Director-Software Engineering

Job ID: 26013775Posted: 2026-09-22Location: Phoenix, AZ, United StatesSalary: $144250 - $256250 annually + bonus + equity (if applicable) + benefitsJob Function: Engineering & ArchitectureSchedule: Full timeShift: DayWorkplace: HybridCareer Area: TechnologyCompany: American ExpressDescriptionThe International Card & Risk Services Technology (ICRST) organization delivers the technology strategy, platforms and solutions that underpin International Card Services and Credit & Fraud Risk across global markets. With approximately 900 colleagues across the UK, US, Canada, India and Mexico, ICRST plays a critical role in shaping enterprise-wide technology outcomes and driving compliance, resilience and innovation.We are seeking an Engineering Director to lead and grow high-performing, transformational product engineering teams responsible for the architecture, design, engineering, and implementation of reliable, scalable, secure, and impactful technology products and platform applications.This leader will combine strong technical judgment, hands-on engineering and architecture expertise, people leadership, and strategic thinking to translate business priorities into effective engineering execution. The Engineering Director will partner closely with Product, Design, Architecture, Data, and other business and technology leaders to establish technical direction, modernize applications and platforms, develop engineering talent, improve delivery, and drive innovation across the enterprise.The successful candidate will be an active technical leader who can operate at both the strategic and hands-on levels—guiding complex architecture and engineering decisions while building an environment of accountability, collaboration, innovation, inclusion, and continuous improvement.ResponsibilitiesEngineering & Technical LeadershipLead multiple transformational product engineering teams in the architecture, design, engineering, and implementation of enterprise applications, components, APIs, and platforms.Provide hands-on technical leadership across complex, cross-functional initiatives, actively participating in solution architecture, platform design, and software product design.Establish clear engineering priorities aligned with product, technology, and business strategy.Advance the modernization and transformation of applications and platforms while identifying opportunities to drive innovation across the enterprise.Partner with senior engineers and architects to define technical strategy, architecture, and modernization priorities.Guide complex technical decisions involving architecture, technical debt, platform investments, build-versus-buy considerations, scalability, performance, and emerging technologies.Balance near-term product delivery commitments with long-term platform health, maintainability, scalability, resilience, and technical investment.Promote pragmatic adoption of new technologies where they can create measurable customer or business value.Product Delivery & Operational ExcellenceOwn delivery across a portfolio of engineering initiatives, consistently delivering high-quality software products and capabilities on time and within allocated product budgets.Partner closely with Product Owners and business and technology stakeholders to establish priorities, plan development schedules, and execute major product increments and releases.Enable successful delivery of critical end-to-end enterprise initiatives by identifying dependencies and risks early and driving resolution across organizational boundaries.Ensure teams execute predictably and iteratively while maintaining high technical and engineering standards.Establish and monitor meaningful engineering metrics related to delivery, quality, reliability, security, performance, and developer effectiveness.Ensure appropriate engineering practices for software quality, testing, observability, resilience, security, CI/CD, DevOps, automation, and operational excellence.Champion continuous improvement in development processes, tooling, automation, and engineering practices.Provide technical leadership in the prevention, diagnosis, and resolution of system outages and complex production issues.People, Talent & Engineering CultureLead, inspire, and enable highly talented and engaged engineering teams, creating an environment of accountability, collaboration, innovation, ownership, and continuous improvement.Play an active role in advancing a strong product engineering culture focused on technical excellence, creativity, customer value, and high-quality execution.Attract, recruit, develop, coach, mentor, and retain top engineering talent and engineering leaders.Establish clear expectations and foster a culture of high performance, inclusion, ownership, and constructive feedback.Evolve team structures and operating models as the organization, technology portfolio, and business priorities grow and change.Enterprise PartnershipPartner effectively with Product, Architecture, Design, Data, business units, and other technology organizations to translate business requirements into high-quality production software.Collaborate across organizational boundaries to prioritize, plan, and execute complex enterprise initiatives involving multiple teams, platforms, and systems.Build strong relationships with senior business and technology stakeholders and communicate technical strategies, tradeoffs, risks, and recommendations clearly.Drive commitments and accountability across end-to-end teams to ensure successful execution of critical enterprise initiatives.QualificationsBachelor’s degree in computer science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience. Master’s degree in a related field is a plus.8–10+ years of software engineering experience, including architecture, design, engineering, and implementation experience within complex enterprise environments and recent experience leading engineering teams.Demonstrated recent hands-on experience designing, engineering, and successfully implementing enterprise-grade software products and platforms.Expert-level solution architecture skills with the ability to evaluate complex architectures, engineering approaches, and technical tradeoffs and resolve complex technical issues creatively and effectively.Experience building scalable, reliable, secure, performant, and maintainable software systems.Demonstrated ability to translate business requirements into high-quality production software and measurable business outcomes.Experience developing enterprise-grade APIs and modern distributed and microservices-based architectures.Hands-on experience with modern software engineering practices and technologies, including CI/CD, DevOps, containers, microservices, cloud-native architectures, observability, security, and automated testing.Recent engineering experience with relevant technologies such as One App, React, Go, Java, Docker, Kubernetes, Kafka, Elastic, and PostgreSQL.Experience with cloud platforms and complex enterprise cloud environments.Demonstrated ability to optimize the performance, reliability, and scalability of enterprise software systems and components.Experience managing complex programs involving multiple engineering teams, systems, platforms, and organizational dependencies.Excellent communication and executive stakeholder-management skills.Ability to operate effectively in environments characterized by ambiguity, competing priorities, and significant organizational complexity.Experience with Salesforce or other enterprise platforms relevant to the organization.Experience operating large-scale, highly available, and/or regulated technology platforms.