Senior Manager - Activation Design Strategy, OnBrand - job 2 of 4

You Lead the Way. We’ve 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, you’ll learn and grow as we help you create a career journey that’s unique and meaningful to you with benefits, programs, and flexibility that support you personally and professionally.

At American Express, you’ll be recognized for your contributions, leadership, and impact—every colleague has the opportunity to share in the company’s success. Together, we’ll win as a team, striving to uphold our company values and powerful backing promise to provide the world’s best customer experience every day. And we’ll 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.

The Global Advertising and Brand Management (GABM) organization has a mission to create marketplace demand and drive commerce for American Express through differentiated and innovative products, partnerships, marketing, and customer experiences. OnBrand – American Express’ In-House Creative agency – is on a journey of exciting expansion. Our ambition is to “Become creative partner-of-choice to build seamless customer experiences for our Business Units, essential for driving results and unlocking value through deeper knowledge of our business, powered by industry-defining creative excellence”. We are focused on developing forward thinking ideas and work across channels, end-to-end experiences in digital and beyond.

The Brand Design Strategy team is responsible for setting the vision for how the American Express brand is expressed across the enterprise, drawing upon the brand’s strategic principles, and ultimately building brand value. They are responsible for defining the Brand Identity for American Express and partnering with a myriad of stakeholders to translate the brand across channels, products, and experiences. 

The Sr. Manager – Brand Activation Design Strategy will be responsible for leading the design strategy for Card Member facing environments. They will work in tandem with the Sponsorship Experiences and Premium Events teams, leveraging design expertise to drive brand impact, balancing innovation and relevance with consistency, and igniting prospect consideration. They will also own the branded environment guidelines for the enterprise, establishing a framework for how to interpret our global brand strategy into design principles to be applied across all global brand activations.

How will you make an impact in this role?

Brand Activation Projects:

•  Proactively work with internal partners across the sponsorship and premium events landscape to track overall activation calendar and contribute to planning from a design lens

• Collaborate with internal American Express teams and external agencies to optimize our brand experience, leveraging design as a catalyst to continuously bring the brand to life in new and memorable ways

• Contribute to agency briefing process by establishing design principles, creative territories, and brand mandatories (e.g. logo usage, color/material palette) rooted in brand strategy and relevant insights

• Provide hands-on design feedback throughout rounds of creative development, collaborating with internal stakeholder teams to ensure alignment and holistic execution guidance

• Design direct on custom builds and existing space fit-outs, including customer experience flow, furniture, material selections, lighting, artwork, signage, and multi-sensory elements to convert conceptual directions into Amex’s aesthetic to ensure consistent brand impression

• Evaluate brand presence and asset usage across experience via “brand mapping” to ensure consistent and valuable impression

• Attend event/experience when possible to oversee load-in and develop key learnings on brand and design impact on engagement, identifying opportunities for future improvement

• Contribute to retrospective documentation

Guidelines Development & Ownership:

• Develop, own, and refine enterprise activation brand toolkits and guidelines, working with key internal and external stakeholders to understand nuance of different marketing opportunities

• Maintain internal and external perspective, evolving guidelines based on emerging needs, trend cycles, and brand strategy

• Collaborate with Brand Management to ensure guidelines are actionable

• Partner to host trainings with internal and external partners for consistent application

Minimum Qualifications

• 6-8 years of experience in marketing activation design, branded environments design, or similar discipline, with agency and/or corporate experience preferred

• Strong sense of strategic design principles that drive consistency and impact

• Understanding of physical space design and manifestation of brand through-the-line

• Ability to craft and communicate a purposeful design narrative that drives feedback and the decision-making process

• Ability to clearly communicate design strategies and solutions both verbally and visually to internal and external stakeholders with varying degrees of subject matter expertise

• Experience influencing brand partnership and artist partner discussions, developing co-branded environments that balance brand attribution and appropriate flexibility for contextual relevance

• Familiarity with space planning, furniture and fixtures, and material specifications

• Familiarity with fundamentals of brand strategy and visual identity systems

• Understanding of production processes including technical documentation, timelines, budgeting, and terminology

• Understanding of cost analyses, risks, tradeoffs, and prioritization

• Ability to manage multiple complex workstreams in various phases simultaneously, meeting budget and timeline expectations

• Ability to work in a highly collaborative cross-functional environment, building relationships to influence decision-making and adjusting working style as required

Additional Requirements

• Ability to travel 25% of time

• Bachelor’s degree in design, marketing, or equivalent experience

• Case studies/portfolio demonstrating ability to lead marketing activation design initiatives and deliver best-in-class design solutions

Salary Range: $80,000.00 to $155,000.00 annually + bonus + 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. American Express will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with arrest or conviction records, in accordance with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including, but not limited to, the California Fair Chance Act, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance. For positions covered by federal and/or state banking regulations, American Express will comply with such regulations as it relates to the consideration of applicants with criminal convictions.

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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Employment eligibility to work with American Express in the U.S. is required as the company will not pursue 
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