Director & Counsel

American Express•New York, NY

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

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, 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. The General Counsel’s Organization (GCO) at American Express is seeking a Director & Counsel to lead support for the Business to Business (B2B) and Central Bill product teams within Global Commercial Services (GCS), advising on a product suite that includes Buyer Initiated Payments, Business Travel Account, and the enterprise’s commercial virtual card capabilities. The successful candidate will be responsible for supervising one (1) legal professional, structuring and marketing complex commercial product offerings, negotiating partner agreements and providing day-to-day legal and strategic advice in respect of novel commercial payments structures. The successful candidate will also help support projects that impact the broader business unit, such as client insights, data products and API integrations. This position requires regularly navigating novel business and legal issues across a broad range of matters and working seamlessly with colleagues on a global basis. It also provides the opportunity to contribute to strategic projects across GCS and to collaborate with colleagues across business units and the GCO on significant enterprise initiatives. The General Counsel’s Organization (GCO) of American Express is where great legal minds influence global business strategy. The GCO mission is to protect and strengthen American Express through legal expertise and strategic advice that helps business partners manage risk, identify opportunities, and deliver on the company’s promise of exceptional products and services. The GCS business serves millions of business customers around the world, from mom-and-pop shops to a substantial number of Fortune 500 companies. It is a core business of American Express with a vision to be essential to our customers’ businesses every day. GCS builds and maintains relationships by offering a diverse range of payment and cashflow tools, from a wide range of traditional card products to working capital solutions to new digital solutions that make it easy for customers to manage a full range of their financial and payment needs. How will you make an impact in this role?

Requirements

J.D. with ability to practice law in New York
5+ years of relevant work experience in a law firm and/or in-house corporate legal environment
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with passion for generating creative and innovative solutions
Ability to communicate complex issues clearly and persuasively, in both written and oral format, and to synthesize complex issues
Excellent collaboration and teamwork skills and ability to work well in cross-functional team settings
Ability to work with uncertainty and offer practical legal advice
Ability to develop and maintain client relationships
Ability to manage and prioritize competing demands while maintaining high attention to detail and meeting deadlines
Ability to understand and integrate details of business operational/systemic environment in applying legal and policy requirements
Self-motivated, high level of personal energy and commitment

Nice To Haves

Experience structuring complex payment products preferred
Experience drafting, reviewing, and negotiating complex commercial transactions preferred
Experience in the payments industry preferred

Responsibilities

Act as lead product counsel for B2B and Central bill products including Buyer Initiated Payments, Business Travel Account and virtual card capabilities
Provide legal and strategic advice on a range of matters impacting key commercial product offerings, such as structuring, risk identification and mitigation, data issues and marketing.
Supervise one legal professional tasked to provide legal and strategic advice on a broad range of matters impacting strategic commercial products, all within a dynamic business and regulatory environment
Draft new product terms, negotiate partner agreements and coordinate across teams to facilitate implementation of product terms across client agreements, working in close collaboration with legal and business colleagues and other subject matter experts.
Participate in a collaborative team of seasoned attorneys, offering thought leadership for, and engagement on, cross-subject matter practice group issues and strategic projects.
Identify and support process improvements to promote agility in legal and related business operations.
Coordinate with international legal colleagues, Compliance, Operational Risk, and business development leads, and cross-functional teams, to provide effective legal support and engage appropriate subject matter experts across the organization.
Build and use your leadership and subject matter expertise to serve as an engaging mentor, advisor and leader to colleagues on the team and across the General Counsel’s Organization

Benefits

Competitive base salaries
Bonus incentives
6%25 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