Senior Manager, Strategic Planning

American Express; Brighton; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A global financial services company in Brighton is seeking a Senior Manager for the Global Customer Experience organization. The ideal candidate will lead strategic initiatives, manage complex projects, and ensure cross-functional collaboration. Expected skills include strong program management, technical understanding of web and mobile architecture, and the ability to drive decisions across teams. This role offers competitive salaries, flexible working arrangements, and comprehensive benefits including loan support and wellness programs.

Benefits

Competitive base salaries

Bonus incentives

Flexible working model

Comprehensive medical benefits

Generous parental leave policies

Qualifications

• Proven experience with governance, planning, and delivery across complex initiatives.
• Ability to prioritize and manage multiple workstreams effectively.
• Experience in managing regulatory and operational requirements across markets.

Responsibilities

• Support the stand-up of the PMO framework and engage workstreams.
• Proactively identify roadblocks and keep projects on track.
• Regularly interact with senior executives on program status.

Skills

Strong Program & Project Management

Ability to translate complex technical topics

Data interpretation and problem structuring

Managing multiple workstreams

Cross-market regulatory requirements

Tools

Airtable

Job description

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. 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 American Express.

How will you make an impact in this role?

This Senior Manager role sits within the Global Customer Experience organization and will be a critical part of the Enterprise Engagement team, leading and implementing global strategic initiatives that support the TLS Future is Now 2.0 transformation agenda. These initiatives require not only cross-functional coordination and collaboration across TLS, but also the Enterprise, supporting both the strategic direction of the initiative as well as its planning and execution.

We are looking for a highly skilled technical Program Management Office Manager. The ideal candidate will have experience working in e-commerce environments and be comfortable managing complex, technical projects with multiple stakeholder

Responsibilities

Program Management:

• Support the stand-up of the PMO framework, including defining and engaging appropriate workstreams and owners to deliver on the strategy
• Ensure clear definition of roles, responsibility & accountability as it relates to the program framework and milestones
• Partner with workstream owners to manage and drive the workstreams forward to deliver on project milestones and to drive speed in decision-making, prioritization and escalations
• Proactively identify, raise and solve roadblocks to keep projects on track
• Provide day-to-day program management structure and support, including milestone tracking, RAID updates, status reports, scorecard tracking and ensuring the proper meeting cadence is in place to support communication across teams and to leadership
• Coordinate with market resources for operational readiness and change management of initiative launches
• Regularly interact with senior executives on program status, issues and to facilitate decision making

Industry & technical:

• Possess a detailed understanding of web and mobile application architecture, including APIs, databases and cloud infrastructure
• Provide guidance on best practice on how to manage new technical portfolio management to implementation
• Configure and manage Airtable databases, automations and integrations for project tracking and reporting
• Develop structured workflows using Airtable to support cross-functional teams

Minimum Qualification

• Strong Program & Project Management - Proven experience with governance, planning, risk management, and delivery across complex initiatives
• Strong capability to translate complex technical topics into actionable program direction for both senior stakeholders and cross-functional delivery teams
• Able to interpret data, identify issues early, structure ambiguous problems, and drive informed decisions
• Skilled at prioritizing, managing multiple workstreams, tracking details, and ensuring progress despite roadblocks
• Experience managing cross-market regulatory and operational requirements

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with digital UI/UX change management
• Ability to manage and coordinate technical dependencies across Central and Local teams, ensuring alignment on architecture, funding, and delivery timelines
• Experience contributing to risk assessments and mitigation plans
• Strong understanding of global platform migrations, including how multiple markets integrate into a single global web
• Experience with platform ecosystems, including how digital experiences interface with mid and back-office workflows

Non-considerations for sponsorship

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

Benefits

• Competitive base salaries
• Bonus incentives
• Support for financial-well-being and retirement
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and disability benefits (depending on location)
• Flexible working model with hybrid, onsite or virtual arrangements depending on role and business need
• Generous paid parental leave policies (depending on your location)
• 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

Offer of employment with American Express is conditioned upon the successful completion of a background verification check, subject to applicable laws and regulations.