Senior Manager-Client Management, National Client Group

Job Description

Global Merchant and Network Services (GMNS) is the merchant network of American Express that acquires and maintains relationships with merchants who welcome American Express branded cards. Our goal is to be an indispensable payments partner to our merchants while simultaneously delivering differentiated products and services that meet or exceed customer needs. Our goal is to drive revenue growth and premium economics for both merchants and American Express.

The National Client Group within Merchant Services – U.S. is responsible for overseeing the largest and most strategic U.S. – based merchants. Our mission is to be warmly welcomed by merchants and help them grow. It is a critical priority for the Global Merchant Services business and American Express, and this role offers a prime opportunity to be part of a strategic growth industry at American Express.

The role of the Senior Manager Client Manager, Transit, within NCG offers the opportunity to leverage strong relationship management, consultative selling and strategic thinking and innovation skills to deliver incremental Amex spend while working in a challenging, collaborative environment. This is a unique and high-profile opportunity for an experienced relationship manager to oversee a $4B portfolio of the most prominent clients in the transit industry, including Lyft, NYC MTA, and Amtrak among others. The incumbent will focus on establishing, maintaining, and growing long-lasting and mutually beneficial merchant relationships to further grow American Express share, identify new business opportunities, and enhance merchant satisfaction.

This position is for a professionally mature business leader who can take ownership of high profile and complex initiatives with multiple senior-level touch points across the company. A robust strategic background, an ability to think innovatively, strong financial and analytical skills, and the ability to lead in a fast-paced and highly complex and matrixed environment is required.

Specific responsibilities include:

• Business Development: Drive charge volume growth, revenue and profitability using in-depth knowledge of merchant’s business/industry and Global Merchant & Network Services.
• Negotiation Analysis: Develop innovative partnerships and negotiate profitable deal constructs and card acceptance agreements
• Strategy Development: Uncover opportunities to increase spend on American Express products through innovative marketing and partnership opportunities and through creation of profitable deal constructs, value levers, and pricing scenarios.
• P&L Management: Optimize client profitability and develop various pricing proposals and strategic growth plans
• Relationship Management: Cultivate and leverage relationships across American Express and the merchant to identify and implement solutions to grow and expand share

Qualifications

• Experienced relationship manager with proven ability to develop strong client relationships, sell-in B2C and B2B programs and initiatives, and uncover new opportunities to grow revenue and share
• Must demonstrate executive presence internally and externally, with the ability to lead senior level discussions with clients to influence decision-making and driving results
• Demonstrate a great sense of curiosity to generate ideas, problem-solve, and to identify new opportunities for business growth
• Excellent influence management skills and the ability to work collaboratively across Amex teams to ensure seamless integration with key partners in Membership Rewards, Marketing, Finance, Pricing, Risk, Operations and Legal
• Proven consultative selling skills with a demonstrated ability to close deals and drive results on a timely basis
• Experience with negotiations, understanding the financials of card acceptance, industry economics, profitability levers, and strong knowledge of financial statements (income statement, balance sheets and cash flow statements)
• Must be highly customer-focused and results-driven, with the ability to work on multiple initiatives simultaneously both autonomously and as part of a team
• Strong verbal, written, and analytical skills; ability to manage effectively upstream
• Bachelor’s degree required, MBA a plus
• Role requires ~15% travel

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

American Express is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, age, or any other status protected by law.