As the world's leader in digital payments technology, Visa's mission is to connect the world through the most creative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company's dedication to innovation drives the rapid growth of connected commerce on any device, and fuels the dream of a cashless future for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce.

At Visa, your individuality fits right in. Working here gives you an opportunity to impact the world, invest in your career growth, and be part of an inclusive and diverse workplace. We are a global team of disruptors, trailblazers, innovators and risk-takers who are helping drive economic growth in even the most remote parts of the world, creatively moving the industry forward, and doing meaningful work that brings financial literacy and digital commerce to millions of unbanked and underserved consumers.

You're an Individual. We're the team for you. Together, let's transform the way the world pays.

Team Summary:

Merchant Sales & Acquiring (MS&A) is the global Visa functional team tasked with the responsibility of expanding digital acceptance and helping our merchant and acquiring partners to grow their business through deployment of Visa solutions. Visa has reinforced its focus on long-term acceptance growth by developing partnerships, enhancing market investments and having the right talent to execute directly with our merchant & acquirer clients. The MS&A team in Japan is responsible for developing and executing our merchant and acquiring plans in the Japan market.
 

What a Head of MS&A, Japan does at Visa:

The Head of MS&A Japan has overall responsibility for the Japan market relating to the Merchant Sales and Acquiring and CyberSource strategy, leading a team of merchant acquiring domain experts with the primary objectives of expanding digital payment acceptance and adoption through deployment and execution of merchant/acquirer initiatives and infrastructure solutions. In addition this role is responsible for working with the country management team on industry & regulatory initiatives and interchange strategy for the Japan market. This role is recognized as the Visa authority on the acceptance of digital payments.

More broadly, the person occupying this position will play a critical role on the AP MS&A leadership team as well as on the Japan leadership team, influencing fellow peers in providing leadership and strategic guidance. They will ensure all necessary tools, processes, procedures and staff are in place to successfully support Visa initiatives, while establishing and fostering relationships with merchants, regulatory bodies and other stakeholders.

The Head of MS&A, Japan will be responsible to do the following:

• Develop and execute the MS&A and CyberSource strategy for Japan, to increase personal consumption expenditure (PCE) penetration, Visa merchant volume, market share, data processing revenues and create acquirer, merchant and consumer preference for Visa.
• Develop business plans to support new acceptance initiatives for the Japan market.
• Deploy new Visa solutions with merchant and acquiring partners in Japan.
• Represent Visa on industry bodies and forums in conjunction with the country management team.
• Develop new initiatives/solutions and implement marketing/usage initiatives targeting traditional and new merchant segments, both in physical world and virtual world, including a specific focus on the execution of the government payments strategy.
• Build and proactively manage large and most influential merchant relationships in Japan with a view to build stronger partnership and cross-sell Visa’s suite of merchant solutions.
• Provide leadership, strategic direction and management for to the local MS&A team, establishing a cohesive, customer focused, performance based, development-oriented team culture.
• Direct in-market MS&A resources to assure that all goals are supported in a cost effective, timely manner, with a resulting high level of client satisfaction.
• Successfully translate broad global or regional strategies into specific objectives and action plans, aligning efforts of the MS&A and Interchange organizations with other key Visa stakeholders.
• Ensure the MS&A team provides the necessary leadership, support, and collaboration with local Clients/country and to internal stakeholder organizations including Client Relationship Management, Product, Corporate Relations, Risk, CSS and Legal.
• Establish and foster relationships with Clients and internal stakeholders at all levels of staff and senior management.
• Manage the sale and growth targets of CyberSource gateway services and other value added services to merchants and Acquirers in Japan.
• Support local Client Sales Teams with their sales efforts. Maintain current knowledge of technologies, products, services, methods and applications and implement new approaches and practices as required.
• Maintain and build rapport with Singapore Hub peers and other MS&A & Interchange teams across Visa to exchange, learn and leverage best practices.

Why this is important to Visa

The Japan payments landscape is in the midst of a critical transformation, and this role will be essential to shaping the future of digital payments in the market. Initial areas of focus will include the deployment of contactless infrastructure for POS and implementation of next generation eCommerce capabilities. Success on these initiatives will improve day-to-day experiences for consumers, help merchants/acquirers grow their business, and grow Visa’s presence in Japan.

What you will need:

Key attributes

• Digital fluency, analytical orientation, objectivity, drive, enthusiasm, leadership, and creativity are key attributes
• Strategically driven leadership skills with hands-on mentality; curiosity is part of your DNA
• Strong business development and sales team management skills
• Results focused, must have experience developing and executing on strategic and business plans (including financial projections) 
• Energetic and enthusiastic about tackling challenging problems, view complicated tasks as motivating

Essential basics

• Graduate caliber, MBA preferred 
• 15+ years experience in the payments, commerce, or technology space, with leadership roles in sales/sales operations, business development, or client management
• Outstanding communication skills – including fluency in English (oral and written) and Japanese

Industry experience

• Comprehensive knowledge and experience working in the FinTech & technology or payments industry
• Experience in driving merchant, acquiring, or payment solutions within the Asia Pacific region, and ideally in Japan (preferred)
• Demonstrable leadership skills and business vision, with proven capability to work with senior leaders and teams across geographies and functions
• Experience in developing and tracking client-centric strategies within a complex multinational, matrixed organizations 

Professional values

• Innovation driven: up-to-date with latest payments trends; Champions bold ideas and new ways of doing things; ask challenging and stretching questions
• Open communication: actively promote environment of inclusion and diversity of thought, proactively limit or mitigate unconscious biases, honest and direct communication; encourage others to openly share and build on each other’s new ideas, products or solutions.
• Solution focused: connect the dots and creatively leverage Visa products and capabilities to meet client needs, best practices, unafraid to make timely decisions in ambiguous, high pressure situations, quick to adapt / recover and reset priorities in changing circumstances
• Commitment to team: strong interest in developing a high-performing team, instilling a positive work culture
• Decisiveness: make quick, timely decisions in the face of limited, ambiguous information, or in a crisis or other high-pressure situation