Financial Analyst

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, youll 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.


About the team:


Payment Strategy and Operations remit includes Supplier Payments, Partner Payments (Co-brand, Client Incentives, TLS, etc.), First-Line Payment Risk Governance, Spend Analytics, Customer Helpdesk, Disbursements and Travel & Expense Program Management. 


Why This Role Matters:


As the scale of global operations grows, maintaining tight governance over discretionary spend becomes mission-critical. This role ensures that every dollar spent by colleagues is in line with policy — safeguarding company funds and reinforcing trust and accountability.


Role & Responsibilities:


Key Role:


We are looking for a high-integrity, detail-obsessed professional to join our team as a Senior Analyst, Global T&E Compliance. This individual contributor (IC) role is positioned on a leadership growth track and is critical in reviewing T&E claims across geographies to uphold our internal policy, prevent misuse, and support a culture of responsible spend.


Responsibilities:

• Expense Audit
  
• Conduct detailed audits of high value T&E expense submissions across 30+ countries.
  
• Identify non-compliant claims such as:
  
• Personal charges on corporate cards.
  
• Duplicate claims or manipulated entries.
  
• Inappropriate merchant categories (e.g., adult entertainment, gambling).
  
• Out-of-policy cash reimbursements or unsupported high-value spends.
  
• Policy Threshold Checks
  
• Validate adherence to daily meal limits, hotel rate caps, travel class rules, and receipt submission thresholds.
  
• Ensure consistency across markets while accounting for local policy nuances.
  
• Pattern Detection & Trend Analysis
  
• Spot patterns indicating possible misuse (e.g., back-to-back weekend stays, cash-heavy submissions, rounding patterns).
  
• Flag high-risk behavior for secondary review by senior leadership.
  
• Escalation & Governance
  
• Route flagged transactions for review to next-in-line approvers and control owners.
  
• Maintain accurate documentation and logs for compliance audit readiness.
  
• Collaboration & Influence
  
• Partner with Internal Audit, Business Leadership, and the T&E Ops team to resolve escalations and drive preventive actions.
  
• Provide insights that inform policy refinement, training, or system rule changes.
  
• Risk Intelligence & Process Integrity
  
• Continuously review policy loopholes, weak control points, or gaps in tool configuration.
  
• Recommend enhancements for alerts, automation checks, or exception handling to strengthen governance.
  
  

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in finance, Accounting, Business, or related field. MBA or certifications like CPA are preferred.
  
• Experience:
  
• Minimum 5+ years of experience in T&E compliance, expense audit, internal controls, or financial governance.
  
• Experience working with Concur, Oracle, SAP, or other global expense management platforms is a plus.
  
• Core Competencies:
  
• Exceptional attention to detail and investigative mindset.
  
• Ability to anticipate compliance risks and think several steps ahead.
  
• Strong ethics, judgment, and documentation skills.
  
• Comfort with ambiguity in global policy enforcement and judgment-based calls.
  
• Leadership Readiness:
  
• Proven track record of independent execution and cross-functional influence.
  
• Clear potential to scale into people leadership roles.
  
  

• Competitive base salaries 
• Bonus incentives 
• Support for financial-well-being and retirement 
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and disability benefits (depending on location) 
• Flexible working model with hybrid, onsite or virtual arrangements depending on role and business need 
• Generous paid parental leave policies (depending on your location) 
• 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