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American Express: Business Checking platform delivery

Product-led engineering and architecture leadership across a customer-facing fintech platform initiative.

At a glance

Challenge
Ship quickly in fintech while preserving reliability, security, and long-term extensibility.
Scope
Customer-facing business checking platform with multi-team coordination.
Timeline
Foundational delivery from launch through scale-up phases.
Measurable outcomes
Customer-ready capabilities delivered with durable ownership and scaling foundations.
Industry
Fintech
Scope
Customer-facing platform
Focus
Delivery + scalable foundations
Role
Engineering & Product Lead — architecture direction, execution leadership, cross-team coordination
Approach
Platform-minded delivery, reliability-first execution, scalable ownership model

Results

  • Shipped platform capabilities to customers
  • Durable foundations for scaling and iteration
  • Clear operational ownership model

Context

The initiative required shipping a customer-facing product while building strong technical foundations.

Reliability, security, and extensibility mattered as much as speed to market.

The problem

The team needed to deliver quickly while maintaining architectural integrity.

Multiple stakeholders also needed alignment on ownership, tradeoffs, and long-term sustainability.

  • Avoid short-term decisions that create long-term friction.
  • Keep product momentum high while controlling risk.
  • Set teams up for durable post-launch ownership.

The approach

We established clear ownership boundaries and made architecture tradeoffs explicit.

Delivery practices prioritized customer value while preserving reliability and maintainability.

  • Ownership model designed for handoff and scale.
  • Reliability-first decision making in core platform flows.
  • Execution cadence linked to measurable product milestones.

What I led

I led engineering and product execution across architecture decisions, stakeholder alignment, and delivery.

The role required balancing near-term launch goals with long-term platform health.

Results

The team shipped customer-facing platform capabilities with foundations built for continued iteration.

Operational ownership became clearer, supporting ongoing scaling and support.

Lessons

In fintech, speed is durable only when paired with clear ownership and reliability standards.

Architecture choices should keep future teams unblocked, not just solve immediate milestones.

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