Director, Product Development - Agentic Commerce Partner Integrations

About the role

We are seeking a Director of Product Development to lead strategic partner integrations for Agentic Commerce at American Express.

Responsibilities

• Partner Strategy & Roadmap

  • Define partner-specific strategies and roadmaps that support the broader Agentic Commerce vision.

  • Develop a clear perspective on how American Express should engage with AI platforms, PSPs, wallet providers, merchants, and other ecosystem participants.

  • Identify opportunities to expand adoption of Agentic Commerce capabilities across strategic partners and emerging channels.

  • Shape partner implementations so they align with platform principles, customer expectations, and long-term ecosystem objectives.

• Ecosystem Strategy

  • Monitor industry developments, partner roadmaps, and competitive dynamics to identify new opportunities and potential risks.

  • Develop a deep understanding of partner priorities, technical requirements, operating constraints, and business objectives.

  • Use market and partner insights to inform platform strategy, roadmap decisions, and future investment priorities.

• Data, Analytics, and Iteration

  • Define the data and analytics needed to evaluate partner performance, adoption, customer outcomes, and operational health.

  • Translate launch data, usage patterns, and partner feedback into clear roadmap updates and product decisions.

  • Establish regular mechanisms to review results, refine requirements, and improve partner implementations over time.

• Product Development & Partner Delivery

  • Lead the development and execution of partner-specific roadmaps spanning AI platforms, wallets, PSPs, merchants, and other ecosystem participants.

  • Define partner requirements, integration approaches, customer experiences, and operating models required to launch and scale Agentic Commerce capabilities.

  • Translate platform capabilities into scalable partner implementations while balancing customer experience, technical feasibility, risk considerations, and commercial objectives.

  • Drive adoption of reusable platform capabilities while minimizing unnecessary partner-specific customization.

• Launch & Scale

  • Lead end-to-end delivery of strategic partner integrations from concept through launch and ongoing optimization.

  • Establish launch readiness plans, success metrics, and adoption strategies for partner programs.

  • Continuously refine partner roadmaps and implementation approaches based on customer feedback, performance data, adoption trends, and market developments.

• Cross-Functional Leadership

  • Drive alignment and execution across product, engineering, risk, policy, operations, legal, network, and commercial teams to deliver scalable and compliant partner solutions.

  • Mobilize stakeholders across a highly matrixed organization while managing competing priorities and timelines.

  • Serve as the primary product leader for assigned strategic partner relationships.

• Ecosystem Development & External Engagement

  • Strategic Partner Leadership

    • Build and manage relationships with senior product, engineering, and business leaders across strategic ecosystem partners.

    • Influence partner roadmaps and integration priorities to align with American Express objectives.

    • Represent American Express in product, technical, and operational discussions with external partners.

  • Ecosystem Growth

    • Identify opportunities to expand adoption, engagement, and utilization of Agentic Commerce capabilities.

    • Evaluate new partnership opportunities and integration models.

    • Help shape American Express' participation within the evolving agentic commerce ecosystem.

• Collaboration Across Agentic Commerce Teams

  • Platform & Product Strategy Collaboration

    • Partner closely with the Agentic Commerce Platform & Product Strategy team to ensure partner requirements are reflected in roadmap planning and platform investments.

    • Provide market intelligence, implementation learnings, and partner feedback to help inform future platform capabilities.

    • Collaborate on partner solutioning where platform architecture, standards, or strategic product decisions are required.

  • Network Collaboration

    • Partner closely with American Express Network teams to align on partner requirements, ecosystem priorities, and scaling strategies.

    • Collaborate on capabilities related to tokenization, authentication, authorization, spend controls, merchant enablement, and trust infrastructure.

    • Help ensure partner implementations align with broader network and ecosystem objectives.

  • Growth & Emerging Capabilities Collaboration

    • Partner with the Growth & Emerging Capabilities team to evaluate emerging ecosystem opportunities and new partnership models.

    • Support incubation efforts by identifying pilot partners and helping validate new concepts in market.

    • Help transition successful initiatives into scalable partner programs.

• Adoption & Ecosystem Expansion

  • Drive measurable adoption, engagement, and ecosystem growth across strategic partners.

  • Monitor performance, customer outcomes, and partner satisfaction to identify opportunities for optimization.

  • Adapt priorities and investment decisions based on learnings, adoption trends, and evolving market dynamics.

• Team Leadership & Culture

  • Authentic Leadership

    • Lead with empathy and clarity, building a collaborative, high-performing product organization.

    • Serve as a strategic thought partner to the Vice President of Product Development, Agentic Commerce.

  • Team Building

    • Foster innovation, accountability, and continuous learning to elevate product management excellence and develop future product leaders.

    • Build a culture that balances customer obsession, execution excellence, strategic thinking, and operational rigor.

Qualifications

• Minimum Qualifications:

  • 10+ years of progressive product leadership experience, with significant depth in payments, fintech, platform partnerships, developer ecosystems, digital commerce, or other complex technology environments.
  • Proven experience leading strategic integrations, platform partnerships, or ecosystem products.
  • Demonstrated track record of launching new products, capabilities, or partnerships in emerging or rapidly evolving markets.
  • Strong understanding of APIs, platform architectures, developer ecosystems, and integration models.
  • Experience working directly with strategic technology partners and navigating complex cross-company initiatives.
  • Strong understanding of payments infrastructure, authentication, authorization, tokenization, and transaction processing systems.
  • Proven ability to operate effectively in highly matrixed environments and align stakeholders across business, engineering, risk, policy, legal, operations, network, and commercial organizations.
  • Exceptional communication skills and executive presence, with the ability to influence both internal and external stakeholders.
  • Customer-obsessed mindset with experience using research, data, and analytics to shape product decisions and partner strategy.
  • Ability to evaluate complex technical, customer, regulatory, and commercial tradeoffs and make high-quality decisions in ambiguous environments.

• Preferred Qualifications:

  • Strong knowledge of card payments infrastructure, including issuer processing, card lifecycle management, card-on-file experiences, tokenization, digital wallets, network token frameworks, and credential provisioning.
  • Experience with digital wallet ecosystems such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, merchant wallets, or tokenized payment experiences.
  • Exposure to fraud systems, risk modeling, financial controls, authorization systems, or transaction decisioning platforms.
  • Experience working with AI platforms, agent ecosystems, PSPs, wallets, marketplaces, or developer platforms.
  • Experience launching products across platform ecosystems and multi-sided networks.
  • Experience contributing to industry standards, interoperability initiatives, or ecosystem governance efforts.
  • Experience managing strategic technology partnerships with large-scale technology companies.
  • Experience partnering with policy, regulatory, compliance, or governance stakeholders in emerging technology domains.
  • MBA or advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Business, or a related field.