The Senior Director, Strategy and High Growth Initiatives will deliver Flex and Installments product acceleration plans and scorecards, aligned with regional growth vectors. Flex and Installments are key for modernizing credential capability, enabling new income streams, new entrants for faster distribution and accomplishing top-of-wallet status for issuers. This leader and their team will help drive global change & support market initiatives; delivering consistently to unlock new payment volume aligned to strategic growth imperatives. This leader and their team will work closely with various teams across Product, Solutions, GTM, Finance, Regions, Rules, Risk and more to define and deliver accelerated reach, prioritize roadmap, measure product performance and customer success and invest and manage key initiatives and partnerships.
This role is global and will need to balance regional and global opportunities to achieve overall growth and goal objectives. Accomplishing this will require a nuanced ability to influence and collaborate across a complex and highly matrixed organization and provide leadership and clear vision to direct and indirect teams.
- Oversee the strategic management of the entire product portfolio, including evaluation of new business models, sunsetting legacy offerings, and prioritizing high-impact innovation bets.
- Development, roll out and monitoring of acceleration plan, budgets, product metrics
- Define and continuously refine the long-term product vision, ensuring alignment with emerging technology trends, regulatory shifts, and evolving customer needs.
- Forge and manage strategic alliances with fintechs, technology providers, regulators, and ecosystem partners to accelerate innovation and market reach.
- Identify and evaluate potential M&A opportunities or investments that align with strategic growth priorities.
- Champion the use of advanced analytics, AI, and data science to inform product strategy, customer segmentation, and go-to-market approaches.
- Establish frameworks for measuring and reporting on strategic KPIs, ensuring data-driven accountability at all levels. Global ownership of Flex and Installments Market Landscaping, Research, Scorecards, Dashboards, Executive reporting, Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives
- Serve as a visible thought leader for the organization, supporting or representing the company at industry events, conferences, and in media to shape the broader fintech narrative.
- Leadership of a team of payments subject matter experts, primarily based in the San Francisco Bay Area, providing advice and guidance on Product Development, project management and initiative execution.
- Lead scenario planning and risk analysis to anticipate market disruptions and proactively adjust product strategy.
- Anticipate and shape responses to regulatory changes in payments and fintech, ensuring compliance while enabling business growth.
- Lead enterprise-level risk assessments related to new product launches, technology adoption, and market entry.
- Act as the executive SME for key clients and partners, ensuring their needs and feedback directly inform product strategy and your thought leadership support winning deals.
- Lead efforts to identify and enter new markets or customer segments, leveraging deep market research and competitive intelligence.
- Mentor and develop future leaders, fostering succession planning and talent pipelines for critical strategic roles.
- Drive organizational transformation initiatives to embed a culture of innovation, agility, and customer-centricity.
This is a hybrid position. Expectation of days in the office will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager.
Basic Qualifications
- 12 or more years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or at least 10 years of work experience with an Advanced degree (e.g. Masters/MBA /JD/MD), or a minimum of 5 years of work experience with a PhD
Preferred Qualifications
- 15 or more years of experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or 12 years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, or MD), PhD with 9+ years of experience
- Strategic thought leadership coupled with execution bias to drive initiatives and meet key result areas
- Superior analytical and problem-solving skills to synthesize and communicate complex information effectively.
- Experience in financial services, fintechs, telecom, retail and ecommerce will be an advantage
- Proven experience in P&L ownership & sharp understanding of macroeconomics, consumer behavior, product operations, business processes
- Established credentials in delivering product & business solutions and keen interest in payment technology & innovation
- Understanding network product, rules, technology will be advantageous
- Sound business acumen, analytical skills and keen understanding of new technology payment business models and profitability drivers
- Understanding of Visa business and organization strongly preferred
- Excellent direct & indirect team building & leadership skills; managing local & remote team members as well as “dotted line” / extended team members in Visa’s global regions.
- Experienced with product development life cycle, including planning, development of product roadmap, using data to define and support goals & strategies, ongoing program management
- Ability to manage complex projects and processes with multiple stakeholders, with proven leadership success over a wide variety of projects and business problems
- Ability to lead a team of highly skilled professionals, supporting career growth of team members
- Strong collaboration skills are required, and solid presentation skills are ideal. The candidate must be able to work with multiple stakeholders, both internal and external, and weigh conflicting priorities. The candidate must be adept at finding common ground among different points of view.
- Enjoys an environment of investigation, fact finding, validation & execution
- Highly organized with exceptional problem-solving skills and the ability to apply structured, critical thinking to ambiguous problems (small, fast-moving initiatives or large, multi-dependency initiatives), and ability to use data to prove or disprove hypotheses and inform solutions set
- Strong customer focus is essential, along with demonstrated ability to research market trends, competition, and user requirements
Work Hours: Varies upon the needs of the department.
Travel Requirements: This position requires travel 5-10% of the time.
Mental/Physical Requirements: This position will be performed in an office setting. The position will require the incumbent to sit and stand at a desk, communicate in person and by telephone, frequently operate standard office equipment, such as telephones and computers.
Visa is an EEO Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protected veteran status. Visa will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with EEOC guidelines and applicable local law.
Visa will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable local law, including the requirements of Article 49 of the San Francisco Police Code.
U.S. APPLICANTS ONLY: The estimated salary range for this position is $229,000 to $400,900 USD per year, which may include potential sales incentive payments (if applicable). Salary may vary depending on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location. In addition, this position may be eligible for bonus and equity. Visa has a comprehensive benefits package for which this position may be eligible that includes Medical, Dental, Vision, 401 (k), FSA/HSA, Life Insurance, Paid Time Off, and Wellness Program.
