Director of Product Development, Agentic Commerce Growth & Emerging Capabilities

About American Express Digital Labs

American Express Digital Labs catalyzes digital innovation across the enterprise by originating, incubating, and scaling products and platforms that matter to our customers’ digital lives. We combine creativity, customer centricity, and technical excellence to reimagine how Card Members experience payments and membership in a digital world.

As a fast-moving, entrepreneurial team, we partner with leading technology companies and strategic partners to bring differentiated digital payment solutions and engaging membership experiences to market.

Role Overview

We are seeking a Director of Product Development to lead Growth & Emerging Capabilities for Agentic Commerce at American Express.

Reporting to the Vice President of Product Development, Agentic Commerce & Experiences, this leader will be responsible for identifying, incubating, and validating the next generation of opportunities that will shape how agents, payments, identity, and digital commerce evolve over the coming years.

The role sits at the intersection of product strategy, emerging technology, and ecosystem development. It will focus on identifying opportunities beyond the current roadmap, developing informed points of view on where the market is heading, launching pilots and experiments, and determining which capabilities should become strategic investments for the broader Agentic Commerce organization.

As a trusted, closed-loop network, American Express is uniquely positioned to extend its authentication, authorization, identity, and risk capabilities into new commerce models and ecosystem experiences. By leveraging our membership model, premium brand, and differentiated data assets, this leader will help identify where American Express can create differentiated value as agent-driven commerce continues to evolve.

This role requires deep engagement with emerging technologies, startups, industry forums, strategic partners, and internal stakeholders across the enterprise. Success will require the ability to operate effectively in ambiguous environments, develop strong product perspectives on emerging trends, and translate market signals into actionable opportunities that strengthen American Express’ competitive position.

Growth Strategy & Opportunity Development

Emerging Opportunity Identification

• Identify and evaluate emerging technologies, business models, ecosystem shifts, and customer behaviors that may create new opportunities for American Express.
• Develop informed perspectives on how agent wallets, agent-to-agent commerce, machine-to-machine transactions, digital identity, delegated authority, new payment rails, loyalty experiences, and AI-native commerce models may evolve.
• Assess where American Express can create differentiated value and establish sustainable advantages within the evolving agentic commerce ecosystem.
• Recommend strategic areas for experimentation, incubation, and future platform investment.

Product Strategy & Market Intelligence

• Define product strategies, customer value propositions, and success metrics for emerging opportunities.
• Evaluate technical feasibility, customer value, ecosystem readiness, regulatory considerations, and commercial potential when prioritizing opportunities.
• Monitor industry developments, startup activity, competitive dynamics, standards evolution, and ecosystem adoption trends.
• Develop perspectives on how technological, regulatory, and market changes may impact American Express and the broader commerce landscape.
• Share insights and recommendations with senior leadership to inform strategic decision-making and roadmap planning.

Incubation & New Product Development

0→1 Product Development

• Lead the development of new products, capabilities, and experiences in emerging markets where standards and best practices are still evolving.
• Define requirements, customer experiences, operating models, and success metrics for pilot programs and proof-of-concept initiatives.
• Design and execute experiments that validate customer demand, ecosystem readiness, technical feasibility, and strategic value.

Pilot Execution & Iteration

• Partner with engineering, design, data science, risk, and commercial teams to deliver pilot programs and early-stage products.
• Establish measurement frameworks and success criteria for incubation efforts.
• Analyze customer feedback, ecosystem signals, operational insights, and performance data to refine product direction and determine next steps.
• Continuously iterate on concepts and hypotheses based on learnings from pilots, partner engagement, and market developments.

Scaling & Transition

• Determine when emerging opportunities are ready to move from incubation into the core Agentic Commerce roadmap.
• Partner with Platform & Product Strategy and Partner Integrations teams to transition validated concepts into scalable platform capabilities and ecosystem programs.
• Ensure learnings from pilots and experiments are incorporated into long-term product strategy and platform investments.

