Senior Director, Architecture (Hybrid/Onsite)

Visa is a world leader in payments and technology, with over 259 billion payments transactions flowing safely between consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and government entities in more than 200 countries and territories each year. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable, and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive while driven by a common purpose – to uplift everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.

Make an impact with a purpose-driven industry leader. Join us today and experience Life at Visa.

About Open Visa Net

VisaNet continues to serve as one of the world’s largest and most innovative payment networks and has operated at the heart of Visa’s business since its inception. Its unparalleled scale, reliability and processing capabilities have powered businesses and consumers across the globe for more than 50 years, dedicated to delivering the best way to pay and be paid.

As Visa continues to innovate and evolve to meet ever changing needs of the global payments ecosystem, we are developing Open VisaNet (OVN), the next generation payments processing platform that will build on VisaNet’s success. This leverages modern architecture and development practices, core enhancements and the latest technologies to meet current and future requirements of our Product teams, clients, and partners.

Essential Functions

Reporting to VP of Open VisaNet Product, Architecture, Requirements and Design, the Sr. Director of Architecture will be fully accountable for service and platform architecture for Open VisaNet’s core payment processing stack. The candidate will be responsible for a global team of senior architects to execute technology project architecture definition, technology strategy and planning, and play a leadership role in large, strategic initiatives providing guidance to executive stakeholders.

This individual will provide thought and people leadership to identify and execute the actions required for successful delivery of Visa’s strategic priorities. The individual must be a strong leader, able to engage and challenge senior audiences, identify and prioritize actions, and navigate a highly-matrixed, global environment.

Specific Responsibilities Include

Leverage existing working knowledge of VisaNet processing, including, but not limited to authorization, clearing, and settlement functionality and services, in driving the ideation, design and development of future OVN products and enhancements.

Provides technology leadership to large/complex projects and working across sub-functions as needed for projects that are cross-enterprise.

Support the development and delivery of stakeholder communications in partnership with OVN Technology, Marketing and Communications.

Supports both product and technical discussions about how to apply existing and/or new technology in support of the business.

Apply creative thinking/approach to determine technical solutions that further business goals and align with corporate technology strategies, keeping in mind security, performance, reliability, scalability, usability, flexibility, and cost.

Partner with application development teams and various groups supporting Open VisaNet and its interfacing applications to drive new initiatives.

Foster innovation and leverage new technologies like Generative Artificial Intelligence.

Maintain staff by recruiting, selecting, orienting, and training employees, maintaining a safe, secure, and legal work environment and developing personal growth opportunities.

Manage the team’s performance to achieve target scope, schedule and cost objectives.

Operational Excellence: monitoring & operation of production services including understanding user experience & ensuring happy customers through partnering with your product support team.

Secondary Responsibilities

Demonstrated business savvy to work effectively with all levels of the organization to achieve key business and technology goals.

Instill best practices for software/systems architecture and documentation.

Provide subject matter expertise across the enterprise in the areas of payment processing.

Create an environment where accountability is expected and valued.

Working closely with Product partners, Technology, Client Service Marketing and Communication teams on a range of technical readiness activities related to OVN’s Go-To-Market strategy.

Evangelize OVN architecture across the enterprise to seek out re-use opportunities.

This is a hybrid position. Hybrid employees can alternate time between both remote and office. Employees in hybrid roles are expected to work alternating weeks from the office two days a week, a Tuesday and Wednesday, and three days a week, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays with a general guidepost of being in the office 50% of the time based on business needs.

Basic Qualifications
12+ years of relevant work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or at least 9 years of work experience with an Advanced degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 6 years of work experience with a PhD, OR 15+ years of relevant work experience.

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
BS/MS in Computer Science / Computer Engineering, Science, Math
Typically requires 15+ years total experience including 10+ years experience in payments or Technology, with a focus on transaction processing services.
Practical knowledge and understanding of VisaNet transaction processing flows, including
Authorization, Clearing, and Settlement functionality and related Value Add Services.
Experience with cloud-native technologies:
• GoLang, C/C++
• Kafka
• Kubernetes, Envoy, Consul
• Datastore – NoSQL and RDBMS
• Public cloud

Ability to lead and manage complex projects independently, working across multiple workstreams in a matrixed organization and engaging at all levels.
Strong leadership and people management skills, with demonstrated ability to lead global, multi-functional teams.
An experienced technology leader with a consistent record of highly scalable product development.
Demonstrated experience with architecting solutions for highly scalable, highly available systems is required.
Proven knowledge of successful design, architecture and development.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, able to development, document, and explain the technology strategy to diverse audiences, both technology and business, from executives to staff. Ability to drive consensus across diverse, global technology and business partners will be key.
Client facing experience, especially in VisaNet transaction processing related topics, a plus.
Eagerness to work in teams with colleagues of all levels to accomplish long term project objectives.
Superior analytic and problem-solving skills, with demonstrated analytic rigor and attention to detail.
Personal, executive presence and ability to communicate compelling messages clearly and succinctly to senior level executive, excellent presentation skills, including strong oral and writing capabilities.

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 a new hire into this position is 204,500.00 to 296,700.00 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.