Director - Servicing Innovation Strategy

American Express•New York, NY

6h•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. Global Servicing Innovation: Where innovation is our business. Our team’s mission is to shape and execute the Generative AI strategy of Global Servicing (GS) at American Express, accelerating the progress of both existing and future use cases of this exciting new technology to transform both the colleague and customer experience. The Global Servicing Innovation team focuses on: Defining the overarching vision and strategy for Gen AI within GS ensuring it is informed by broader macro trends and industry developments in a rapidly changing environment. Implementing upon the GenAI strategy & priorities for GS through our Innovation Lab, serving as a first mover for the broader enterprise in testing new and emerging AI capabilities. Accelerating and scaling GenAI pilot programs through scope definition, coordination, and ongoing centralized support (e.g., analysis, change management, communications) for dedicated pilot teams. Rapidly operationalizing GenAI initiatives at scale through development of rollout and scaling plans that quickly shift pilots from takeaways to benefit realization. The demonstrated leader will effectively manage the complex needs of the GS GenAI program, develop thoughtful strategies and effectively manage internal and external relationships to advance a Gen AI roadmap that meets colleague and customer needs. The effective candidate will drive measurable impact across the innovation funnel; facilitating enterprise partnerships, ideating and assessing innovative use cases, enabling tests and pilots, and delivering insights that demonstrate GS’s contribution to enterprise growth. Additionally, the effective candidate will be able to lead through ambiguity, coach effectively and inspire followership within a matrixed organization.

Requirements

Strategic, big-picture thinker with demonstrated interest in Generative AI and innovation with strong eye for business and high degree of creativity in finding opportunities for products, services, new processes and systems.
Experience designing and owning intake, prioritization, or portfolio management processes for new ideas, products, or initiatives.
Strong understanding of emerging technologies, with a genuine interest in the AI and GenAI landscape and its application to customer and colleague experiences.
Demonstrated ability to identify external trends, synthesize insights, and translate them into actionable strategies and scalable business outcomes.
Ability to influence without authority at all levels and demonstrated track record for getting results and transformation across multiple lines of business.
Proven relationship-builder with strong consultative and collaborative skills to partner with business leaders in order to devise solutions to complex business challenges.
Ability to navigate ambiguity and engage in structured thinking in order derive meaningful, data-driven insights.
Comfortable working in an environment with tight deadlines and managing through making decisions with imperfect information.
Adept at forming thoughtful and considered perspectives, supported by both objective fact and strategic conviction.
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.
Understanding of cross-functional product deployments and/or experience working with Engineering, Product, and Risk teams on technology deployments.
Demonstrated people leadership skills and ability to foster and coach diverse teams.
Strong proficiency in Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel required.

Nice To Haves

Previous 5-8 years of management consulting, investment banking, strategy, or similar experience preferred.
MBA or equivalent preferred.

Responsibilities

Scoping the next wave of GenAI pilots, ensuring alignment to prioritization principles while extrapolating findings from smaller scale efforts and extending to “bigger bets”.
Own and evolve the Servicing Innovation intake process for new ideas, establishing a structured funnel to assess, prioritize, validate, and scale innovative use cases through the Innovation Lab.
Design and lead a best-in-class innovation strategy informed by external market trends, emerging technologies (with a strong emphasis on AI), and competitive intelligence to enhance customer and colleague experiences.
Serve as the relationship lead for key external partners as well as core internal teams to facilitate the identification, ideation and validation of the next wave of transformational and innovative use cases and drive transparency in Servicing Innovation processes.
Lead with an outcome-based perspective identifying key success metrics for GenAI pilots to test value and performance.
Operate effectively in ambiguity and white space, identifying high-potential opportunities where processes, playbooks, or precedents do not yet exist.
Partner cross-functionally to rapidly test and pilot concepts, embracing a fail-fast attitude to iterate, learn, and advance the most impactful ideas.
Act as a leader with vision and connector across the enterprise, synthesizing insights, sharing findings, and scaling proven approaches beyond the Innovation Lab.
Thought leadership/creative problem solving to accelerate technological innovation for AXP and drive progressive improvement.

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