Director, Skills Strategy & Execution (Skills COE Lead)

Visa is seeking an experienced Director of Skills Strategy & Execution to lead an enterprise Skills Center of Excellence (COE) within the Global Talent team. This leader will architect and operationalize a company-wide shift to a skills-based talent model, supporting Visa's 2030 strategy. The role involves designing frameworks, governance, and organizational mechanisms to deploy talent effectively, accelerate productivity, and enhance employee career journeys. The Director will drive overall strategy, partner with People Team stakeholders, and leverage Workday Skills for integrated technology solutions, shaping the organization's future.

Must Have

• Serve as the primary enterprise architect and thought partner for designing and delivering the company’s end-to-end skills strategy.
• Advise senior leaders on integrating a skills lens into workforce planning, talent acquisition, upskilling, mobility, and career development.
• Serve as project owner for the enterprise skills roadmap.
• Champion the transition to skills-centric practices across the organization.
• Design and execute enterprise skills programs, taxonomies, and capability frameworks aligned to strategic business priorities.
• Lead cross-functional teams and working groups to deliver skills-related initiatives.
• Maintain expertise in external skills technologies, AI/ML-driven skills intelligence, and future-of-work trends.
• Serve as the enterprise SME for Workday Skills, guiding configuration, governance, skills inference models, mapping, and data integrity.
• Partner with People Systems and People Technology to optimize interoperability between Workday, Degreed, and adjacent talent systems.
• Build governance models, taxonomies, and update processes to ensure high-quality, reliable enterprise skills data.
• Use platform analytics and insights to inform workforce planning, mobility recommendations, and targeted upskilling pathways.
• 10 or more years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree, or at least 8 years with an Advanced Degree, or at least 3 years with a PhD.
• Proven, progressive experience in a skills SME / talent transformation leadership role.
• Strong understanding of skills trends, strategies, methods, and tools, and experience optimizing systems, processes, and workflows.
• Hands-on expertise implementing and governing Workday Skills in a complex, global environment.
• Proven track record of successfully implementing large-scale skills change initiatives, with strong project management skills.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex cross-functional initiatives across a range of stakeholders.
• Strong decision-making, problem-solving, and communication / influencing skills, including the ability to partner with senior and executive leaders.
• Strong long-term strategic thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity, manage multiple enterprise-level workstreams, and lead cross-functional teams.
• Experience in job architecture, including design and implementation.

Good to Have

• 10-12+ years of work experience with a Bachelor’s Degree, or 8-10 years with an Advanced Degree, or 6+ years with a PhD.
• Excellent interpersonal and collaboration skills to operate effectively in a highly matrixed environment.
• 'Test and learn' and continuous improvement mindset that embraces creativity, agility, and comfort operating in fast-changing environments.

Perks & Benefits

• Medical
• Dental
• Vision
• 401(k)
• FSA/HSA
• Life Insurance
• Paid Time Off
• Wellness Program
• Bonus
• Equity

Company Description

As the world’s leader in digital payments technology, Visa’s mission is to connect the world through the most creative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company’s dedication to innovation drives the rapid growth of connected commerce on any device, and fuels the dream of a cashless future for everyone, everywhere.

At Visa, your individuality fits right in. Working here gives you an opportunity to impact the world, invest in your career growth, and be part of an inclusive and diverse workplace. We are a global team of disruptors, trailblazers, innovators and risk-takers who are helping drive economic growth in even the most remote parts of the world, creatively moving the industry forward, and doing meaningful work that brings financial literacy and digital commerce to millions of unbanked and underserved consumers.

You’re an Individual. We’re the team for you. Together, let’s transform the way the world pays.

Job Description

Are you a designer, builder, and change agent? Are you passionate about creating a high-performance growth culture? Are you motivated by a diverse and inclusive environment that unleashes the potential in everyone, everywhere?

Come join the Global Talent team as we help write a new story for Visa and reimagine the world of work.

