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. From delivering differentiated products to providing world-class customer service, we operate with a strong risk mindset, ensuring we continue to uphold our brand promise of trust, security, and service.

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.

How will you make an impact in this role?

As Director - cybersecurity, you will define and lead the enterprise strategy for securing American Express’ digital edge and customer-facing applications across web, mobile, APIs, and cloud environments.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategy & Leadership:

• Define and execute the enterprise strategy for Application & Edge Security , including WAF, bot mitigation, API security, DDoS protection, and CDN/edge controls.

• Build and lead high-performing engineering and cyber defense teams.

• Partner closely with Product, Digital Engineering, Cloud, Infrastructure, Fraud Risk, and Architecture teams to embed security-by-design principles.

• Provide executive-level visibility into digital channel risks, resilience posture, and mitigation effectiveness.

Engineering & Architecture:

• Lead architecture and lifecycle management of:

• Web Application Firewalls (WAF)

• Bot management and automated threat mitigation platforms

• DDoS defense (L3/L4 and L7)

• Edge/CDN security controls

• Integrate behavioral analytics, telemetry, and ML-driven detection capabilities to reduce fraud and abuse.

• Ensure secure design patterns are embedded into customer-facing applications and APIs.

Operations & Resilience:

• Establish and manage KPIs/KRIs for:

• Credential stuffing and account takeover attempts

• Scraping and automation abuse

• Application-layer attacks (OWASP Top 10)

• Volumetric and protocol-based DDoS threats

• Lead incident response for high-severity edge or application-layer attacks.

• Continuously improve detection accuracy while minimizing customer friction.

Risk & Governance:

• Align controls with enterprise cybersecurity standards and regulatory expectations.

• Provide structured reporting to risk committees and senior leadership.

• Ensure third-party and vendor risk management across edge security providers.

• Support audits, regulatory exams, and control attestations as required.

Minimum Qualifications:

• 10 years of experience in cybersecurity, with deep expertise in Application Security, Edge Security, or Digital Channel Protection.

• 5 years of leadership experience managing cybersecurity engineering or operations teams.

• Strong knowledge of web architectures, APIs, CDNs, WAF technologies, reverse proxies, and cloud-native security controls.

• Experience defending against bot attacks, account takeover, scraping, and DDoS campaigns.

• Proven track record leading major cyber incidents and cross-functional crisis management.

• Strong executive communication and stakeholder engagement skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in financial services or other highly regulated environments.

• Expertise in zero trust architecture and cloud-native edge protection models.

• Familiarity with behavioral analytics and ML-driven threat detection.

• Multi-cloud experience (AWS, Azure, GCP).

• Relevant certifications (CISSP, CISM, CCSP, GIAC).

Qualifications

Salary Range: $144,250.00 to $256,250.00 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: Technology

Primary Location: US-Arizona-Phoenix

Other Locations: US-New York-New York

Schedule Full-time

Req ID: 26003440