Senior Director, Visa Ventures

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

Visa Ventures is the equity-investing arm of Visa, responsible for identifying relevant sectors where equity investments can advance Visa’s commercial or strategic aims and then sourcing, diligencing, negotiating, supporting, and monitoring these companies that form an important part of Visa’s portfolio.

This role is a senior position responsible for leading the venture process from ideation through landscaping, direct and indirect outreach, deal structuring and negotiation and serving as Board Observer for select investments. The role requires several years of hands-on experience in either a financial or corporate equity investment setting and demonstrated expertise with thesis generation, research, and written and presented work leading to insight and identification of specific investable opportunities. This role will reward thought leadership and the ability to collect sufficient information to form hypotheses and then revise them in the light of new data. The ideal candidate will be a persuasive writer and presenter as well as an experienced investor.

Much of the role is external facing – meeting with CEOs and senior executives as well as investors and industry leaders. Candidates should have their own existing network of venture investors and entrepreneurs and the desire and demonstrated capability to build and track an investment pipeline as well as an effective network of external relationships, ideally in Fintech, Financial Services, Payments, or Software. Results matter – the candidate should have a track record of producing outstanding quality work that leads to impactful outcomes.

Candidates should have experience with investment due diligence as well as negotiating key terms in venture deals and an understanding of good corporate governance, along with unimpeachable ethical judgment. This role will be deeply immersed in details of payment systems and related services across global markets, so experience in – and a passionate curiosity for – the industry will be important.

GenerativeAI’s impact on consumer and B2B commerce is an area of particular interest for Visa Ventures, so an understanding of the space and a point of view on its evolution will be valuable.

This role will report to the Head of Visa Ventures and work closely with colleagues in Partnerships, Product, Technology, and regions and countries around the world.

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 2-3 set days a week (determined by leadership/site), with a general guidepost of being in the office 50% or more of the time based on business needs.

Qualifications

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
• Corporate strategy, financial services or payments industry experience preferred
• Demonstrated track record of generating investment hypotheses, gathering data from a variety of sources to update and refine those hypotheses, and ability to express in a clear and convincing written format
• Experience with creating an investment landscape, populating it with companies sourced from individual and network efforts, and continually refining this work
• Demonstrated ability to lead others both within and outside management chain. Proven competency in advising and influencing senior executives both in meetings and in written communications.
• Strategic thinking and thought leadership
• Teamwork, interpersonal & relationship-building skills, and ability to lead by influence and example
• Proven ability to partner, communicate and manage/navigate through multiple disciplines and organizational groups
• Ability to work within a complex