Director Public Cloud Operations US

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.

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.

Role Overview

The American Express Enterprise Cloud team is seeking an experienced infrastructure leader to help build and operate world-class cloud platforms and infrastructure, supported by integrated CI/CD, observability, and security capabilities.

The Director Infrastructure Engineering - Head of Public Cloud US Operations (AWS, Azure and GCP) is responsible for leading the strategy, execution, and continuous improvement of cloud operations across Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This role ensures secure, reliable, scalable, and cost-effective cloud environments that support enterprise applications and digital transformation initiatives.

The ideal candidate brings deep technical expertise in cloud infrastructure, a strong operational mindset, and proven leadership experience across financial governance (FinOps), automation, and large-scale platform operations.

Key Responsibilities:

Cloud Operations Leadership

• Lead and manage U.S. public cloud operations across production and non-production environments for AWS, Azure, and GCP.
• Drive incident, problem, and change management processes to ensure operational stability.
• Ensure high availability, performance, resilience, and operational excellence across cloud platforms.
• Partner closely with cloud service providers on operational performance and resiliency initiatives.
• Collaborate with engineering, product, architecture, and security teams.
• Support enterprise cloud migration and modernization programs.

Cloud Infrastructure & Reliability

• Oversee infrastructure design, deployment, monitoring, and optimization.
• Implement and govern Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using tools such as Terraform.
• Drive Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles, including automation and reliability engineering.
• Lead disaster recovery and business continuity strategies.

Security & Compliance

• Partner with cybersecurity teams on vulnerability management and risk mitigation.
• Implement best practices for identity and access management (IAM), encryption, logging, and monitoring.
• Participate in internal and external audits, as required.

Automation & DevOps Enablement

• Champion automation-first operational models.
• Integrate CI/CD pipelines with cloud infrastructure.
• Reduce manual operational overhead through scripting and tooling.

Financials and Reporting

• Drive cloud cost-efficiency initiatives across workloads.
• Lead cloud inventory management and usage reporting.

Team Leadership & Development

• Build, mentor, and retain high-performing cloud operations teams.
• Establish performance metrics and career development plans.
• Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (Master’s preferred).
• 10+ years of experience in Platform Engineering & Operations, API Support or Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), with a proven track record of leading teams in managing large-scale cloud infrastructure with a focus on reliability and resilience.
• Deep, hands-on experience with AWS, Azure, and/or GCP (multi-cloud experience preferred).
• Strong experience with:
  • Infrastructure as Code (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation)
  • Container platforms (e.g., EKS, GKE)
  • Monitoring tools (e.g., Datadog, Prometheus, CloudWatch, Azure Monitor)
  • CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps)
• Strong understanding of cloud networking, security, and architecture.
• Experience managing large-scale and mission-critical production environments.
• Proven experience in financial management and cloud cost optimization.
• Relevant certifications preferred:
  • AWS Solutions Architect - Professional
  • Azure Solutions Architect Expert
  • GCP Professional Cloud Architect
• Experience with observability tools such as Prometheus, ELK and Dynatrace.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to troubleshoot complex issues and drive resolution in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills, with the ability to effectively collaborate with cross-functional teams and influence decision-making at all levels of the organization.

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.

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