Senior UX Researcher

American Express, UX Research shapes experiences grounded in deep customer understanding. Our team is entering a pivotal phase where Design and Research increasingly influence not only product development, but also business strategy and cross-functional decision-making. We are expanding our research capabilities to bring customer evidence into strategic conversations earlier, uncover emerging opportunities, and shape the future of connected, differentiated digital experiences.

We are seeking a Senior UX Researcher who combines exceptional qualitative research craft, strategic thinking, and research leadership. As a core partner to our Design Strategy team, this role will connect customer understanding with competitive intelligence, emerging trends, and business priorities to identify opportunities, inform future-state experiences, and influence strategic decisions before solutions are defined.

The ideal candidate is an accomplished strategic researcher with deep expertise in generative research, synthesis, and storytelling, and demonstrated experience partnering with service design, experience strategy, and innovation teams. They bring creativity, methodological rigor, and the ability to navigate ambiguity, challenge assumptions, influence senior leaders, and elevate the work of other researchers.

- 7+ years of UX research or applied research experience, with a strong track record leading complex generative and exploratory research programs.

- Demonstrated mastery of qualitative research, including interviewing, contextual inquiry, research design, and interpretive synthesis, with the ability to uncover latent needs and develop strategic insights and conceptual frameworks.

- Proven experience partnering with service design, experience strategy, or innovation teams to shape future-state experiences, journey transformation, and strategic opportunities.

- Experience incorporating competitive intelligence, market trends, strategic foresight, or emerging technologies into research to anticipate customer needs and inform experience strategy.

- Demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity, challenge assumptions, and influence director- and VP-level stakeholders through compelling evidence, strategic judgment, and storytelling.

- Experience leading research across multiple researchers or complex workstreams, including setting learning agendas, guiding methodological choices, coaching others, and elevating research quality.

- Strong quantitative literacy and ability to synthesize evidence across qualitative research, surveys, behavioral analytics, customer feedback, and secondary sources.

- Familiarity with foresight methods such as horizon scanning, scenario exploration, or signals analysis, and their application to emerging customer and experience opportunities.

Skills

- Strategic UX Research & Experience Strategy

- Advanced Generative & Exploratory Qualitative Research

- Research Strategy & Learning Agenda Development

- Research Leadership, Coaching & Craft Excellence

- Executive Influence & Strategic Storytelling

- Strategic Foresight & Emerging Trends Research

- Competitive Intelligence & Market Analysis

- Research Methodology, Rigor & Innovation

- Customer Mental Models & Behavioral Research

- Advanced Research Synthesis & Evidence Triangulation

- Service Design Partnership & Journey Research

- Conceptual Framework Development & Opportunity Identification

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