Common Purpose, Uncommon Opportunity. Everyone at Visa works with one goal in mind – making sure that Visa is the best way to pay and be paid, for everyone everywhere. This is our global vision and the common purpose that unites the entire Visa team. As a global payments technology company, tech is at the heart of what we do: Our VisaNet network processes over 13,000 transactions per second for people and businesses around the world, enabling them to use digital currency instead of cash and checks. We are also global advocates for financial inclusion, working with partners around the world to help those who lack access to financial services join the global economy. Visa’s sponsorships, including the Olympics and FIFA™ World Cup, celebrate teamwork, diversity, and excellence throughout the world. If you have a passion to make a difference in the lives of people around the world, Visa offers an uncommon opportunity to build a strong, thriving career. Visa is fueled by our team of talented employees who continuously raise the bar on delivering the convenience and security of digital currency to people all over the world. Join our team and find out how Visa is everywhere you want to be.

The Director, San Francisco Innovation Center will be part of the team that is transforming our product development and design process into one that leverages human centered design practices.  The team collaborates with partners to discover, define, and design high-potential new products and services that are market tested and ready for scaled commercialization.  We focus on high-potential business opportunities that can be piloted, have a clearly articulated end user impact, and can accelerate growth for Visa.  As part of a multi-disciplinary team made up of business, design and development, you will blur the lines between business strategy and creativity, helping to design new solutions that are desirable for end-users as well as feasible and financially sustainable for the organization. Projects are derived based on forces shaping how consumers earn, spend, and save.  The successful candidate will be responsible for working across functions (e.g., design, technology, products, etc.) for Visa’s client issuers, merchants, end consumers and partners.  This role will also contribute to driving much of Visa’s global new product roadmap through applied exploration and development. This role reports to the VP of New Product Design & Development in the San Francisco Innovation Center.

The Director, San Francisco Innovation Center will be responsible for specific human centered design projects (from inception through testing). The role requires the person to be part of a holistic approach to product design that begins with the customer and rapidly iterates solutions to deliver customer experiences that are simple, powerful, and exceptional.  In addition, he/she will be part of a team that brings a structured approach and the ability to communicate highly complex information to both a technical and non-technical audiences. The team believes in curiosity, creative confidence, experimentation through making, continuous learning, respectful collaboration, inclusion, empathy, resiliency and fun! 

Lastly, the person should be a “SWAN” – someone who is smart, works hard, ambitious and nice!

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Work with partners and interdisciplinary teams of product, design, and engineering in the development of new products, using a digital-first mindset and the contemporary product management techniques of digital native companies (e.g., human centered design, minimum viable product, rapid prototyping, etc)

• Leads the business perspective on relevance to Visa, business modeling/case/reason to invest.  Articulates the “Business Design Challenge” at the beginning of the project to ensure potential user and business impacts are relevant and defined early (e.g., what problem are we trying to solve? What impact do we want to have? What are possible solutions? What context and constraints do we need to keep in mind?)

• Participate in the delivery of a range of projects that could vary based on user, problem/opportunity defined and/or globally. 

• In partnership with design and technology determine what work should be done to explore, test, refine, and recommend a final solution and that brings a holistic approach to product design that begins with the customer and rapidly iterates solutions to deliver customer experiences that are simple, powerful, and exceptional.  Works with designers + design technologist to make things tangible/real versus theoretical

• Actively work through applied product development using human-centered design and lean start-up processes that result in desirability insights and viable product, service or solution recommendations.  Also, distills business, customer, and partner constraints into digestible components for the design and development teams

• Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of Visa’s capabilities and has the ability to think holistically about the design of a new offering and the implications related to both the customer’s experience as well as the organization’s ability to implement and scale.   This includes working closely with our partners to develop strategies, timelines, and operational models that appropriately consider the organizational needs, aspirations, business realities

• Articulate the possibility, viability and feasibility of recommendations.  This includes crafting the story of how the design recommendation fits into a company’s overall strategy, the underlying business model, and any implementation risks.

• Energize and improve the status quo using creativity and intelligent, calculated risks to deliver new products and processes that surpass clients’ expectations, demonstrating new methods, capabilities, and mindsets.

• Establish compelling business-based reason for change that mobilizes others to adopt new product development process that more effectively and rapidly deliver growth and improve Visa’s competitive differentiation.

• Embrace opportunity to develop appropriate process/approach based on each project including setting up parameters that feel defined but not overly restrictive

QUALIFICATIONS

• BA/BS required; MBA a plus

• 3-5 years of strategy consulting experience a plus

• 5+ years payments industry/fintechs/digital tech experience or similar relevant experience

• 5+ years product design/development experience, with a strong focus on innovative product development

• Comfortable interacting, interviewing and iterating with people through exploration of new concept, prototyping (low and high) and testing

• Must have a mindset that embraces creativity, optimism, ambiguity and failing-fast

• Proven ability to work on complex and often ambiguous problems, to drive results

• Analytical thinker, team oriented, collaborative, diplomatic, and flexible, with excellent presentation skills, including strong oral and writing capabilities

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.