Director, Data Engineering NA/LAC

Company Description

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 #LifeatVisa.

Job Description

With data being the fuel that drives our future - our strategies, policies, and business successes around data will define our future growth prospects. Unlocking the value available through the innovative use of data on behalf of consumers, businesses, and communities is key to our future. With our ongoing commitment to Visa’s Data Values and the responsible use of data, we at Visa have a bold vision to continue to grow and accelerate our data-related businesses and capabilities.

Led by Visa’s first Chief Data Officer, the Global Data Office coordinates high-impact, complex, company-wide projects related to data business strategy, critical investments, policy development, and marketplace execution. Working closely with Visa’s Chief Privacy Officer, the Technology organization, the wider data community, and the full set of Visa’s global lines of business, the Global Data Office is evolving Visa’s data-related work with momentum and enthusiasm. Driven by its commitment to trusted use of data, Visa is seeking enthusiastic leaders who are change-agents and passionate about the future of data around the world.

This position will play a critical role in leading the Data Engineering Center of Excellence and oversee end-to-end data engineering delivery for the North America region, including designing and building large-scale data pipelines, data lakes/warehouses, and streaming data integration. Also, this position will ensure that data ingestion, transformation, and publication processes are efficient, reliable, and aligned with enterprise standards, and champion an “assembly line” model to enable faster time-to-market for data products and solutions.

Key Responsibilities:

• Data Democratization & Analytics Enablement: Deliver on Visa’s Data & Analytics democratization goals by expanding access to trusted, timely data and self-service analytics tools for internal teams. Lead the development of internal data products, APIs, and BI platforms that put actionable insights in the hands of decision-makers, in support of business lines such as Consumer Payments, Merchant, and others.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Act as the bridge between the Global Data Office and regional business/technology teams, ensuring North America’s data engineering priorities are aligned with product roadmaps, analytics needs, and regional objectives. Partner closely with Data Science, Analytics, Product Management, and IT security teams to design data solutions that support AI/ML innovation (e.g. feature stores, AI-enabled platforms) and meet emerging business requirements
• Innovation & Emerging Technologies: Stay at the forefront of data engineering and AI/ML technologies. Evaluate and implement new tools or methodologies (such as streaming analytics, containerization, automation/AI in data pipelines, or data lakehouse architectures) that can enhance Visa’s data capabilities. Drive proof-of-concepts and pilot projects for advanced data engineering solutions, and scale successful innovations across the enterprise.
• Operational Excellence: Ensure the reliability, efficiency, and security of Visa’s data infrastructure in North America. Oversee production operations for data pipelines and platforms, instituting best practices for monitoring, alerting, and incident response to achieve high availability and performance. Continuously optimize data processing workflows to reduce duplication, improve resource utilization, and eliminate technical debt in our tooling and tech stack
• Team Development & Management: Manage and mentor a distributed team of data engineers, architects, and managers. Foster a culture of excellence, innovation, and collaboration, emphasizing agile methodologies and continuous improvement. Set clear objectives and Key Results (OKRs) for the team that tie into broader Data Office goals (e.g. cloud migration milestones, data product delivery, quality metrics), and ensure accountability for results.
• Stakeholder Engagement & Communication: Serve as the North America regional champion for data engineering, regularly communicating status, progress, and insights to executives and stakeholders. Present platform roadmaps, major project updates, and achievements i