Director & Counsel, Strategic Transactions (Hyb...

Work Location Options:Hybrid

At An American Multinational Financial Services Corporation, our culture is built on a 175-year history of innovation, shared values (https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/company/who-we-are/) and Leadership Behaviors, and an unwavering commitment to back our customers, communities, and colleagues. As part of Team Amex, you'll experience this 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 An American Multinational Financial Services Corporation.

How will you make an impact in this role?
As a member of the General Counsel's Organization, you will lead negotiations and provide ongoing legal support for mission‑critical outsourced technology and financial services providers that power our digital banking and payments experiences. You will work closely with internal lawyers, as well as technology, product, procurement, risk, and compliance teams, to structure clear, resilient agreements and support day‑to‑day supplier governance, including in the context of incidents and issues.

Core Responsibilities:

• Structuring, drafting and negotiating complex outsourcing, technology and commercial agreements for core platforms and services (e.g., digital banking, account processing, money movement, and cloud/SaaS), including providing thought-leadership and strategic oversight to initiatives involving multiple related transactions.
• Assembling and leading cross-functional legal teams to coordinate across related transactions, ensure robust knowledge sharing, align strategies, and report to leadership.
• Partnering with technology and product teams as well as other internal lawyers during service incidents, coordinating contractual notices, supporting root‑cause analyses and remediation plans, and pursuing contractual remedies where appropriate.
• Collaborating with procurement and third-party risk teams on due diligence, ongoing monitoring, control gap remediation, and termination/transition activities.
• Developing templates, fallback positions, and negotiation playbooks.
• Tracking industry, legal and market developments.
• Supporting governance, compliance and risk management teams and practices.

Minimum Qualifications:

• J.D. with admission to practice law in the United States.
• 5+ years of experience involving outsourcing and technology transactions in a law firm and/or in-house corporate legal environment.
• Expertise in outsourcing, SaaS/cloud, service levels and remedies, and operationalizing large‑scale commercial agreements.
• Financial services regulatory and domain expertise.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate technical and regulatory concepts into plain English and actionable guidance for non‑lawyers.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working at or with technology and financial services companies.
• Experience in an “outsourcing,” “technology transactions,” “IP transactions” or equivalent practice group.
• Hands‑on operational incident experience and comfort briefing senior leaders during issues.
• Familiarity with payments and banking regulations (debit and deposit experience a plus).

The successful candidate will be:

• Highly collaborative, with excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills.
• A clear and confident communicator.
• Able to set direction and build consensus in the face of ambiguity.
• A strategic problem solver with strong business understanding, analytical skills, and a pragmatic approach.
• Passionate and curious about new technologies and the legal issues they raise.
• Proactive, open to new ideas, and committed to continuous learning.
• Guided by unwavering integrity and strong judgment aligned with An American Multinational Financial Services Corporation values.