Open to new opportunities

Vikash
Panjiyar

Senior Product Manager  ·  American Express

Product Leader. (Recovering) Engineer. (Former) Makeup Artist.
I spent years mastering the art of the face, then the logic of the codebase. Now, I just build products that look as good as they ship.

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Vikash Panjiyar, Senior Product Manager
Based in
Haywards Heath, UK
The Journey

Three chapters.
One career.

A path shaped by artistry, engineered with precision, and led with clarity. Here's what makes this background genuinely different.

🎨

Chapter I

The Artist

Before strategy decks and sprint plans, there was colour, composition, and craft. A career as a professional makeup artist built a deep understanding of aesthetics, the patience to perfect details, and, most importantly, what it feels like to transform someone's experience. That lens has never left.

💻

Chapter II

The Engineer

A First Class BSc in Computer Science from UCL, earned alongside a year in industry at American Express building automated test frameworks in Java. Deep systems thinking, API fluency, and a genuine understanding of how software is built. Those skills still shape every product decision today.

🚀

Chapter III

The Product Leader

From Senior Associate to Senior Manager at American Express, owning strategy across 11 EMEA markets. $3.6M in Pre-Tax Income generated. 1.5M cards migrated with zero disruption. 2,000+ hours saved annually. Products that move fast, land well, and leave a mark.

By the Numbers

Impact that speaks loudly.

$0M
Pre-Tax Income generated across EMEA strategic initiatives
0+
Annual operational hours unlocked through internal tooling
17 days → 50ms
Salesforce setup time cut via platform integration
0M
Active cards migrated with zero customer disruption
Career

The work that defines the craft.

Jun 2025 → Present
American Express
Burgess Hill, UK
Current Role
Senior Manager, Digital Product Management
  • Owned product alignment across 11 EMEA markets, driving roadmap clarity and high-level solution design for initiatives deprioritised at enterprise level.
  • Led end-to-end delivery of 8 strategic initiatives across growth, efficiency, and compliance, generating $3.6M Pre-Tax Income.
  • Designed and launched internal tools from user research to high-fidelity Figma prototypes, unlocking 2,000+ hours in annual operational efficiencies.
  • Implemented unified Airtable + AI tooling strategy, reducing manual processes by 66% and establishing the team's first centralised intake and prioritisation system.
  • Managed and developed a Product Owner, providing coaching, structure, and growth opportunities to strengthen regional delivery capability.
Apr 2023 → May 2025
American Express
Burgess Hill, UK
Manager, Digital Product Management
  • Shipped a Salesforce-based integration reducing setup times from 17 days to 50 milliseconds, transforming operational efficiency at scale.
  • Defined product strategy across 5 applications, cutting onboarding time by 30% and improving NPA scores by 0.5.
  • Partnered across 13 business units to launch 28 competitive credit and redemption products, aligning technical, commercial, and operational teams.
  • Led recruitment and onboarding of AmEx's first UK Product Graduate Programme: 8 graduates placed, with a scalable framework for early-career talent.
Sep 2021 → Mar 2023
American Express
Burgess Hill, UK
Senior Associate, Digital Product Management
  • Drove end-to-end delivery of core platform migration, transitioning 1.5 million active cards with zero customer disruption.
  • Led two cross-functional teams combining UI, backend, and QA engineering with 80%+ delivery predictability.
  • Translated complex technical architecture and integration details into actionable user stories, improving delivery clarity and reducing rework.
Sep 2018 → Sep 2019
American Express
Burgess Hill, UK
Junior Engineer & Product Owner (Industrial Placement)
  • Designed and built automated test frameworks in Java and Cucumber, cutting regression time by 400% and materially improving platform stability.
  • Owned and resolved recurring platform issues, reducing support tickets by 9% through partnership with senior engineers.
  • Gained deep technical context in system architecture and integration patterns, which became the foundation for a complete transition into product ownership.
Skills

The full toolkit.

Product Strategy & Leadership
Roadmap Ownership Portfolio Management KPI Definition Go-to-Market Stakeholder Alignment Customer Journey Cross-functional Leadership People Development
Technical & Delivery
API-driven Development Backend Platform PM Data Integration CI/CD & Automation Internal Tooling Agile / Scrum E2E Delivery Java / Cucumber
Tools & Platforms
Figma Airtable Jira Confluence GitHub Postman Swagger Power BI Google Cloud ChatGPT Copilot Rally
Education

Built on strong foundations.

UCL
BSc Computer Science (with Year in Industry)
University College London · London, United Kingdom
First Class Honours
2021 Graduation
Contact

Let's build
something great.

Whether you're building a world-class product team, have an interesting challenge, or just want to connect, I'd love to hear from you.

✉ [email protected] in linkedin.com/in/vikashpanjiyar
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