Director & Counsel - Military veterans preferred

**Description**

**You Lead the Way. Weve Got Your Back.**

With the right backing, people and businesses have the power to progress in incredible ways. When you join Team Amex, you become part of a global and diverse community of colleagues with an unwavering commitment to back our customers, communities and each other. Here, youll learn and grow as we help you create a career journey thats unique and meaningful to you with benefits, programs, and flexibility that support you personally and professionally.

At American Express, youll be recognized for your contributions, leadership, and impactevery colleague has the opportunity to share in the companys success. Together, well win as a team, striving to uphold our company values and powerful backing promise to provide the worlds best customer experience every day. And well do it with the utmost integrity, and in an environment where everyone is seen, heard and feels like they belong.

Join Team Amex and let's lead the way together.

**Description:**

The General Counsels Organization (GCO) at American Express is seeking a Director & Counsel to support the U.S. Acquiring Partners, Product & Strategy (APPS) team within the Global Merchant & Network Services (GMNS) business. The successful candidate will provide legal support and advice to the APPS team, which manages third party partnerships and related sales, marketing, and processing channels, an expanding and evolving area involving some of the most dynamic and innovative tech-driven payment companies in the country. This role will collaborate within GMNS to negotiate complex commercial agreements with sophisticated merchant-acquirers, payment processors, fintechs, and emerging specialty players in the payments ecosystem and support the third-party life cycle, including operational and governance infrastructure for managing these channels acquisition capabilities.

The GMNS business is a core business of American Express and fundamental to the operation of the American Express global payments network. GMNS builds and maintains relationships with merchants that choose to accept the American Express Card and financial services companies who enable merchants to accept the Card, simultaneously delivering differentiated products and services and driving revenue growth for both merchants and American Express. The GMNS business is responsible for signing merchants to accept the Card, processing Card transactions and providing marketing and other innovative programs and services to grow our merchant and Card acceptance relationships.

Given the dynamic nature of the global payments industry and the valued partnership between GCO and the GMNS business, we see it as imperative to attract and develop talented people by:

+ Providing rich work experiences and opportunities for professional development

+ Recognizing and rewarding those who drive and deliver results

+ Respecting and valuing diversity, integrity, and personal accountability

**Roles and Responsibilities:**

+ Provide legal support for the dynamic APPS business team, working with a highly skilled and experienced team of lawyers and legal managers in an exciting and fast-paced environment on a wide variety of matters such as commercial contracting, risk identification and mitigation, compliance, operational, and data issues, and disputes handling.

+ Draft and negotiate complex commercial contracts with leading fintechs and other merchant-acquiring partners, working in close collaboration with legal and business colleagues and other subject matter experts.

+ Provide guidance on a wide range of innovative commercial transactions and other legal, operational and policy matters, all within a dynamic business and regulatory and legal environment.

+ Partner with legal colleagues and other business and stakeholder groups worldwide (including international GCO, compliance, risk, and business development leads) to ensure the most effective support and relevant expertise is applied across all matters. Drive global consistency and awareness of third-party partnerships from a legal, contractual, and operational standpoint, including through a related global legal center of excellence.

+ Support the identification and implementation of process improvements and uplift and management of contract templates.

+ Participate in a small team of seasoned attorneys and legal managers, offering thought leadership for cross-cutting issues and strategic projects.

+ Support effective, cost-conscious targeted engagements of outside counsel where necessary, with a disciplined approach to budget management.

**Minimum Qualifications:**

+ J.D. with admission to New York Bar or eligibility to doso

+ 8 years of relevant work experience in a law firm and/or in-house corporate legalenvironment

+ Specific experience and knowledge in drafting, reviewing, and negotiating complex commercial agreements and providing thoughtful and practice advice on complex business issues

**Preferred Qualifications:**

+ Experience with the payments or e-commerce industry or merchant acquiring

+ Strong analytical, problem-solving and project management skills

+ Ability to generate creative and innovative solutions to novelissues

+ Ability to communicate complex issues clearly and persuasively, in both written and oralformat

+ Excellent collaboration, interpersonal and teamwork skills; ability to build relationships, work well in cross-functional team settings and partner with others to drive results

+ Ability to manage and prioritize competing demands while maintaining close attention to details and meeting deadlines

+ Appetite to develop in-depth knowledge of business operations and apply that understanding in furnishing legal advice

+ Self-motivated, high level of personal energy andcommitment

+ Strong leadership skills, growth mindset and customerfocus

**Qualifications**

Salary Range: $170,000.00 to $255,000.00 annually bonus equity (if applicable) benefits

The above 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.

We back our colleagues and their loved ones with benefits and programs that support their holistic well-being. That means we prioritize their physical, financial, and mental health through each stage of life. Benefits include:

+ 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.

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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If the links do not work, please copy and paste the following URLs in a new browser window: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ofccp/posters to access the three posters.

**Job:** Legal

**Primary Location:** US-New York-New York

**Schedule** Full-time

**Req ID:** 24008702