Client Consulting Director

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.

Team Summary

Visa Consulting & Analytics (VCA) drives tangible, impactful and financial results for Visa's clients, including card issuers, acquirers, and merchants.  Drawing on our expertise in strategy consulting, data analytics, brand management, marketing, operations and macroeconomics, VCA solves the most strategic problems for our clients.

The VCA team within Japan provides a comprehensive range of consulting services and solutions to our clients in Japan, that address unique challenges in areas such as strategic growth, profitability, risk management and digital strategy.

What a Director, Visa Consulting and Analytics does at Visa:

We are currently looking for a Director to lead consulting engagements for our clients in Japan, enabling portfolio growth and improved profitability across their payment businesses.

The Director will lead client engagements and act as the main focal point, coordinating between the client team, junior team members, other internal stakeholders, and outsourcing partners (as applicable). The Director will be responsible for scoping, proposing, contracting, and delivering projects, and managing team members’ performance and delivery quality. The full range of responsibilities is detailed below:

On a project-by-project basis: 

• Prepare client project proposals, clarifying objectives, scope, deliverables, approach, dependencies, roles and responsibilities, drawing input from the client, local client relationship managers, and functional teams
• Oversee project setup including contracting documentation, stakeholder engagement, workplans, interview guides, client data requirements, and vendor statements of work (as applicable)
• Develop a fact base by undertaking client interviews and analyzing client documentation or processes
• Analyze Visa and client data to benchmark client performance vs. industry averages to identify performance gaps and improvement opportunities
• Collaborate with data science team to leverage advanced data analytics capabilities
• Collaborate with the hub team, broader global team, or other functional teams to obtain specific subject matter expertise as needed
• Identify solutions and recommendations that address client objectives and result in performance improvement, leveraging relevant VCA methodologies, frameworks, and global best practices
• Design and deliver compelling presentations to illustrate findings, ideas, recommendations within consulting engagements and more broadly
• Support implementation of VCA recommendations or client initiatives, using project management and problem-solving frameworks

More generally:

• Identify and surface opportunities for client projects and submit for inclusion into account plans
• Manage and coach team members, contributing to their growth and career development while ensuring quality of project deliverables
• Create, develop and maintain analytical models and methodologies to contribute to standardized VCA offerings and IP creation
• Continuously build knowledge, surface new insights and produce thought leadership pieces that contribute to practice development and global best practices

In most cases the Director will start as a generalist, aligning over time to a practice area of interest. Once aligned to a practice area, the Director will be responsible for prospecting and delivering projects from that practice area to clients and contribute to the global pool of set plays, knowledge and expertise.

Projects you will be a part of:

Client engagements, generally delivered together with our data science team, are typically 2-4 months in duration, run in parallel, and fall in to six broad practice areas.

(1)     Payment strategy projects, such as competitive landscape analysis, Customer Value Proposition revamp, new business launch support, open banking strategy, or crypto / digital currency strategy

(2)    Portfolio optimization projects, such as portfolio diagnostics, acquisition strategy, predictive analytics to drive customer engagement / retention, or bespoke engagements combining client’s and Visa’s data sets

(3)    Digital projects, such as UI/UX optimization, digital product design, or digital customer targeting

(4)    Risk projects, such as underwriting strategy, credit risk portfolio management, or fraud management

(5)    Commercial and new payment flows projects, focusing on the topics above but for corporate cards, B2B payments, or government payments

(6)    Seller-side projects delivered to merchants or acquirers, such as acquirer processing strategy, merchant share of wallet analysis, persona analysis, or loyalty analysis

Why this is important to Visa

VCA’s services allow our clients to boost their business performance by leveraging Visa’s expansive market insights and data. This in turn drives Visa’s business, creating a win-win relationship where both client and Visa’s incentives are aligned to grow the business. This dynamic combined with the long-term relationship we have with clients enables a deeper level of engagement and impact compared to traditional consulting firms. VCA projects also help drive Visa Japan’s strategic initiatives and accelerate Japan’s transformation to a cashless society.

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.

What you will need:
Having already accumulated a variety of experience, you will be curious about the payments industry and keen to work alongside an experienced team to quickly gain a deeper understanding. You will be client driven, comfortable managing a project end to end and relishing the opportunity to work closely with clients to influence their future performance.

Specific skills and experience you will bring are:
- Fluent Japanese and at least business level English proficiency
- Deep experience and a track record of high performance in strategy consulting or corporate strategy
- Deep experience in managing complex cross-functional and cross-regional projects
- Superior analytical and problem-solving skills, with demonstrated intellectual and analytical rigor
- Strong team orientation with a collaborative, diplomatic, and flexible style, able to work effectively in a matrixed organization
- Excellent detail orientation, ensuring the highest level of quality/rigor in reports and data analysis
- Excellent presentation skills, including strong oral and written capabilities
- Self-motivated, results-oriented individual with the ability to progress multiple priorities concurrently
- Experience in and passion for the power of analytics to inform and drive strategy and tactics, and proven ability to generate insights from data
- Strong commercial acumen, with experience in developing business cases with proven ROI
- Ability to lead and inspire team members to achieve high levels of performance

What will also help:
- Experience in payments, the retail banking industry, or technology
- PMP certification or experience in technical project management
- Experience in customer experience design (using human-centered design / design thinking)
- An understanding of statistical analysis, modelling, scoring schemes, etc.

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.