Director, Payment Ecosystem Risk & Compliance
Visa · Atlanta, United States · 6d ago
About Us
Visa is a world leader in payments technology, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories, dedicated to uplifting everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.
At Visa, you'll have the opportunity to create impact at scale — tackling meaningful challenges, growing your skills and seeing your contributions impact lives around the world.
Join Visa and do work that matters – to you, to your community, and to the world. Progress starts with you.
Job Description
The team is responsible for protecting the integrity, safety, and trust of the Visa payment ecosystem. The team monitors and enforces risk and compliance programs that identify, investigate, and remediate behaviors that threaten the stability of the network, Visa clients, and end users.
These programs span multiple risk domains, including acquirer and issuer monitoring, fraud and risk compliance, integrity programs, and network risk investigations, and include programs such as Rules Compliance, VAMP, VIMP, FRECOP, VIRP, and related ecosystem risk frameworks. Collectively, these programs ensure that ecosystem participants operate in alignment with Visa Rules, program requirements, and applicable laws and regulations.
Role Overview
This leadership role is responsible for managing one or more Visa Case Investigation & Enforcement (CIE) teams and overseeing the execution, evolution, and strategic direction of programs that protect the integrity of the Visa payment ecosystem. The Director provides leadership across compliance, ecosystem risk, investigations, monitoring, remediation, enforcement, and related risk management functions, ensuring programs are scalable, effective, and aligned to Visa's business and regulatory objectives.
The Director leads teams of Senior Consultants, Consultants, and Analysts, with accountability for operational excellence, program performance, people leadership, and delivery of business priorities. This role oversees complex and often ambiguous issues, drives continuous improvement of processes and operating models, and ensures work is executed within established service, quality, and risk management standards.
Working closely with CIE leadership and cross-functional partners across Global Risk, PERC, Rules & Compliance, Client Services, Product, Legal, Technology, and regional teams, the Director helps shape strategy, establish priorities, and address common policy, operational, technology, and organizational needs. The role identifies emerging risks and industry trends, leverages data-driven insights to enhance program effectiveness, and champions scalable solutions, automation, and innovation to strengthen Visa's ecosystem protection capabilities.
The Director serves as a senior escalation point for complex investigations, client engagements, enforcement matters, and risk events, influencing outcomes with executive-level stakeholders both within Visa and externally. Operating with significant autonomy, the role drives organizational alignment, develops talent and capabilities, and fosters a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement while minimizing operational, regulatory, financial, brand, and reputational risk to Visa.
Key Responsibilities
- Assist CIE senior management in the preparation & execution of annual strategy, objectives & tracking.
- Manage assigned CIE Compliance team to ensure workload prioritization and balance, SLA alignment, objectives and milestone dates are met.
- Responsible for staff recruitment, on-boarding, engagement, recognition and coaching / mentoring.
- Conduct staff performance reviews, provide on-going feedback and coaching and direct the professional development / department commitment of staff.
- Act as escalation point for 1st level exception and client issues; keep management informed on a timely basis and support global cohesiveness in problem-solving.
- Oversee operational control points, such as Non-Compliance Assessments (NCAs) imposition, and other agreed reporting.
- Identify opportunities, develop and conduct awareness building and training for key internal and external clients on Rules and Compliance processes and procedures.
- Form collaborative relationships with key internal clients – such as Sales / Business Development teams, Acceptance, Legal, Risk, Account Management, and other Client Services counterparts to ensure communication channels and processes function smoothly.
- Identify operational and strategic opportunities to increase service quality, efficiency or employee satisfaction and makes recommendations accordingly; work with CIE leadership teams to effect change.
- Responsible and accountable for negotiating complex compliance action plans with Clients at senior officer level, using discretion within the regulatory framework.
- Provide staff direction, with respect to creating and implementing standard compliance solutions that meet regulatory and strategic compliance objectives of Visa Inc. and its Clients with respect to the Visa By-Laws, and Rules and associated subsidiary manuals.
