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.

We’re looking for an energetic, creative, and pragmatic lawyer to join our Sydney legal team and take on the role of Senior Lawyer supporting our Global Merchant and Network Services business for a 12-month contract. This role suits a lawyer with broad, general commercial experience, ideally with some payments practice thrown in. Above all, we need a self-starter who is intellectually curious, collaborative and can be relied upon to get the job done.

Who are we?

American Express is one of the most recognised brands on the planet. Since its early beginning as a freight forwarding company in 1850, change has been the only constant in its 150+ year history. American Express has literally seen and been it all. We practically invented the traveller’s cheque; we made credit cards cool and travelling easy. And all along the way one thing has remained our constant and singular focus –providing the world’s best customer experience every day.

We are an inclusive workplace with collaboration at our heart, committed to serving the communities in which we live and work. As much as we are driven to win, we strongly believe in winning the right way.

The current moment sees financial services and payments in a state of intense disruption, innovation and competition. Driven by new technology, the regulatory environment struggles to keep pace. We need people who can help our business teams get in front of the commercial, legal and regulatory change that typifies this moment. There has never been a better time to be a lawyer at American Express.

This is a 12-Month Secondment/Contract

Required Skills

• 7+years PQE & a current Practising Certificate
• Strong commercial contract drafting and negotiating skills and experience
• Great communication skills, both written and verbal (i.e. the ability to communicate complex things in a concise way and provide clear choices)
• Strong commercial judgment
• Pragmatic
• Confidence working in the grey and sufficient nous and resourcefulness to thrive in areas where you have limited or no experience
• Great collaboration skills with demonstrated ability to work cooperatively and efficiently
• Highest standards of ethics and professional integrity

Great to Haves

• Experience working in-house
• Some relevant regulatory experience in payments, financial products, privacy, AML/KYC and other financial industry regulation
• Some big deal and negotiation experience and passion for getting the deal done
• Experience managing a diverse workload with multiple stakeholders

Good to Haves

• Interest in payments, financial services and the legal and regulatory issues impacting those areas
• Experience managing multiple time zones and international stakeholders
• Interest in contributing to the social enterprise goals outside of core legal role (e.g. Pro Bono work, Corporate Sustainability, volunteering and community engagement)

What does the job look like?

This is a role supporting our Global Merchant and Network Services business in Australia and New Zealand as it builds relationships with Merchants that accept Amex and partners that help grow our network. This is a busy role, with a large internal client base and constantly evolving payments landscape. While the role is largely contract and advice driven, it can include everything from disputes management to product development and often crossover into other parts of our business.

One of the great things about working in our team, is that you’ll get to try your hand at almost everything. We like people who put their hand up.

Types of work that you will be required to do include:

• Drafting, negotiating, and advising on commercial contracts – in particular large partnership agreements with corporate clients, and regional and global merchant, acquiring, sponsorship, and marketing agreements as well as some technical processing agreements
• Leading negotiations with corporate and merchant partners on a range of significant and complex deals
• Supporting the launch of new products, services, and payments capabilities in Australia as well as Internationally
• Providing general legal and regulatory advice across a range of commercial matters (with support from senior lawyers) – including on novel legal issues
• Monitoring, researching, and providing clear and succinct advice to the business on legal and regulatory changes that impact American Express and assisting with strategies to deal with them.
• Reviewing and updating a range of Terms & Conditions, Privacy Statements and Contract Templates
• Coordinating and managing legal advice and support on multi-jurisdictional projects (including liaising with our lawyers in other countries)
• Delivering training and developing tools and guidance to help business colleagues make sense of the legal and regulatory world around them

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
• 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
• 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.