Director, Government Sales Executive

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.

What's it all about? 

Visa Government Solutions (VGS) is responsible for taking all Visa Solutions, Consumer, Commercial Money Movement Solutions (CMS) and Value Add Solutions (VAS), to the public sector vertical.  This is a strategic global business for Visa, recently established, with team dedicated to this market.

This is a sales role, on incentive plan. The candidate will lead and drive Visas’ overall business into the public sector across these countries, based in Athens. They will develop the business strategy and be responsible to delivering the overall annual revenue target, as well as building long term future pipeline of opportunities. 

The role requires building c-level relationships directly with government officials at the highest levels. They will inform government decision makers and influencers to position Visa solutions as the best fit for new government opportunities.  A significant element of the role is in pre-tender business development, both directly with government and also in selecting and working very closely with potential enabling partners who may bid for these opportunities. Partners will include financial institutions, fintechs, issuer – processors and a range of technology providers. 

Additionally, the role requires close collaboration across all of Visa’s lines of business. The candidate is expected to engage the global VGS Solutions team as appropriate to leverage global government expertise in solutioning a wide range of use cases e.g. welfare disbursement, tax acceptance, government procurement, SME loans to name just a few. Importantly it is essential to build a close working relationship with Government Engagement (Policy) colleagues as well as legal, comms, marketing, client success and finance. Therefore, collaboration and teamwork are of utmost importance for the successful candidate. 

This role requires complete customer focus, whilst maximising the opportunities for Visa in this market segment. This requires a courageous leader able to bring to life innovative client value propositions that capture the market attention as governments accelerate digital payments as a key element of their digital government programmes. Finally, the utmost discipline is also required to protect Visas’ reputation in the market around policy, ethics and compliance. 

What we expect of you, day to day. 

Visa is seeking an experienced enterprise sales professional to join the Visa Government Solutions team as a Sales Director for Greece, who will also cover Israel, Cyprus & Malta. This role will have the following responsibilities:

• Build and deepen our public sector sales strategy and delivery in the Region, including developing a pipeline of prioritised client and solution opportunities.
• Establish and strengthen our relationships with key public sector stakeholders at c-suite level including central and local government and other public sector bodies such as Posts.
• Identify and engage potential partners in the form of issuers, program managers, processors, tech companies, consultancies and fintechs who will strengthen our government solution propositions.
• Develop and execute sales strategies and account plans to increase sales volume and market share, expand product category visibility and exceed defined product and corporate objectives.
• Identify local client use cases and requirements for our solutions team to incorporate into our proposition roadmaps.
• Work closely with internal stakeholders including the Government Engagement team to align on our government outreach strategy and targets. Build a “one Visa” approach to educating decision makers and influencers on Visa propositions. Lead “team Visa” to build and orchestrate client relationships and hence build long term pipeline of opportunities.
• Partner with our marketing and communication teams to position Visa as a leader in the payments industry and a resource for government agencies.
• Provide ongoing support of RFP development / response and overseeing programme performance.
• Continuously review the market landscape and recommend, develop, and implement new creative approaches to growing the Visa business.
• Proactively identify and solve challenges that impact Government sales management and direction of the business.

This is a hybrid position. Expectation of days in office will be confirmed by your hiring manager.

Experience

• Strong business development and consultative sales experience, with the ability to educate a wide range of stakeholders on Visa’s capabilities.
• Ideally, with a broad network in the public sector and a robust understanding of how public sector sales and public agencies operate.
• Experience with and understanding of how decisions are made by the public sector and government agencies, specifically public procurement.
• Strong financial acumen and outcome oriented.
• Ability to progress opportunities through sales stages, to negotiate & close business agreements whilst enhancing existing and new relationships.
• Experience in effectively creating and confidently delivering presentations to senior stakeholders
• Proven ability to implement strategic initiatives with efficiency, professionalism and with demonstrated trouble shooting / problem solving skills.
• Impeccable written and oral communication
• Specialist public sector payments infrastructure expertise is a plus.

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.