Director, Data Science

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 Life at Visa.

To ensure that Visa’s payment technology is truly available to everyone, everywhere requires the success of our key bank or merchant partners and internal business units. The North America Data Science group supports these partners by using our extraordinarily rich data set that spans more than 3 billion cards globally and captures more than 100 billion transactions in a single year. Our focus lies on building creative solutions that have an immediate impact on the business of our highly analytical partners. We work in complementary teams comprising members from Data Science and various groups at Visa. To support our rapidly growing group we are looking for Data Scientists who are equally passionate about the opportunity to use Visa’s rich data to tackle meaningful business problems

Essential Functions

• Lead a team of analysts within Data Science, including project oversight, coaching and professional development
• Lead other tasks on R&D, data governance, system infrastructure, analytics tool evaluation, and other cross team functions, on an as-needed basis
• Ability to inspire highest level of quality/rigor/thought leadership in reports & data analysis
• Guide team in development of actionable solutions and creation of deliverables that effectively communicate the findings and recommendations
• Leverage big data and cutting-edge data mining techniques, provide thought leadership in analytic techniques and business applications to unlock the value of Visa’s unique data set
• Lead development of assets supporting scalable analytic approaches capable of being leveraged by data scientists globally.
• Make recommendations and build use cases on new sources of value by addressing the biggest gaps in our data sources in relation to revenue potential.
• Evangelize new analytic approaches for processing big data through internal training, documentation and by leading technical sharing sessions.
• Utilize Hadoop, and related query engines, such as Hive and Impala, to perform advanced data mining.
• Research industry metrics and business context and bring this context to bear in analyses
• Find opportunities to create and automate repeatable analyses or build self-service tools for business users
• Direct the execution of medium to large analytic projects based on business requirements and desired business outcomes.
• Define detailed analytic scope and methodology, and create architecture plans for data assets. 

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.

Canada AODA Statement - Visa welcomes and encourages applications from persons with disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.

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

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
• Minimum of 7+ years of analytical experience in applying solutions to business problems in relevant fields such as analytics, business consulting, or other data-driven functions
• Advanced knowledge of databases and engineering concepts with hands on experience with one or more data analytics/programming tools such as Hive/SQL/Spark/Python
• Experience leading teams of 3+ data scientists
• Expertise in the application of predictive modeling and machine learning techniques
• Track record of leading cross-functional efforts including presenting ideas and analysis to various audience levels
• Knowledge of big data engineering stack including Hadoop, Spark, Kafka and other related components
• Prior experience with a consulting firm delivery consulting services to financial services clients
• Demonstrated experience in planning, organizing, and managing multiple cross-functional projects with diverse cross-functional stakeholders
• Good business acumen to orient data analysis to business needs of clients
• Understanding of Cards/Payments and Banking business model would be a plus
• Experience with managing project teams and providing direction and thought leadership

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 protected veteran status. Visa will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with EEOC guidelines and applicable local law.