broader Philanthropy and Sustainability team, leaders and support the programs the team delivers across both the Foundation and Sustainability functions.

Minimum Qualifications

• 7 years of experience in Foundation Operations, Corporate Accounting, or Business Operations role.

• Understanding of Foundation finance, reporting and IRS regulations related to private foundations and charitable corporate giving.

• Comfort with ambiguity and bring a solutions-oriented mindset.

• Nimble generalist, willing and capable of flexing as team and priorities evolve.

• Entrepreneurial, willing and capable of building new processes and systems from ideation to execution and workflow management.

• Demonstrated excellence in project management and attention to detail.

• Enjoys and excels in fast paced working environment, can balance multiple projects on a tight deadline.

• Team player, strong leader and collaborative approach.

Preferred Qualifications

• Understanding of financial services business.

• Demonstrated interest or engagement in Corporate Foundation and Sustainability and relevant educational or other qualifications.

Qualifications

Salary Range: $130,000.00 to $205,000.00 annually bonus equity (if applicable) benefits

The above represents the expected salary range for this job requisition. Ultimately, in determining your pay, we’ll consider your location, experience, and other job-related factors.

We back you with benefits that support your holistic well-being so you can be and deliver your best. This means caring for you and your loved ones' physical, financial, and mental health, as well as providing the flexibility you need to thrive personally and professionally:

• Competitive base salaries

• Bonus incentives

• 6% Company Match on retirement savings plan

• Free financial coaching and financial well-being support

• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and disability benefits

• Flexible working model with hybrid, onsite or virtual arrangements depending on role and business need

• 20 weeks paid parental leave for all parents, regardless of gender, offered for pregnancy, adoption or surrogacy

• 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

For a full list of Team Amex benefits, visit our Colleague Benefits Site .

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. American Express will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with arrest or conviction records, in accordance with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including, but not limited to, the California Fair Chance Act, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance. For positions covered by federal and/or state banking regulations, American Express will comply with such regulations as it relates to the consideration of applicants with criminal convictions.

We back our colleagues with the support they need to thrive, professionally and personally. That's why we have Amex Flex, our enterprise working model that provides greater flexibility to colleagues while ensuring we preserve the important aspects of our unique in-person culture. Depending on role and business needs, colleagues will either work onsite, in a hybrid model (combination of in-office and virtual days) or fully virtually.

US Job Seekers - Click to view the “ Know Your Rights ” poster. If the link does not work, you may access the poster by copying and pasting the following URL in a new browser window: https://www.eeoc.gov/poster

Employment eligibility to work with American Express in the U.S. is required as the company will not pursue

visa sponsorship for these positions.

Job: Communications

Primary Location: US-New York-New York

Schedule Full-time

Req ID: 25008550