Director, Product & Payment Services Risk

Visa•Austin, TX

5h•Hybrid

About The Position

The Product and Payment Services Risk (PPSR) organization at Visa oversees Visa’s strategic pillars and underlying business units. For Visa’s Global Products pillar, this includes Global Data Office, Growth Products, Global Products and Initiatives and Platform & Products initiatives. PPSR is focused on overseeing product builds, pipeline and portfolio execution and tackling risks inherent in each area. The Director, Product & Payment Services Risk serves as the primary Risk Business Partner (RBP) to Visa’s Platform and Product team. This leader drives a strong, proactive risk culture by operationalizing enterprise and operational risk frameworks, providing credible challenge, and enabling business leaders to make informed, risk‑aware decisions. This role requires a highly analytical, product‑savvy, data‑driven leader who can navigate ambiguity, influence senior stakeholders, and translate complex risk themes into actionable insights. The ideal candidate blends deep risk expertise with strong product intuition, and the ability to simplify risk for executives through storytelling and analytics. The role will have significant impact and senior leadership exposure with the successful candidate responsible for embedding risk management within the 1st line of their covered areas. This role will ensure identification, assessment, and monitoring of risks related to products, services and operations in line with Visa’s risk frameworks and appetite, while driving the strengthening of key controls across multiple teams. The role will be at the forefront of Visa’s innovation practices, ensuring operational excellence is deployed across key processes and controls.

Requirements

10 or more years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree or 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
Strong business acumen, including commercial or client‑facing experience, and deep understanding of the payments industry, regulatory environment, and competitive landscape.
Advanced knowledge of risk management practices, controls, and enterprise‑wide risk methodologies, with practical experience applying the Three Lines of Defense model.
Proven ability to assess strategic, operational, and regulatory risks across complex products, processes, and global teams.
Experience reducing residual risk levels through strong analytical and data‑driven assessment of critical business processes spanning multiple teams and geographies.
Excellent time management, problem‑solving, communication, and facilitation skills, with experience delivering in global and regional environments.
Strong ability to build trusted relationships and influence stakeholders at all organizational levels within a global matrix structure.
Ability to operate independently in a dynamic environment, balancing strategic thinking with hands‑on execution and consistently delivering on commitments.
Demonstrated executive presence with the ability to engage, influence, and advise senior leaders across product and other cross-functional teams.
Skilled at communicating complex risk themes to executives and driving cross‑functional alignment without direct authority.
Strong judgment to balance partnership and independence, providing constructive, well‑supported challenge to First Line decisions and escalating concerns when needed.
Demonstrated leadership of end‑to‑end RCSA execution, including scoping, risk identification, control assessment, testing standards, evidence quality, and issue remediation.
Ability to deliver portfolio‑level insights on operational risks, control gaps, and emerging themes, strengthening operational resilience through improved control design.
Proficiency with tools such as MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenPages (GoRO), Tableau, and Power BI for risk analytics and executive‑ready storytelling.

Nice To Haves

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
Bachelor’s degree in a science or business field preferred, with 10–12+ years of relevant experience in financial services or product organizations.

Responsibilities

Provide risk leadership by providing objective perspective, credible challenge, and forward‑looking risk insights.
Build trusted, influential relationships with senior product and business leaders.
Bring an independent point of view on risk‑reward tradeoffs, ensuring that strategic decisions are consistent with Visa’s risk appetite.
Partner with other second-line programs and teams (e.g. Model Risk Management, Third Party Lifecycle Management, Ecosystem Risk, Data Governance & AI, Compliance etc.) to support roll out and implementation of appropriate risk management activities.
Providing an aggregated view of the Platform and Product Risk Profiles through developing a bottom up (e.g., key PRRs, operational risk themes, KRIs, risk events, control testing) and top down (key risks from senior leadership) view on risks to feed quarterly Risk Profiles and leadership discussions for the business unit.
This will include providing oversight and constructive challenges to Platform and Products business unit as well as cross-functional stakeholders (e.g. Client Services, Finance, Compliance, Legal and Technology) in their management of risk, while making recommendations on control enhancements or other actions required to drive risk mitigation and reduce exposure.
Partner directly with product teams to understand roadmaps, identify risk‑relevant initiatives, and provide early advisory support.
Evaluate product features, process flows, and ecosystem implications to assess inherent and residual risks.
Lead Product Risk Reviews (PRRs) independently, ensuring risks, controls, mitigations, and post‑launch monitoring plans are well‑defined.
Provide constructive yet firm challenges to First Line decisions when risks are underestimated or not adequately mitigated.
Lead and scale the global RCSA program for the Global Products team alongside RBPs for individual product lines.
Drive end‑to‑end RCSA execution: scoping, risk identification, control assessment, testing standards, evidence quality, and issue remediation.
Deliver portfolio‑level insights on key operational risks, control gaps, and emerging themes.
Strengthen operational resilience through continuous improvement and enhanced control design.
Transform complex, cross‑product risk data into clear, consumable insights that help senior leaders understand exposure, trends, and decision implications.
Build and maintain portfolio‑level analytics, including KRIs, thematic trends, and risk profiles to surface emerging risks and drive proactive action.
Create executive‑ready dashboards and visual storytelling using tools like Tableau or Power BI, translating raw data into compelling narratives.
Identify early‑stage risk patterns across product lines and provide actionable, data‑driven recommendations to mitigate exposure.
Synthesize diverse risk signals into cohesive strategic viewpoints, ensuring alignment with enterprise frameworks and elevating critical themes for leadership attention.