We are seeking an experienced Director of Skills Strategy & Execution to lead an enterprise Skills Center of Excellence (COE). Reporting to the Vice President of Organization Design and part of our wider Global Talent team, this leader will architect and operationalize a company‑wide shift to a skills‑based talent model, in support of our Visa 2030 strategy. The Director will play a key role in shaping our organization’s future, by designing the frameworks, governance, and organizational mechanisms needed to deploy the right talent to the right work at the right time - and accelerating Visa’s productivity, agility, and employee career journeys.

The successful candidate will be responsible for driving overall strategy, and partnering with a wide range of People Team business and technology stakeholders to design skills solutions that suit Visa’s growth and needs.

We are looking for passion, strategic thinking, and strong collaborators, as well as subject‑matter expertise in designing and implementing skills-based approaches, and strong Workday Skills experience to facilitate configuration, governance, and implementation of an integrated skills technology platform.

Looking further ahead, the role will drive the embedding of skills into employee usage and mobility, business leader intelligence and resourcing, core talent processes, and strategic workforce planning – to drive the maximum impact and outcomes for our business, and our people.

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise Strategy, Architecture & Execution

• Serve as the primary enterprise architect and thought partner for designing and delivering the company’s end‑to‑end skills strategy.
• Advise senior leaders on integrating a skills lens into workforce planning, talent acquisition, upskilling, mobility, and career development.
• Serve as project owner for the enterprise skills roadmap—including data governance, deployment timelines, skills ontologies, and user experience.
• Champion the transition to skills‑centric practices across the organization, collaborating with and influencing leaders, HR teams, and functional stakeholders to seamlessly embed skills capabilities and tools across the full employee lifecycle—from hiring to performance to development, globally and regionally.
• Design and execute enterprise skills programs, taxonomies, and capability frameworks aligned to strategic business priorities, partnering with wider teams to drive adoption and alignment to enterprise goals.
• Lead cross‑functional teams and working groups to deliver skills‑related initiatives, identifying risks early and driving issue resolution.
• Maintain expertise in external skills technologies, AI/ML‑driven skills intelligence, and future‑of‑work trends; translate insights into actionable recommendations.
• Foster a culture of experimentation and iteration, ensuring programs continuously evolve based on business needs and user feedback.

Technology Design & Enablement

• Serve as the enterprise SME for Workday Skills—guiding configuration, governance, skills inference models, mapping, and data integrity.
• Partner with People Systems and People Technology to optimize interoperability between Workday, Degreed, and adjacent talent systems.
• Coordinate strategy and integration for Degreed Skills+, ensuring the platform drives meaningful skills insights, personalization, and curated development experiences.
• Build governance models, taxonomies, and update processes to ensure high‑quality, reliable enterprise skills data.
• Use platform analytics and insights to inform workforce planning, mobility recommendations, and targeted upskilling pathways to dynamically match talent to priority work, improving speed‑to‑skill and organizational productivity.
• Foster a culture of experimentation and iteration, ensuring programs continuously evolve based on business needs and user feedback.

As a Director in Skills Strategy & Execution, you will play a crucial role in shaping our organization's future. If you are a collaborative and strategic thinker with a passion for skills transformation, we would love to hear from you.

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

Preferred Qualifications

• 10-12+ 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
• Proven, progressive experience in a skills SME / talent transformation leadership role.
• Strong understanding of skills trends, strategies, methods, and tools, and experience optimizing systems, processes, and workflows.
• Hands‑on expertise implementing and governing Workday Skills in a complex, global environment.
• Proven track record of successfully implementing large-scale skills change initiatives, with strong project management skills and demonstrated ability to lead complex cross-functional initiatives across a range of stakeholders.
• Strong decision‑making, problem‑solving, and communication / influencing skills, including the ability to partner with senior and executive leaders.
• Strong long-term strategic thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity, manage multiple enterprise‑level workstreams, and lead cross‑functional teams.
• Experience in job architecture, including design and implementation.
• Excellent interpersonal and collaboration skills to operate effectively in a highly matrixed environment, with ‘test and learn’ and continuous improvement mindset that embraces creativity, agility, and comfort operating in fast‑changing environments.

Additional Information

Travel & Physical Requirements

• 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 3 set days a week (determined by leadership/site).
• This position requires the incumbent to travel for work 5% of the time.
• 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, and reach with hands and arms.

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.

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.