Senior Associate - CyberOps & Assurance

American Express; Phoenix (AZ); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

American Express is seeking a Senior Associate for Cyber Security Operations and Assurance within the PCS – HSM Management Operations team. The role supports enterprise HSM environments, cryptographic services, and security governance across Payment Cryptographic Solutions, under guidance from senior engineers.

You will gain exposure to enterprise HSM technologies, payment cryptography, and cybersecurity operations while contributing to availability, security, and continuous improvement in a

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience in a related field.
• Foundational knowledge of information security concepts, OS, networking, and enterprise infra.
• Basic cryptography, encryption concepts, PKI, or cybersecurity fundamentals.
• Familiarity with Linux/Unix CLI and basic sysadmin concepts.
• Basic TCP/IP networking concepts and troubleshooting.
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with cross-team collaboration.
• Ability to leverage approved AI-enabled tools to boost learning, research, documentation, and productivity.
• Self-motivated with a desire to learn enterprise HSM technologies and cryptography.

Responsibilities

• Monitor HSM environments and respond to operational alerts and incidents.
• Assist with administration, configuration, and lifecycle support of multi-tenant HSM platforms.
• Support deployments, firmware upgrades, hardware replacements, and DR testing.
• Troubleshoot HSM, cryptographic, networking, and app integration issues with AI-assisted tooling.
• Support cryptographic key management activities and ceremonies.
• Participate in production support, incident response, and change management.
• Develop and maintain technical docs, runbooks, and implementation guides, leveraging AI.

Skills

Analytical skills

Troubleshooting

Communication

Organization

AI-enabled tooling usage

Scripting (PowerShell/Bash/Python)

Security concepts

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, IT, Cybersecurity, Engineering or related field

Tools

Linux/Unix command line

PowerShell

Bash

Python

Jira

Confluence

ServiceNow

Job description

Job Description
Joining Amex Tech means discovering and shaping your contribution to something big. Here, you can work alongside talented tech teams and build a unique career with the Powerful Backing of American Express. With a range of opportunities to work with the latest technologies, and a commitment to back the broader engineering community through open source, our mission is to power your success. Because Amex Tech is powered by our technology, our culture, and our colleagues.

Job Description
Joining Amex Tech means discovering and shaping your contribution to something big. Here, you can work alongside talented tech teams and build a unique career with the Powerful Backing of American Express. With a range of opportunities to work with the latest technologies, and a commitment to back the broader engineering community through open source, our mission is to power your success. Because Amex Tech is powered by our technology, our culture, and our colleagues.
The Technology organization enables and accelerates the company’s growth strategies, delivering global capabilities and services in support of Amex’s customers and colleagues, while maintaining 24/7 servicing and availability to ensure an uninterrupted, high-quality customer experience. Technology provides the foundation for everything we do in the company while driving differentiation through building and leveraging innovative technology and data insights.
At American Express, our mission is to deliver the world’s best customer experience every day. At the heart of this mission is our Information Security organization, enabling exceptional experiences built on a foundation of trust, service, and security. We leverage advanced technologies and data-driven insights to stay ahead of an evolving threat landscape. We foster a culture of passion, curiosity, and courage—empowering you to innovate, grow, and help shape the future of a Fortune 100 company.
Trust. Service. Security.
The Data Security team is responsible for safeguarding the organization’s most critical asset—its data—by ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and availability across all platforms and environments. Working at the intersection of cybersecurity, data governance, and privacy, the Data Security team focuses on capabilities such as data classification, encryption, secure data access, and monitoring. The team partners closely with engineering, risk, and business units to embed security controls throughout the data lifecycle—from creation and storage to sharing and archival.
The Senior Associate - Cyber Security Operations and Assurance will be part of the Payment Cryptographic Solutions (PCS) – HSM Management Operations team within the Data Security organization.
This role is responsible for supporting the day-to-day administration, maintenance, and operational support of the enterprise Hardware Security Module (HSM) environment that enables critical payment and cryptographic services across American Express. Working under the guidance of senior engineers, this individual will assist in maintaining secure, reliable, and highly available cryptographic services while gaining experience with enterprise HSM technologies, payment cryptography, and cybersecurity operations.
As part of American Express's engineering transformation, this role is expected to leverage approved AI-enabled capabilities to improve learning, engineering productivity, troubleshooting, documentation, and automation while ensuring all AI usage complies with American Express security, privacy, risk, and governance standards.
Working closely with senior engineers, architecture, infrastructure, application development, identity & access management, and security engineering teams, this individual will contribute to the availability, security, and continuous improvement of enterprise HSM services.
Responsibilities

• Monitor enterprise Hardware Security Module (HSM) environments and respond to operational alerts, incidents, and service requests.
• Assist with the administration, configuration, partition management, maintenance, and lifecycle support of enterprise multi-tenant HSM platforms.
• Support HSM deployments, firmware upgrades, hardware replacements, disaster recovery testing, and production implementations under the guidance of senior engineers.
• Troubleshoot HSM, cryptographic, networking, and application integration issues, using approved AI-enabled tools to accelerate research, log analysis, and problem resolution while validating technical recommendations.
• Support cryptographic key management activities, including key ceremonies, secure key handling, and operational procedures.
• Participate in production support, incident response, problem management, and change management activities.
• Develop and maintain technical documentation, operational procedures, implementation guides, and support runbooks, leveraging AI to improve documentation quality and consistency.
• Identify opportunities to automate routine operational tasks using scripting and approved AI-assisted engineering tools.
• Collaborate with Architecture, Infrastructure, IAM, Security Engineering, Networking, and Application Development teams to support secure cryptographic services.
• Ensure HSM operations comply with enterprise security policies and applicable regulatory requirements, including PCI DSS and FIPS 140-2/140-3.
• Participate in Agile/Scrum ceremonies and contribute to continuous improvement initiatives.
• Continuously develop technical knowledge of HSM technologies, cryptography, enterprise security, and cybersecurity operations through mentoring, training, and hands-on experience.

Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
• Foundational knowledge of information security principles, operating systems, networking, and enterprise infrastructure.
• Basic understanding of cryptography, encryption concepts, PKI, or cybersecurity fundamentals.
• Familiarity with Linux/Unix command-line environments and basic system administration concepts.
• Basic knowledge of TCP/IP networking concepts and troubleshooting.
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to collaborate across technical teams.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities and learn in a fast-paced operational environment.
• Demonstrated ability to leverage approved AI-enabled tools to improve learning, technical research, documentation, troubleshooting, and engineering productivity while exercising sound technical judgment and adhering to enterprise security and governance requirements.
• Self-motivated with a strong desire to learn enterprise HSM technologies, cryptography, payment security, and operational best practices.

Preferred Qualifications

• Internship, co-op, or professional experience supporting cybersecurity, infrastructure, systems administration, or enterprise operations.
• Familiarity with Hardware Security Modules (HSMs), cryptographic platforms, or enterprise key management.
• Familiarity with payment cryptography concepts, including key management and digital certificates.
• Experience with Windows and/or Linux systems administration.
• Experience with PowerShell, Bash, Python, or similar scripting languages.
• Exposure to programming languages such as Java, Python, or C#.
• Familiarity with cloud computing platforms or cloud security concepts.
• Experience with Jira, Confluence, ServiceNow, or similar enterprise collaboration and IT service management tools.
• Data center, server hardware, or infrastructure support experience.
• Experience working in an Agile/Scrum environment.
• Security certifications such as Security+, Network+, or cloud fundamentals certifications are a plus.

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