Ecosystem Development & External Engagement

Ecosystem Engagement

• Develop relationships across startups, technology providers, industry groups, venture-backed companies, and emerging technology communities.
• Engage with ecosystem participants to understand evolving customer needs, technical approaches, and market dynamics.
• Represent American Express in relevant industry discussions, working groups, and emerging technology forums.
• Partner with internal strategy, business development, and venture teams to share market insights and evaluate ecosystem opportunities.

Strategic Ecosystem Development

• Identify opportunities for American Express to participate in emerging commerce ecosystems and business models.
• Evaluate new technologies, partnership models, and ecosystem developments that may unlock differentiated customer experiences or strategic advantages.
• Help shape American Express’ perspective on the future direction of agentic commerce and related technologies.

Collaboration Across Agentic Commerce Product Teams

Platform & Product Strategy Collaboration

• Partner closely with the Agentic Commerce Platform & Product Strategy team to align emerging opportunities with long-term platform strategy.
• Help determine which concepts should become strategic platform investments and core roadmap priorities.
• Provide market intelligence, customer insights, and ecosystem learnings that inform future platform capabilities and architecture decisions.
• Support the transition of validated capabilities into scalable platform services and customer experiences.

Partner Integrations Collaboration

• Partner with the Agentic Commerce Partner Integrations team to identify pilot partners and early adopters for new capabilities.
• Leverage partner feedback and implementation learnings to validate emerging opportunities and refine product direction.
• Support the development of new ecosystem relationships and partnership models.

Network Collaboration

• Partner closely with American Express Network teams to evaluate emerging opportunities across payments infrastructure, merchant enablement, tokenization, identity, and trust services.
• Explore how network capabilities can support future commerce models and ecosystem expansion.
• Align incubation efforts with broader enterprise and network priorities.

Launch, Learning & Scale

Experimentation & Validation

• Maintain a pipeline of emerging opportunities across varying levels of maturity and ecosystem readiness.
• Establish clear hypotheses, success metrics, and decision frameworks for incubation efforts.
• Use customer insights, ecosystem engagement, and performance data to determine which opportunities warrant further investment and scale.

Adoption & Growth Optimization

• Define success metrics and measurement frameworks for emerging initiatives.
• Analyze adoption trends, customer outcomes, and ecosystem signals to inform prioritization and future roadmap decisions.
• Support the successful transition of validated initiatives into broader platform and partner adoption.

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 & Experiences.

Team Building

• Foster innovation, accountability, and continuous learning to elevate product management excellence and develop future product leaders.
• Build a culture that balances experimentation, customer obsession, strategic thinking, and disciplined execution.

Minimum Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive product leadership experience, with significant depth in payments, fintech, emerging technology, platform products, digital commerce, or adjacent technology domains.
• Demonstrated track record of 0→1 product development and launching new products, platforms, or businesses in emerging or rapidly evolving markets.
• Experience identifying, evaluating, and developing new product opportunities from concept through validation and scale.
• Strong strategic thinking and ability to develop informed perspectives on emerging technologies, business models, and market trends.
• Experience leveraging customer research, ecosystem insights, market intelligence, and data analysis to shape product strategy and investment decisions.
• Experience evaluating technical, commercial, customer, and ecosystem tradeoffs in ambiguous environments.
• Proven ability to operate effectively where standards, customer expectations, and operating models are still evolving.
• Strong cross-functional leadership skills and ability to influence stakeholders across product, engineering, risk, legal, operations, commercial, strategy, and executive teams.
• Exceptional communication skills and executive presence.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building or scaling AI-powered products, agent systems, LLM-based platforms, developer platforms, or ecosystem products.
• Experience working in startup environments, venture-backed companies, incubators, corporate innovation teams, or new business creation functions.
• Strong knowledge of card payments infrastructure, including issuer processing, card lifecycle management, tokenization, digital wallets, network token frameworks, credential provisioning, and transaction processing systems.
• Experience with emerging payment models, digital identity systems, delegated authorization frameworks, machine-to-machine commerce, blockchain infrastructure, or decentralized technologies.
• Experience contributing to industry standards, interoperability initiatives, or ecosystem governance efforts.
• Experience engaging with startups, venture ecosystems, accelerators, or strategic investment organizations.

• MBA or advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Business, or a related field.

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