Director, Generative AI Security Engineering & Operations

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.

American Express is seeking a Director, Cyber Security to lead the Security Engineering, Automation & Operations function for Generative AI and Agentic AI technologies. Reporting into the Distinguished Engineer, this role will oversee the engineering, deployment, and ongoing operations of AI security guardrails, ensuring secure, reliable, and scalable adoption of Generative AI across the enterprise. The Director will own the day-to-day operations of GenAI security controls, manage operational risk, and drive engineering excellence across teams.

Key Responsibilities :

• Lead the day-to-day operations of Generative AI security guardrails, including monitoring, performance tuning, incident response, and lifecycle management.
• Establish 24x7 operational readiness for GenAI security platforms, with defined SLAs and consequence management workflows.
• Build and mature runbooks, playbooks, and automation pipelines for guardrail operations.
• Partner with Security Operations Center to triage, contain, and remediate incidents.
• Ensure observability, logging, and monitoring provide full operational transparency.
• Design, test, and operationalize secure GenAI and Agentic AI guardrail systems.
• Ensure seamless integration of security controls into enterprise GenAI platforms.
• Translate regulatory, legal, and privacy requirements into measurable operational controls.
• Partner with enterprise GenAI enablement teams to balance rapid enablement with secure guardrail enforcement.
• Build and lead a high-performing team of engineers and operations specialists.
• Mentor senior engineers and managers; drive operational excellence across disciplines.
• Establish metrics and KPIs to track the efficacy and reliability of GenAI security operations.

Qualifications :

• Bachelors Degree in Computer Science or related fields
• 10+ years in security engineering/operations, including 2+ years in AI/ML or LLM/GenAI security.
• Proven experience operating security controls at scale.
• Strong foundation in cloud, data, and application security principles.
• Deep expertise with automation, and operational governance.
• Familiarity with model risk management frameworks.
• Exceptional leadership skills with ability to manage cross-functional teams and influence at senior levels. 

Preferred :

• M.S. in Computer Science or related fields

Why This Role Matters

This role is pivotal in ensuring that American Express adopts Generative AI responsibly, securely, and at scale. As the operational leader for GenAI security, the Director will balance innovation with resilience, ensuring that AI-enabled experiences for our customers and colleagues remain safe, compliant, and trustworthy.

Salary Range: $144,250.00 to $256,250.00 annually + bonus + 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.

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