Director, Design Research & Strategy

Company Description

Visa is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating more than 215 billion payments transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across 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.

When you join Visa, you join a culture of purpose and belonging – where your growth is priority, your identity is embraced, and the work you do matters. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere. Your work will have a direct impact on billions of people around the world – helping unlock financial access to enable the future of money movement.

Join Visa: A Network Working for Everyone.

Job Description

NA Product & Experience Design (PxD) is seeking an experienced, hands-on Innovation Design Research Strategist with prowess in both user research and leading-edge Product Design to lay the groundwork for how design research is scaled within global innovation. In this role, you will liaise with Product, Design and Consulting teams to drive Visa’s innovation in the payments space, delivering compelling research strategies that distill the complexity of client challenges. This person will play a vital role in developing new Products & Services directly for Visa’s clients and partners, as well as helping inform critical Human Insights employed by internal Product, Consulting and Account teams.  

This role will lead a team involving hands-on research strategy and planning, as well as the management of multiple research projects and initiatives. This role is critical to providing the framework from which every great story begins.  

Essential Functions

Role responsibilities include

• Support and refine the strategic direction of the research practice within innovation, in collaboration with the lead for NA Innovation Design Research 
• Be a team expert in the fields of design research, insights, storytelling and design research strategy 
• Evangelize and promote design research and insights throughout the organization 
• Review and define new tools, process and practices to advance design research and design strategy throughout NA and our global locations 

• Demonstrate a strong understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different research methods, including when and how to apply them during each product phase, and ability to justify research and design decisions. 
• Identify how to frame complex research problems, as well as evaluate agencies and vendors to support projects 
• Act as a change agent, sparking fresh ideas that elevate the research practice and are infused within our culture and products 
• Foster collaboration between Design, Research, Design Operations & Product teams, in addition to establishing relationships with other partners throughout Visa 
• Represent the team successfully with all types of stakeholders including Visa clients and partners 

• Mentor other design researchers and lead by example in delivering excellent individual work 
• Integrate research outputs with product roadmaps of Visa Clients and partners 
• Research best-in-class solutions or product features available to update product agenda for Visa clients and partners 
• Analyzing strong and weak points of products of Visa clients to develop holistic approach for implementing improvements 
• Be comfortable to own, manage and report on portfolio of projects at any one time confidently. 

• Design and lead collaborative workshops to facilitate various stages of client-facing projects

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

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications

• 10 years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree, at least 8 years of work experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters/MBA/JD/MD) or at least 3 years of work experience with a PhD

Preferred Qualifications

• 12 or more years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or 8-10 years of experience with an Advanced Degree (e.g. Masters, MBA, JD, MD) or 6+ years of work experience with a PhD
• Minimum 12+ years of work experience, including significant experience in a role with responsibility for design strategy, product design strategy and design research planning, as well as execution and client management for complex UX research projects
• Experience and understanding of Product Ma