Director, User Experience & Design Strategy

Job Description

How will you make an impact in this role?

Digital Labs is American Express’ innovation engine, responsible for identifying, incubating, and scaling emerging products, experiences, and technologies that shape the future of our business. As Director of User Experience & Design Strategy, you will combine expertise in design craft, customer-centered thinking, and emerging technology innovation to create impactful experiences that drive business outcomes and delight users.

You will lead the UX function for Digital Labs, overseeing a multidisciplinary team spanning design, research, and content while partnering closely with product, engineering, and business leaders. This role requires both strategic leadership and hands-on execution. You will establish a vision for experience design across Labs products, drive consistency and design excellence, and serve as a thought leader in the application of AI to user experiences.

Collaboration is critical to our success, so we value leaders who build strong relationships, ask thoughtful questions, challenge assumptions, and connect the dots across products, technologies, and customer needs.

Responsibilities

Design Leadership & Strategy

• Develop and communicate a compelling design vision and strategy for Digital Labs products that aligns with business goals and innovation priorities.

• Define and maintain design principles, guidelines, and standards to ensure consistency, quality, and scalability across Labs products and prototypes.

• Establish a cohesive user experience strategy that connects multiple products, experiments, and innovation initiatives.

• Stay current on industry trends, emerging technologies, AI advancements, and evolving design practices, integrating relevant innovations into the Labs roadmap.

• Partner closely with product, engineering, data science, and business leaders to influence product strategy and shape customer-centric solutions.
  

AI Leadership

• Serve as the UX thought leader for AI-powered experiences within Digital Labs.

• Define and evolve AI design patterns, interaction frameworks, and best practices for conversational interfaces, agentic experiences, and other emerging AI capabilities.

• Partner with engineering teams to ensure experiences are intuitive, transparent, trustworthy, and aligned with responsible AI principles.

• Drive experimentation and learning around emerging interaction models and future user experience paradigms.
  

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead, coach, and develop a multidisciplinary UX team consisting of:

  • UX Researcher

  • UX Writer

  • Product Designer

• Set clear goals and expectations for the team while fostering a culture of creativity, innovation, experimentation, and continuous improvement.

• Provide guidance, mentorship, and support to cultivate individual growth and elevate team capabilities.

• Ensure effective planning, prioritization, and delivery of all UX work across the Labs portfolio.

• Act as a hands-on design leader, contributing directly to design work, concept development, prototyping, and executive presentations when needed.

• Review and elevate design outputs to ensure they meet the highest standards of usability, accessibility, and craftsmanship.

• Champion a user-centered design approach, ensuring customer needs, behaviors, and pain points remain at the center of the design process.

• Ensure customer insights are translated into actionable design and product recommendations.
  

Agency & Vendor Management

• Manage relationships with external design, research, and innovation agencies.

• Oversee agency engagement models, scope, budgets, deliverables, and performance expectations.

• Manage the UX-related A&P budget and ensure effective investment across internal and external resources.

• Ensure agency work aligns with Labs design standards and integrates seamlessly with internal teams.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in UX, Product Design, Interaction Design, Service Design, or related disciplines.

• Curious, optimistic, and energized by solving complex problems.

• 3+ years of experience leading and developing design teams.

• Experience working in complex, matrixed, or global organizations.

• Strong foundation in Design Thinking methods and user-centered design practices.

• Experience leading design efforts for digital products across web and mobile platforms.

• Experience building design systems, governance frameworks, and scalable UX practices.

• Demonstrated ability to leverage customer insights and data to inform strategic decisions.

• Experience managing external agencies and consulting partners.

• Knowledge of Agile product development methodologies.

• Exceptional communication, presentation, storytelling, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills.

• Deep understanding of AI/ML-enabled products, generative AI experiences, conversational interfaces, and human-AI interaction design.

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

About us

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 our 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.

About

We back you with benefits that support your holistic well-being so you can be and deliver your best. This means caring for you and your loved ones' physical, financial, and mental health, as well as providing the flexibility you need to thrive personally and professionally:

• Competitive base salaries
• Bonus incentives
• 6% 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

For a full list of Team Amex benefits, visit our Colleague Benefits Site.

American Express is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, disability status, age, or any other status protected by law. American Express will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with arrest or conviction records, in accordance with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the California Fair Chance Act, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance. For positions covered by federal and/or state banking regulations, American Express will comply with such regulations as it relates to the consideration of applicants with criminal convictions.
We back our colleagues with the support they need to thrive, professionally and personally. That's why we have Amex Flex, our enterprise working model that provides greater flexibility to colleagues while ensuring we preserve the important aspects of our unique in-person culture. Depending on role and business needs, colleagues will either work onsite, in a hybrid model (combination of in-office and virtual days) or fully virtually.
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The below represents the expected salary range for this job requisition. Ultimately, in determining your pay, we’ll consider your location, experience, and other job-related factors.​