Job Details

Description

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.

As part of our diverse tech team, you can architect, code and ship software that makes us an essential part of our customers’ digital lives. Here, you can work alongside talented engineers in an open, supportive, inclusive environment where your voice is valued, and you make your own decisions on what tech to use to solve challenging problems. American Express offers a range of opportunities to work with the latest technologies and encourages you to back the broader engineering community through open source. And because we understand the importance of keeping your skills fresh and relevant, we give you dedicated time to invest in your professional development. Find your place in technology on #TeamAmex.

As the Director of Database Engineering, you will lead a high-impact team focused on accelerating self-service adoption, enabling database platform modernization, and delivering scalable, secure, and resilient data infrastructure. You will define and drive strategies for standardized provisioning, automated configuration, improved developer productivity, cost optimization, and licensing governance for a diverse ecosystem of cloud and hybrid database products. This role requires close collaboration with platform engineering, application development, security, finance, and operations teams to drive innovation, governance, and continuous improvement in database engineering practices across public cloud (GCP, AWS) and on-prem environments.

Key Responsibilities:

Cloud Adoption & Migration at Scale

• Lead definition of reusable migration patterns and automation playbooks for heterogeneous database technologies (e.g., SQL Server to Aurora PostgreSQL).

• Reduce migration friction through prescriptive paths, automation tooling, and structured assessments.

Standardized Provisioning & Configuration

• Drive Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) initiatives for on-prem environments (e.g., Postgres, Yugabyte).

• Ensure consistency and reduce operational drift through automation and standardized templates.

Self-Service & Developer Enablement

• Build secure, scalable self-service experiences for database provisioning, cloning, and configuration.

• Centralize asset management, tagging, and visibility across all cloud platforms.

• Implement developer-friendly APIs and tools that adhere to best practices for compliance and security.

Reliability, Scalability & Security

• Embed resiliency patterns and production-readiness checks into automation pipelines.

• Accelerate incident response through AI-assisted diagnostics and auto-scaling capabilities.

Cost Optimization & Licensing Governance

• Lead legacy database decommissioning efforts based on usage analytics.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or master’s in computer science, Engineering, or related field.

• 10 years of progressive experience in database engineering, infrastructure, or platform leadership roles.

• Proven success in driving large-scale database migration and modernization initiatives across GCP and AWS.

• Hands-on expertise with database technologies like PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Couchbase, Yugabyte, Firestore, DynamoDB.

• Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code tools (Terraform) and CI/CD automation.

• Strong understanding of observability, monitoring, and anomaly detection in production systems.

• Deep knowledge of database security, governance, tagging, and cost control in cloud environments.

• Demonstrated ability to lead high-performing, cross-functional teams with a customer-first and enterprise mindset.

• Strong communication and collaboration skills with both technical and business stakeholders.

Qualifications

Salary Range: $170,000.00 to $255,000.00 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 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

• 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 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 work in a hybrid model (combination of in-office and virtual days).

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 United States is required as the company will not pursue visa sponsorship for these positions.

Job: Technologies

Primary Location: US-Arizona-Phoenix

Schedule Full-time

Req ID: 25007644