Senior Manager - Software Engineering

The Enterprise Technology Services organization partners with every part of the American Express business to power the company’s growth and innovation with trust and efficiency and drive competitive differentiation with speed. We support the delivery and operations of technology, digital, and data capabilities, platforms, and services globally. Specifically, our team is responsible for the company’s technology engineering, architecture, and infrastructure, providing 24x7 support to ensure an uninterrupted, high-quality experience for customers and colleagues. We also provide product management for core enterprise platforms, and lead technology risk and information security, enterprise data governance and platforms, digital product and design, and enterprise AI platforms on behalf of the company.
The American Express Global Card Network Platform authorizes and processes all customer card transactions worldwide. As the backbone of American Express, this platform operates as a highly resilient, near real-time, low-latency distributed system, running 24x7x365 at global scale. We are making significant strategic investments to build next-generation card network capabilities, including:
Card Authorizations, Routing, Clearing & Settlement
Tokenization and secure payment processing
Omni-channel platforms and partner connectivity
Real-time payments and settlement systems
Data localization and regulatory compliance
Cloud-native platform engineering and foundational distributed systems
As a Senior Engineering Manager, you will lead high-performing teams to design, build, and scale these mission-critical systems.
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline
10+ years of experience in software engineering, with significant exposure to building large-scale distributed systems
Proven experience in leading engineering teams and delivering complex, mission-critical platforms
Strong background in cloud-native architectures, microservices, and platform engineering
Experience working in Agile environments with DevOps practices
Prior experience in payments, financial systems, or high transaction platforms is a strong plus
Technical Skills
Strong hands-on experience with Java, Spring Boot, or similar backend technologies
Deep understanding of distributed systems design, scalability, and performance engineering
Experience with microservices architecture and service mesh technologies (e.g., Envoy, Istio, gRPC)
Expertise in cloud platforms and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift)
Experience with messaging systems (Kafka, RabbitMQ) and distributed caching (Redis, Hazelcast)
Familiarity with NoSQL and SQL databases (Cassandra, Couchbase, etc.)
Knowledge of CI/CD tools (Jenkins, Git, Maven, Gradle, Azure DevOps)
Experience with observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, Splunk)
Leadership & Professional Skills
Strong system design and architecture expertise
Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence without authority
Experience conducting architecture reviews, design reviews, and code reviews across teams
Ability to drive change, challenge the status quo, and adapt quickly
Strong presentation skills, including communication with senior leadership
Technical Leadership & Delivery
Lead the design, development, and delivery of highly available, scalable distributed systems supporting global card transactions
Drive architecture decisions, design reviews, and engineering best practices across teams
Ensure systems meet stringent requirements for low latency, high throughput, resiliency, and security
Guide teams in building cloud-native microservices platforms using modern technologies
Promote engineering excellence through code reviews, design standards, and SDLC best practices
People Leadership & Team Building
Build, mentor, and lead high-performing engineering teams, fostering a culture of ownership, innovation, and continuous learning
Set clear goals, provide coaching, and support career development of engineers and tech leads
Drive hiring strategies to scale teams with top engineering talent
Strategy & Stakeholder Management
Partner with Product, Business, and cross-functional teams to define priorities and deliver impactful solutions
Translate business goals into technical strategy and execution roadmaps
Influence and align stakeholders across geographies and functions
Innovation & Platform Evolution
Champion adoption of emerging technologies, open-source solutions, and modern architectures
Encourage experimentation through POCs and innovation initiatives
Continuously improve platform capabilities in performance, observability, and reliability
Operational Excellence
Ensure production systems are stable, observable, and well-supported
Drive DevOps practices including CI/CD, monitoring, alerting, and incident management
Maintain compliance with regulatory and security standards in financial systems

Work arrangement
Hybrid