Senior Accessibility Specialist, Product Design (UX)

At American Express, our culture is built on a 175-year history of innovation, shared values and Leadership Behaviors, and an unwavering commitment to back our customers, communities, and colleagues. As part of Team Amex, you'll experience this powerful backing with comprehensive support for your holistic well-being and many opportunities to learn new skills, develop as a leader, and grow your career.

Here, your voice and ideas matter, your work makes an impact, and together, you will help us define the future of American Express.

We are seeking a Senior Accessibility Specialist to join the Global Merchant & Network Services (GMNS) Design Team. The GMNS Design Team is focused on creating and improving digital experiences for Merchant and Network customers. This role is a unique opportunity for a passionate, driven individual to champion accessibility best practices throughout the product design and development lifecycle.

Job Responsibilities

• Ensure digital products are accessible
• Standardize practices that embed accessibility in the product design and development process to prevent issues from ever reaching customers
• Assess digital experiences against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) utilizing automated, semi-automated, and manual review methods to ensure the identification of all potential accessibility issues.
• Partner with Control Management to support and maintain awareness of global accessibility requirements   
• Work closely with product designers to: 
  • Ensure accessibility best practices are considered during early design ideation and layout
  • Maintain awareness through the design process by attending and contributing to design reviews; providing 1:1 consultation support as needed
  • Review and sign off on the accessibility of designs
  • Annotate design files with accessibility notes (ARIA labels, alt text, headers, landmarks, etc.) in preparation for development handoff
• Work closely with developers and product owners to:
  • Remediate accessibility issues; providing 1:1 consultation and troubleshooting support as needed
  • Review and sign off on the accessibility of new development
• Be a passionate advocate and leader for accessibility at American Express

Minimum Qualifications

• 5+ years professional accessibility-related experience
• Expert-level understanding of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
• Experience evaluating digital experiences for conformance to WCAG
• Experience working closely with design, product, and engineering teams in an agile environment
• Proficient understanding of HTML, ARIA, and CSS code, with the ability to analyze and identify accessibility issues
• Proficiency with design and project management tools (e.g., Figma, Airtable)
• Experience managing and prioritizing multiple projects
• Excellent communication skills and ability to articulate the importance of accessibility to business partners and leaders
• Bachelor’s degree in a related field or relevant work experience
• Must be able to work in-office from NYC at least 3 days/week

Preferred Qualifications

• Accessibility testing experience using screen readers (e.g., NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver)
• Accessibility testing experience with digital PDF documents
• Knowledge of EU and global accessibility requirements
• Certified accessibility professional (e.g., IAAP CPWA)