Senior Director - Business Planning & Operations

Purpose

The SSA Business Planning and Operations team directly supports the SSA Group Country Manager (GCM) and sets out to facilitate achievement of financial and business goals for the region.  Closely engaging with all internal stakeholders (GCM, Country Managers, CEMEA Hub and various functional verticals), the team provides guidance, oversight and project management across strategic and BAU priorities of the region.

Principle Responsibilities / Key Results Area

The Snr Director-Business Planning and Operations will lead collaboration across the SSA region by providing support in financial planning, pricing, decision-making, competitive tracking, managing strategic business initiatives, client support programs, management reporting, insights and related areas.  Primary responsibilities of this position are:

• Lead with the Finance team the annual business planning cycle, manage cross-functional discussions, review all proposals, and ensure optimal investment of resources in order to finalize the operating plan for SSA
• Identify, structure, and manage complex issues to arrive at recommendations that drive corporate objectives.  Drive solving of a range of business problems by collaborating and coordinating with multiple internal stakeholders.
• Oversee major project work streams related to Visa business and strategic priorities in SSA
• Collaborate with business line management across SSA
• Provide leadership to the BPO team and ensure the delivery of functional objectives
• Specific project content will vary greatly in sponsor, business or strategic focus, depth, and stakeholders served, ranging from broad co-ordination efforts across multiple countries or functional areas to focused special assignments for senior management that are of high strategic importance to Visa’s business in SSA
• Maintain business landscape knowledge to provide solid foundational context to critical strategic projects
• Research and analyse internal/ external data, information and trends to present client and market level insights to the SSA leadership team
• Communicate and generate support for recommendations among business leaders across the organization
• Provide frameworks and perspectives relevant to business objectives
• Maintain tight alignment and work closely with Functional and Country management teams, acting as a project manager on strategic or pan-regional projects, and bringing timely and useful insight, perspective, analytical support, and research resources
• Work with minimal direction, usually within a complex and often ambiguous environment, to drive rigorous, fact-based recommendations to regional management
• Balance facilitation, influence, and content contribution to help business leaders design their strategies and achieve their goals.  
• Support all functions and geographies in SSA
• Prepare regular management reporting and presentation documents when required
• Oversee the Sales Playbook implementation for SSA, ensuring that both the strategic account management approach and the technology are effectively adopted
• Lead the hosting/managing of Visa Internal/external events such as Client Forum, Staff Offsite, BD training week and specific key regional client events in line with the event Strategy

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.

• Strong project management and analytical skills
• Strategic thinking, and financial acumen required to be a trusted advisor
• Personal presence and ability to clearly communicate, verbally and in writing, compelling messages to senior managers and other stakeholders
• Self-confident and hands-on, with the ability to operate in a fast paced and constantly changing work environment
• Ability to rally corporate resources and functional experts to drive business objectives
• Strong interpersonal and leadership skills to influence and build credibility with various SSA functions and Country teams, in order to work in a matrix organization
• Project management skills and strong execution ability to deliver against tight deadlines
• Collaborative and resilient
• Ability to learn quickly, deal with complexity and lead change
• Aptitude to source relevant information and make timely decisions, tolerance for ambiguity
• Ability to quickly assess an opportunity, using industry experience and fact-based analyses
• Advanced MS Excel and MS PowerPoint

Required Experience

• Postgraduate degree from a top-tier institution in a business relevant discipline
• Minimum of 12 years work experience in Management, and Corporate Strategy or a related function
• Experience in managing people
• Experience in and/or significant exposure to the financial services/payments industry required
• Global or multi-national business experience strongly preferred, preferably in the SSA region
• Experience in handling projects with multiple work streams, and coordinating complex cross-enterprise processes with multiple stakeholders at both senior and junior levels

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.