Director, Strategic Partnerships - Fintech

Strategic Partnerships manages and grows the most significant enterprise relationships across American Express. The team is responsible for defining multi-year partnership strategies, supporting key negotiations and projects, and driving new business opportunities globally with our largest Blue Box partners. It exists to deliver against three core objectives: (1) foster and maintain external relationships, (2) support and develop partner strategies that maximize value to customers and the enterprise, and (3) bring the best of Amex to drive growth and innovation.

This Director will report to VP, Strategic Partnerships - Fintech, and will help drive enterprise strategy, thought leadership, and actionable roadmaps for key fintech partnerships. Success in this role will require a deep knowledge of the partners and their priorities, comfort working in white space as we look to unlock new sources of value, and an ability to collaborate with colleagues and partners to achieve partnership outcomes. This is an excellent opportunity for a self-motivated individual who is interested in furthering general management and business development skills in an environment where innovation is highly valued and encouraged.

• Build, maintain, and grow strong relationships with relevant counterparts at fintech partners, maintaining a deep understanding of our partners’ business models, strategies, priorities, and organization.
• Understand the partners’ existing relationships with Amex and leverage that knowledge to support enterprise initiatives and identify new areas of value exchange.
• Build excellent relationships with a range of peers across Amex who are critical to the success of the partnerships. Work closely with them to meet business objectives and drive value to the enterprise.

• Drive thought leadership on the evolving fintech landscape by bringing a strategic perspective on market trends, competitive dynamics, and emerging opportunities to help shape enterprise priorities and the future of Amex's fintech partnerships.

• Support internal partner teams by maintaining a consistent pulse of key initiatives across the enterprise and accelerating and unblocking priorities with fintech partners.
• Manage new growth opportunities from conception through ideation, business case development, and execution.
• Build analyses and presentations to support executive level decision making.

• Experience managing external relationships through business development, negotiations, and issue resolution, with a track record of driving closure on key initiatives.
• Experience managing complex strategic projects with many stakeholders. Strong project management skills and attention to detail. 
• Excellent written and verbal communication. Able to take complex ideas/materials and synthesize for different audiences. Comfortable engaging with and presenting to senior leadership.
• Ability to perform in a highly dynamic, fast-paced environment. High degree of intellectual curiosity, comfort with ambiguity, ability to bring structure to “blue sky” opportunities.
• Strong understanding of AXP’s business model and priorities.
• Financial and analytical acumen; ability to translate data into insight.
• Industry experience in fintech, payments, e-commerce, or digital commerce is a plus.
• Bachelor's degree preferred.
• Experience in people leadership preferred.

Employment eligibility to work with American Express in the United States is required as the company will not pursue visa sponsorship for these positions.