Senior Manager - AI Innovation & Research

American Express•New York, NY

About The Position

Amex Digital Labs is seeking a Senior Manager to help shape the future of Agentic Commerce at American Express. The role focuses on identifying and developing products, capabilities, and experiences for AI-powered commerce, including agent wallets, digital identity, emerging payment protocols, and new transaction models. The position will explore how American Express can apply its authentication, authorization, identity, and risk capabilities to create differentiated products and new growth opportunities. Working with Engineering, Product, Network, and other teams, the Senior Manager will turn emerging technologies and market insights into product concepts, lead early-stage experimentation, and help shape future Agentic Commerce capabilities. The role calls for a hands-on product thinker who is comfortable solving ambiguous problems, exploring new technologies, and bringing ideas to life. The position is based on the supplied posting, which requires eligibility to work in the United States. American Express will not pursue visa sponsorship for these positions.

Requirements

At least 5 years of experience in product management, product development, product strategy, fintech, digital commerce, or a related technology role.
Strong customer empathy, product intuition, enthusiasm for building products and experiences, and ability to articulate compelling product opportunities.
Curiosity about emerging technologies, ability to connect ideas across disciplines, and interest in advancing innovation within a large organization.
Experience taking new product ideas from concept through discovery, experimentation, and validation; ownership mentality and willingness to be hands-on.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including evaluating opportunities, assessing trade-offs, and making informed product decisions.
Ability to partner closely with Engineering, understand technical concepts, and translate business and customer needs into product requirements and potential solutions.
Ability to balance strategy with tactical execution and bring structure and clarity to ambiguous or rapidly evolving opportunities.
Highly organized, adaptable, and self-motivated, with ability to navigate competing priorities and drive progress across cross-functional teams.
Excellent communication and relationship-building skills, including ability to engage, influence, and align technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Collaborative, test-and-learn mindset, including willingness to challenge assumptions, experiment, and adapt based on feedback and results.
Willingness to be creative within the bounds of a highly regulated financial services environment.
Eligibility to work with American Express in the United States; the company will not pursue visa sponsorship for these positions.

Nice To Haves

Experience in payments, financial services, digital wallets, commerce platforms, or emerging technology products.
Familiarity with payment processing, authentication, tokenization, APIs, digital identity, or payment network capabilities.
Exposure to agentic AI, AI-enabled commerce, emerging payment protocols, or autonomous transaction models.
Experience with zero-to-one product development, prototyping, pilots, startup ecosystems, or new business incubation.

Responsibilities

Identify and evaluate opportunities in agentic commerce, AI-powered payments, agent wallets, digital identity, delegated purchasing, and emerging commerce models.
Monitor emerging technologies, industry standards, competitive developments, and customer behaviors to identify opportunities relevant to future product strategy.
Translate market insights, customer needs, and technology developments into product concepts, use cases, value propositions, and investment recommendations.
Evaluate the commercial potential, customer value, technical feasibility, and ecosystem readiness of emerging opportunities to help prioritize investments.
Partner with Engineering and technical teams to understand emerging technologies and explore how they can enable new commerce experiences.
Develop a working perspective on technologies and protocols, including Agent-to-Agent Protocol, Agentic Payments Protocol, x402, Model Context Protocol, digital identity, and emerging agent authentication and authorization frameworks.
Lead early-stage product discovery and development by defining requirements, customer experiences, success metrics, and testing approaches.
Drive proofs of concept, pilots, and experiments to validate product hypotheses, assess feasibility, and identify opportunities for further development.
Collaborate with Product, Engineering, Network, Risk, Legal, Compliance, and commercial teams to evaluate solutions, navigate dependencies, and advance product opportunities.
Engage technology providers, startups, industry participants, and ecosystem partners to understand capabilities, standards, and potential collaborations.
Partner with Agentic Commerce Platform & Product Strategy and Partner Integrations teams to translate validated concepts into future platform capabilities, product roadmaps, and partner opportunities.
Structure ambiguous problems, synthesize technical and commercial insights, and communicate recommendations that influence product direction and leadership decisions.