Director, Payments Consulting (Payment Product Partnerships)

American Express•Phoenix, AZ

6d•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. From delivering differentiated products to providing world-class customer service, we operate with a strong risk mindset, ensuring we continue to uphold our brand promise of trust, security, and service. 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 Payments Consulting team delivers go-to-market strategies, deploys new and emerging payment solutions, and ensures a seamless transaction processing experience across more than 20 global markets. The team serves as a trusted advisor to internal and external partners, bringing deep technical payments expertise and insights from the acceptance channel to inform internal strategies and support merchants, processors, and partners in implementing solutions that meet their evolving needs. Within Payments Consulting Americas, the Payment Product Partnerships team defines and executes the strategy to enable American Express products and processing capabilities with third parties in the acceptance channel to power transactions and promote a seamless checkout experience for Cardmembers. This includes proactively identifying and engaging new entrants and innovators, growing existing third-party relationships, managing the related relationship governance and oversight, and deepening partner relationships with American Express. The Director, Payment Product Partnerships leads this team and reports to the Vice President, Payments Consulting Americas.

Requirements

8 years experience managing and growing external partner relationships in payments or related fields.
Strong people leader and manager with proven ability to develop and inspire diverse teams to reach their personal potential and consistently deliver on business goals
Demonstrated ability to build, maintain, and leverage strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including industry partners.
Excellent strategic thought leadership and complex problem-solving skills
Proficient in leading others through change, and leading through ambiguity to define the path to progress and create reliable processes to advance business goals and measure outcomes
Excellent oral and written communication and presentation skills, including the ability to articulate complex issues in a simple, non-technical manner, to fluently bridge business and technical discussions, and to tailor communication to various audiences
Deep knowledge of the payments ecosystem, players and processing.
Highly experienced in managing third-party relationships, including negotiating contracts, and actively managing risk, governance, and compliance oversight.
Experience in business development or representing an organization at industry events with ability to translate industry intelligence into AXP opportunities.
Willingness to travel to industry events. (10% travel estimate).

Responsibilities

Develop multi-year strategies to advance regional adoption of AXP processing and product capabilities through Payment Product Partnerships.
Oversee development of strong and strategically aligned regional partner pipeline to deliver on business goals
Actively manage business and operational risk, including oversight of operations, processes, and third-party relationships.
Lead, manage, and develop a team of a high-performing colleagues, individually and collectively, to deliver on business goals.
Foster a culture of excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Proactively lead through highly ambiguous situations, manage escalations and related communication.
Develop team to proficiently consult with external partners on the range of Amex products and capabilities, and to implement solutions to meet partner needs.
Grow performance across regional payment product partnerships, including driving partner due diligence, negotiations, ongoing management, and compliance.
Design and enforce regional third-party governance frameworks, including controls, documentation standards, and automation, in alignment with enterprise guidance; actively manage execution across team and drive continuous improvements.
Drive strategies to promote partner engagement with American Express, including sponsoring Amex Exchange, and engaging in industry forums
Proactively grow deep and current knowledge of the payments industry and its players, including market norms, emerging trends, innovations, technologies, regulations, and competitive dynamics.
Build and leverage positive relationships with key collaborators within AXP, including Global Merchant Services (client management), network, policy, product, legal, control management and enablement teams, and with Payments Consulting teams across regions.
Act as the primary liaison for senior-level partner technical relationships, understanding their business objectives, unique considerations and needs.
Actively contribute to cross-functional initiatives, sharing industry insights and the voice of the partners to advance product, policy, and specification development, and enterprise strategies. Anticipate and communicate trends to support strategic decision-making.

Benefits

Competitive base salaries
Bonus incentives
6% 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