Director, Enterprise Data Governance Office

American Express; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 130,000 - 242,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Travel perks

Learning and development

Flexible benefits

Job summary

Amex GBT in Chicago, IL, seeks a Director to lead enterprise data governance strategy, execution, and performance. You will own the governance program across multi-brand platforms, partnering with Legal, Privacy, Risk & Compliance, Information Security, and AI teams to ensure trusted data for an AI-enabled operating model.

Responsibilities include building the domain model, establishing governance bodies, defining data owner/steward roles, and aligning standards with privacy and records

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in data governance or related disciplines.
• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (or equivalent professional experience); CDMP a plus.
• Proven success standing up and scaling enterprise data governance programs with governance bodies, policies, and owner/steward accountability.
• Experience authoring and operationalizing policies that withstand audit scrutiny.
• Hands-on experience governing ontology-governed content for enterprise AI, including knowledge models and semantic layers.
• Familiarity with governance platforms (Alation, Collibra) and data quality/observability tools (Ataccama).
• Ability to influence leaders across Technology, Legal, Privacy, Risk & Compliance, and Information Security.
• Strong communication of governance strategy and risks to senior leaders and auditors.
• Experience governing data across merged/acquired or multi-brand environments.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a comprehensive data governance roadmap with clear operating rhythms, measurable outcomes, and accountability mechanisms.
• Build the enterprise data domain model and establish governance bodies and forums for informed data decisions.
• Define and scale data owner and data steward roles with explicit accountability and decision rights.
• Articulate governance scope, structure, and priorities for leadership with clear recommendations on tradeoffs and resource allocation.
• Create and maintain the Data Governance Management Policy and standards aligned with Privacy, Records Management, and Information Security.
• Lead data governance audit preparation with control design, evidence management, remediation tracking, and external auditors.
• Establish definitions, taxonomies, and governance standards for booking, ticketing, servicing, invoicing, and supplier data.
• Define data contract standards to protect downstream consumers and AI use cases from upstream changes.
• Provide governance leadership across multi-brand and multi-platform ecosystems, including acquisitions and integrations.
• Lead governance standards for data trustworthiness in AI, including ownership, lineage, metadata, and traceability.

Skills

Data governance

Team leadership

Policy development

Audit readiness

AI governance

Cloud platforms

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Alation

Collibra

Ataccama

Job description

Amex GBT is a place where colleagues find inspiration in travel as a force for good and – through their work – can make an impact on our industry. We’re here to help our colleagues achieve success and offer an inclusive and collaborative culture where your voice is valued. Our Enterprise Data Governance Office (EDGO), part of the Data Governance, Quality & Trust organization, is seeking a director to lead the strategy, execution, and performance of enterprise data governance at Amex GBT. As GBT advances toward an AI-enabled operating model, trusted, governed, and traceable data is a core requirement for everything the business builds on top of it.

This leader will own the delivery of the governance program and serve as a senior practitioner voice on how governance is designed, scaled, and made to work across the business. Reporting to the Senior Director, Data Governance, Quality & Trust, you will lead a team of data governance leads and partner closely with Data Quality Enablement, AI & Platforms, Privacy, Risk & Compliance, Information Security, Legal, Technology, and domain leaders.

Business travel data is among the most complex in any industry, spanning booking, ticketing, servicing, exchanges, refunds, invoicing, supplier, and settlement data across multiple platforms and brands. Success in this role requires the ability to plan for and govern that level of complexity.

What You’ll Do

Develop and execute a comprehensive data governance roadmap with clear operating rhythms, measurable outcomes, and accountability mechanisms that align with enterprise objectives. Build the enterprise data domain model and establish governance bodies and forums that enable informed, consistent enterprise data decisions. Define and scale data owner and data steward roles with explicit accountability and decision rights, sequencing expansion deliberately across domains to ensure clarity before scaling. Articulate governance scope, structure, and priorities while providing leadership with clear recommendations on strategic tradeoffs and resource allocation. Create and maintain the Data Governance Management Policy and supporting standards that are role‑based, auditable, and aligned with Privacy, Records Management, Information Security, and AI governance frameworks. Lead data governance audit preparation, including control design, evidence management, remediation tracking, and direct collaboration with Internal Audit and external auditors. Establish definitions, taxonomies, and governance standards for booking, ticketing, servicing, invoicing, and supplier data across systems, brands, and client‑specific contexts. Define data contract standards with producers to protect downstream consumers, analytics, and AI use cases from upstream system changes. Provide governance leadership across multi‑brand and multi‑platform ecosystems, including data from acquisitions and integrations. Lead governance standards that ensure data trustworthiness for generative and agentic AI, including ownership, lineage, metadata, and traceability requirements.

What We’re Looking For

• 10+ years of experience in data governance, data management, or related disciplines, with 5+ years leading teams or programs at manager or director level.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Information Systems, Data Management, or related field (or equivalent professional experience); professional credentials such as CDMP are a plus.
• Demonstrated success standing up and scaling enterprise data governance programs, including operating models, governance bodies, policies, standards, and owner/steward accountability in complex, multi‑system environments.
• Proven experience authoring and operationalizing policies and standards that have successfully withstood internal and external audit scrutiny.
• Hands‑on experience governing ontology‑governed content layers for enterprise AI, including business ontologies, knowledge models, or semantic layers that ensure consistent definitions and relationships across AI applications.
• Technical proficiency with governance platforms (e.g., Alation, Collibra) and familiarity with data quality and observability tools (e.g., Ataccama), including lineage, glossary, and stewardship workflows.
• Proven ability to align and influence leaders across Technology, Legal, Privacy, Risk & Compliance, Information Security, and business units without direct authority.
• Strong ability to communicate governance strategy, risks, and recommendations to senior leaders and auditors in business‑focused language.
• Experience governing data across merged, acquired, or multi‑brand, multi‑platform environments.
• Experience in travel, transportation, or data‑intensive industries; familiarity with travel data domains (booking, ticketing, servicing, invoicing, supplier management) and cloud platforms (e.g., Snowflake), data contracts, and metrics governance is strongly preferred.

Location Chicago, Illinois, United States

The US national base salary range for this position is from $130,200.00 - $241,800.00

The national range provided includes the base salary that Amex GBT expects to pay for the role. Actual base salary will be based on factors including the scope and complexity of the role and the successful candidate’s relevant experience, skills, knowledge, and work location.

In addition to base salary, the anticipated range of which is posted above, this role is eligible for a discretionary annual bonus, which rewards participants based on company and individual performance.

For information about our comprehensive US benefits programs and eligibility, please review our Benefits-at-a-Glance document.

Benefits at a glance

• Flexible benefits are tailored to each country and start the day you do.
• These include health and welfare insurance plans, retirement programs, parental leave, adoption assistance, and wellbeing resources to support you and your immediate family.
• Travel perks: get a choice of deals each week from major travel providers on everything from flights to hotels to cruises and car rentals.
• Develop the skills you want when the time is right for you, with access to over 20,000 courses on our learning platform, leadership courses, and new job openings available to internal candidates first.

The #TeamGBT Experience Work and life: Find your happy medium at Amex GBT.

And much more!

All applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to age, sex, gender (and characteristics related to sex and gender), pregnancy (and related medical conditions), race, color, citizenship, religion, disability, or any other class or characteristic protected by law.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities.

Please let your recruiter know if you need an accommodation at any point during the hiring process.

For details regarding how we protect your data, please consult the Amex GBT Recruitment Privacy Statement.

What if I don’t meet every requirement? If you’re passionate about our mission and believe you’d be a phenomenal addition to our team, don’t worry about “checking every box;” you may be exactly the person we’re looking for!