- Responsible for ensuring all management information statistics, performance criteria and trends relating to Compliance processing are collated, analyzed, published and fed back to team members to help define compliance strategy for Visa Inc. globally and regionally.
- Provide Clients and staff with accurate interpretation and analysis of Visa Rules in response to telephone or written inquiries and/or proposed Client or Merchant activities, and as a full project team member for assigned projects as required.
- Provision of advice and interpretation on all regulatory matters, as codified in the Visa Charter Documents and Rules to Clients and staff.
- Tracking and control of Compliance actions plans as submitted by Clients ensuring they are tracked to resolution.
This role is a Hybrid position to be based in our Atlanta, GA office location with expectations of being in the office a minimum of 3 Days per week. Expectations of in office days will be aligned with the selected candidate and hiring manager.

Visa requires at least 3 days in office, expectations of these days will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager.Qualifications
Basic Qualifications:
- 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
- 10+ years of experience in payments, financial services, banking, risk management, compliance, investigations, audit, consulting, or a related field, including leadership experience managing teams and complex global programs.
- Extensive experience designing, implementing, and leading compliance, risk, investigative, enforcement, or operational programs within regulated or highly controlled environments.
- Demonstrated ability to assess enterprise risk, exercise sound strategic judgment, and lead through ambiguity while driving resolution of complex, high-impact business and regulatory issues.
- Proven experience leading large-scale, cross-functional initiatives and influencing senior leaders across a global organization to achieve business, operational, and risk management objectives.
- Strong analytical, investigative, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to leverage data and analytics to identify trends, assess risk, develop actionable recommendations, and improve program performance.
- Exceptional written, verbal, and presentation skills, including the ability to communicate complex technical, regulatory, and business issues to executive audiences and translate them into clear, business-focused recommendations.
- Demonstrated people leadership experience, including organizational development, talent management, coaching, performance management, and building high-performing teams.
- Strong program and operational management capabilities, including prioritization, stakeholder alignment, and management of multiple strategic initiatives simultaneously.
- Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, including Excel and PowerPoint, and experience leveraging reporting and analytics tools to support decision-making.
- Ability to build relationships and drive alignment across diverse stakeholder groups, functions, regions, and cultures in a global matrixed organization.
- Fluency in English required.
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
- Deep expertise in the payments ecosystem, including card payments, ACH, push payments, network operating rules, compliance frameworks, and regulatory requirements.
- Proven ability to influence, negotiate, and build credibility with executive-level internal and external stakeholders, including clients, regulators, and industry partners.
- Experience leading enterprise-wide or global compliance, risk, enforcement, investigations, or ecosystem protection programs across multiple geographies and cultures.
- Demonstrated success coordinating competing stakeholder interests and driving alignment across complex, multi-faceted organizational initiatives.
- Experience driving operational transformation, automation, process optimization, analytics, and technology-enabled solutions that improve scale, effectiveness, and business outcomes.
- Strong research and data-driven decision-making capabilities, including experience working with large, complex datasets and data visualization tools such as Tableau or Power BI.
- Deep understanding of emerging payment industry risks, regulatory developments, fraud trends, and risk management practices.
- Demonstrated ability to balance long-term strategic objectives with operational execution while leading organizations through significant change and growth.
- Commitment to continuous learning and staying current on industry, regulatory, and emerging risk trends.
- Advanced degree and/or relevant professional certifications in risk, compliance, audit, fraud, governance, or project management preferred.
- Additional language capabilities and international business experience are a plus.
Information for US Applicants
Work Hours
Varies upon the needs of the department.
Travel Requirements
This position requires travel 5-10% of the time.
Mental/Physical Requirements
This position will be performed in an office setting. The position will require the incumbent to sit and stand at a desk, communicate in person and by telephone, frequently operate standard office equipment, such as telephones and computers.
Visa is an EEO Employer
Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protect veteran status. Visa will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the EEOC guidelines and applicable local law.