Director of Strategic Product Initiatives - London, United Kingdom

Amex GBT is a place where colleagues find inspiration in travel as a force for good and – through their work – can make an impact on our industry. We’re here to help our colleagues achieve success and offer an inclusive and collaborative culture where your voice is valued.

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Amex GBT has big ambitions, and we’re looking for a Director of Product Strategic Initiatives to join our Planning & Operations team to help us power up our success!

American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) is a leading software and services company for travel and expense.  Amex GBT is a great place to advance your career: we are investing for growth across our business and have a passionate team that are the best in business travel.  Amex GBT is a place where colleagues find inspiration in travel as a force for good and – through their work – can make an impact on our industry. We’re here to help our colleagues achieve success and offer an inclusive and collaborative culture where your voice is valued.

The role will report into Vice President, Business Planning and Operations. The role will initially run our strategic initiative rolling out our New Distribution Capabilities (NDC).

What you will do

• Shaping and delivering strategic initiatives across our Product function, with an initial focus running our group-wide NDC strategic initiative.This will include:

  • Leading the development and execution of strategic initiatives across the Product function aligned with the company’s objectives and vision

  • Developing and consolidating comprehensive programme plans including timelines, milestones, dependencies and resource allocation

• Delivering programme governance

  • Managing all aspects of programme governance including across strategic choices, product and engineering roadmap, operational readiness and performance management

  • Ensuring dependencies are managed across functions

  • Monitoring programme progress and addressing risks and issues in a timely way

• Delivering company-wide programme communication. Developing clear communication strategies to engage stakeholders across the business on programme objectives, progress and impact, including at a leadership and an operational team level

• Managing stakeholder engagement

  • Facilitating leadership engagement in the programme

  • Building and maintaining strong relationships with stakeholders across the varied functions engaged in the programme, including Product and Engineering teams, and Commercial teams    

  • Partnering with supporting teams, e.g., finance to ensure programme is appropriately resourced, and communications and and PR to ensure progress is effectively communicated

Ideal candidate

• Experience effectively delivering complex projects or operational rhythms with multiple workstreams and dependencies, including working across Product and Engineering teams, and Commercial and Operational stakeholders.

• Effective communicator, an expert storyteller with experience delivering leadership materials and facilitating leadership sessions. Able to influence and motivate stakeholders across the organization, at varying levels of seniority. A great candidate must be able to quickly build and manage relationships with stakeholders and colleagues, communicate complex concepts clearly, and work in a matrix environment across multiple geographies and functional areas.

• Experience in travel industry is desirable, but not a must

• Experience in delivering large, complex software solutions is highly desirable, but not a must.

• Ability to independently frame, scope and execute strategic initiatives; and own and drive recommendations to leadership.

• Excellent analytical skills and problem solving skills, with the ability to interpret complex data, draw actionable insights and mobilise this into action.

• Excellent understanding of strategy, performance management and financial principles. 

• Detail and solution oriented with a strategic mindset and ability to balance short-term priorities and long-term goals in a fast paced environment.

• Self-motivated, agile and collaborative.

Location

The #TeamGBT Experience

Work and life: Find your happy medium at Amex GBT.

• Flexible benefits are tailored to each country and start the day you do. These include health and welfare insurance plans, retirement programs, parental leave, adoption assistance, and more.

• Travel perks: get a choice of deals each week from major travel providers on everything from flights to hotels to cruises and car rentals.

• Develop the skills you want when the time is right for you, with global tuition assistance, access to over 20,000 courses on our learning platform, leadership courses, and new job openings available to internal candidates first.

• We strive to champion Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in every aspect of our business at GBT. You can connect with colleagues through our global Inclusion Groups, centered around common identities or initiatives, to discuss challenges, obstacles, achievements, and drive company awareness and action.

• Wellbeing resources to support mental and emotional health for you and your immediate family.

• And much more!

All applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to age, sex, gender (and characteristics related to sex and gender), pregnancy (and related medical conditions), race, color, citizenship, religion, disability, or any other class or characteristic protected by law.

Furthermore, we are committed to providing reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please let your recruiter know if you need an accommodation at any point during the hiring process. For details regarding how we protect your data, please consult GBT Recruitment Privacy Statement.

What if I don’t meet every requirement? If you’re passionate about our mission and believe you’d be a phenomenal addition to our team, don’t worry about “checking every box;" please apply anyway. You may be exactly the person we’re looking for!